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Now there's a new browser add-on called Invisible Hand that makes this a seamless, automatic part of your shopping experience. Once downloaded, Invisible Hand sits unobtrusively on your browser bar.  As you shop it provides a discreet notification when the product you're searching for can be bought for a lower price elsewhere. works with both Firefox and Google Chrome

a guide to coffee shops that have free Internet access (though they also take into account the number of power outlets and 3G reception). At the moment they rank some 300 coffee shops in North America, the UK and Australia. The list is not huge, but that's because it only has cafés they or their readers have first hand experience with. You can search by city or postal code (or choose from a roster of cities on their home page). The iPhone app detects your location to automatically find the nearest free wi-fi and power-ready laptop friendly café.  (And it will show you on a map, and provide directions).

 the one stop online shop for all your locally sourced artisanal grocery needs. They offer everything from BBQ Pulled Pork (from Phoenix) to Zesty Peach Marmalade (made in Erwin, NC).Unlike other web-based grocery services, Foodzie doesn't hawk mass-market consumer goods. Rather, it provides access to small-scale gourmet producers and growers across the country, shipping goods directly from producers rather than some large-scale grocer's freezer. At present, Foodzie features products from 228 producers across the country. Each producer profile includes a "story," giving buyers a sense of who they are and how much passion they put into their wares. Have a favorite producer you don't see on the site? Suggest it. (The Foodzie folks encourage user feedback). 

 a peer-to-peer clothing exchange that lets you trade items with other people who also want to clean out their closets.When you sign up you answer a series of questions (do you live in the city or suburbs? how large is your closet?) that determine how much you have in the way of unwanted clothing and what the "value" of your closet is. From there you add the items you want to trade to your virtual closet, listing the size, brand, color and condition. Then you tell them what you're looking for, again specifying brands and sizes. The system uses an algorithm to match your preferences with other users. Once a swap is engaged you send your items using pre-paid envelopes (they come in packets of three for $25; the service is otherwise free). If you feel a little odd about taking somebody else's used clothing, rest assured that threUP claims most of their users only trade new or "like new" items.  In addition there's rating system that helps maintain quality control (it also allows the system to find good matches for you).

a great new service called GoodGuide, which reveals what's really beneath the labels of 70,000 products, including food, toys, personal care items and household products.The site offers a massive database of product reviews, expert advice and brand rankings, evaluating supposedly healthy products based on their personal, environmental and social impact.  You can search for a specific product or browse by category. Dive into a sub-category-household cleaners, say-and you'll see a ranked list of all the products they review (every product is given a ranking out of 10), starting with the top ranked.   Click on a specific product and you're taken to a page that has detailed ratings, information on the ingredients, user reviews and a host of details about what goes into the overall ranking.In addition to these thorough reviews, the site has relevant articles and issue guides. They also have a free iPhone app that allows you to scan the barcodes of various products when you're at the store for health and environmental ratings.