Kelkoo

Considering the age of this brand name, I'm surprised to have never seen a telly advert by them. These days, you can't get through an ad section on TV without some sort of comparison service shouting at you. (Why are they always shouting anyway?)

They aren't small either, covering 10 countries: the UK (www.kelkoo.co.uk), France (www.kelkoo.fr), Spain (www.kelkoo.es), Italy (www.kelkoo.it), Norway (www.kelkoo.no), Sweden (www.kelkoo.se), Germany (www.kelkoo.de), Denmark (www.kelkoo.dk), Netherlands (www.kelkoo.nl) and Belgium ... which for some reason is fr.kelkoo.be.

Companies that compare financial products, though, are always going to have big budgets. Their commission rates are simply huge! But, if you're a service that tells people where they can find a Katy Perry CD for 10p cheaper or an electric toothbrush with free delivery instead of the £3.99 Argos is charging - you're not going to be making alot on each transaction!

This means that, unlike financial product comparing services, Kelkoo has to provide a good service to keep their business viable. Money will surely only be made on the volume of searches and they must have been doing quite well as Yahoo bought them over in 2004 for more than four hundred and fifty million euros.

But, like all online comparison services, there are not a lot of patents you can get to protect you from competition. And, aside from buying out your competitors, there wasn't much Kelkoo could to stop the onslaught of copy-cats. In 2008, it was sold off for a mere hundred million euros.

We are a tiny company with limited resources, but even we can punt out a search facility to compare prices. It has no-where near the scope of most such services and it isn't always working ;) -- but as an example of how anyone can make one, we're surely a prime example of how simple it is!

eBay's success has also most likely been a thorn in the sides of many price comparing websites. We're not a fan of eBay though, so you'll find this company supplementing our own search results. A better example of Scottish-French collaboration you won't find in the history books!

Below you'll find a table containing some of the more likely errors showing up in our search logs for this company and whether they are actually any good. Hopefully this will show you the error of your ways and get you to bookmark the correct site!

Web Location Check:

Web address entered: (last checked Aug 09)

www.kelkoo.com - The main portal to all country specific versions.
Warning

www.keelcoo.com - No website, no-one currently owns the name.
Warning

www.kelcoo.co.uk - No website, owned by a different company.
No Danger

www.keikoo.com - An American real estate company.
Warning

www.kekloo.co.uk - Displays ads for similar services.
No Danger

www.kel-koo.com - Owned by right company, but no site showing.
Warning

www.kelkkoo.com - Showing ads for similar companies.
Okay

www.kelko.com - Redirects you to the right site.
No Danger

www.kelco.co.uk - A UK distribution company.
No Danger

www.kellcoo.com - Owned by right company, but no website showing.
Warning

www.kellkoo.co.uk - No website, someone else owns it.
No Danger

www.kelco.com - A hydrocolloids supplier. (No idea!)
No Danger

www.kelcoo.com - Owned by the right company, but showing Yahoo.
Warning

www.kelko.co.uk - Showing ads for similar companies.
Warning

www.keelkoo.com - Redirects you to a different shopping company.
No Danger

www.kellkoo.com - Owned by Kelkoo but showing a Yahoo symbol.

Summary: it seems as though, despite some of the domains being owned by Kelkoo, that there is not much help for those of you who like to type web addresses directory in to the toolbar unless you spell this company's name correctly. So, get it right every time, or bookmark. ;)