Best Electronics Site: bizrate.com

www.BizRate.com
Though sites like Shopping.com and PriceGrabber.com yield similar results and prices, BizRate.com is a winner for its ease of use and its rating systems for products and merchants.

Selection/Price
In searches for an iPod, a flat-panel TV, and an inexpensive DVD player, the site showed prices for at least nine stores. The best deal on this Apple iPod Fourth Generation (20 gigabyte) MP3 player was $294 — essentially the list price, but tax and shipping were included.

Shopping Experience

The site offers detailed product information and an easily understandable merchant-reliability rating system.

Search results clearly show whether or not an item is in stock.

A five-star product-rating system and user reviews help with purchase decisions.

Best Kitchen Site: 1-kitchen-store.com

www.1-kitchen-store.com
Buying quality kitchen equipment can be as confusing as buying a new car or an adjustable-rate mortgage. This site offers the most product information with the least clicking.

Selection/Price
The site offers hundreds of products from a variety of vendors; three had the four-quart lidded sauté pan by All-Clad we wanted, priced from $175 to $184. Through a link on #1 Kitchen Store, we found Whole Latte Love www.wholelattelove.com, a coffee-related site that had the state-of-the-art FrancisFrancis! espresso maker for the lowest price around ($349).

Shopping Experience

You can browse very specific categories (“Carving Knives,” “Waffle Irons”), or type in just what you want.

There are in-depth product descriptions, as well as customer reviews of many products.