BetterShopper

I'm not dead yet! It took me a while, but v1.2 is finally here. What's new, you ask? Good question!

• Firefox 1.5 compatibility


• Changed layout (the comparison box takes less vertical space now due to a new placement)


• Added Alibris.com


• Lots and lots of bug fixes

Download it here, read the changelog and rate the extension over at addons.mozilla.org (if you like it...).

Cheers!

Work on version 1.2 is coming along, slowly but surely. Firefox 1.5 compatibility is in (of course), as is a new layout (less horizontal space is used), and I've added support for Alibris.com.

The release is still a bit down the road, but if you're brave, you might want to take a look at this message board thread and help testing with a very stable v1.2 beta 2.

Remember, it's a beta - even though it's working fine right now, there might be glitches and reversed polarity which might kill us all.

Comments welcome!

BetterShopper 1.1 is out, grab it while it's hot. This is mostly a maintenance release which I was forced to shove out the door since the good folks at Grisoft don't give a damn whether their antivirus program reporting BetterShopper is a false positive or not. (AVG was complaining about one file inside the extension just because the name (!) was suspicious.)

Thank you, Grisoft.

Anyways, there are some new features in this release, namely support for a new currency (Japanese Yen) and Amazon Japan.

I was planning on adding more new features before releasing v1.1, but apparently it was not meant to be.

So, I hope you'll like it. Input and suggestions are still welcome. :)

I was just notified by some users that AVG Antivirus is reporting BetterShopper for containing a "hidden extension .js", whatever that means.

So, here's the thing: there is no "hidden extension .js" (whatever that means) inside the extension, and I've just sent a mail to AVG by now requesting clarification and a fix for this false positive. If you don't want to take my word for it, take a look at the extension source code and look whether you can find anything malicious. ;)

So, please remain calm and don't trust AVG on this one. Thanks.

Carlo
BetterShopper dev

UPDATE 2005-05-23 07:00 GMT: It dawned me why AVG is acting up. You see, it's reporting one of the contained Javascript libraries as being a "hidden extension .js" file. The name of the library is "helper.URL.js". Now, in the Windows world, if you create a local URL link, i.e. a link to an URL and place it on your desktop or your local harddrive, it has the extension ".url". Now, also in the Windows world, when you look inside any directory, usually the file extensions are hidden, meaning if for instance there is a file "harmlessfile.txt", you'd only see "harmlessfile". So, many virii are masking themselves by using unsuspicious file names like "text.txt" to hide the fact that it is a malicious executable; so the virus file names would be something like "harmlessfile.txt.exe", and since the default Windows setting is "hide file extensions", many users would only see "harmlessfile.txt" and click it because it looks like a harmless text file.

Now I guess AVG is complaining because to him/her/it it looks like said Javascript library is trying to "mask" itself behind an unsuspicious looking ".url" file, which isn't the case. In fact, I bet that's the whole problem -- the file name.

So in order to make AVG stop I'll release a new minor version of the extension later on today. Stay tuned.

UPDATE 2005-05-23 14:30 GMT: Just got a reply from Grisoft, the AVG developer:

Dear Carlo, [..]

I have contacted our Technical Support concerning this issue and be informed that this is a typical AVG Anti-Virus feature!

We are detecting all hidden/duplicated extensions as a possible threat.

Best regards,

Tomas V.

Sales Team
GRISOFT
(Emphasis mine.) Yeah, great. Oh well, at least it shows I'm on the right track.

So, here we are. BetterShopper v1.0, the new Firefox extension on the block.

What is BetterShopper? It's a tool to help you shop better! ;) Imagine you're browsing one of the many Amazon stores around, because you know: since you already have an Amazon account at Amazon US, you can also shop with the same account at Amazon UK or CA. (You know that, right?) Anyways, different currency all over the place, and you always wonder what the prices are in your currency. Well, no more: BetterShopper can convert all displayed Amazon.com/.co.uk/.de/.ca/.fr prices to your favourite currency: US$, CDN$, EUR or GBP. And it'll do so using daily updated currency exchange rates which are updated automatically!

Also BetterShopper will lookup the prices of the currently displayed Amazon product in over a dozen stores across the web, and then it'll display those in a neat little box right there on your current page. All that without the need for you to leave Amazon. So, with one glance you can tell what the price (for the book you're currently thinking about buying) is at Amazon UK. Not in British Pound, of course, but US$, Euro or CDN$, whatever currency you choose.

See the screenshots section for some real-life pictures of BetterShopper in action. Or just take it for a spin right away. Easy to install, easy to uninstall (see the FAQs).

So, if you decide to try BetterShopper for yourself, I'd like to hear back from you. I've put a lot of late nights into this extension, and I hope it shows. Let me know what you think, please! Likes, dislikes, suggestions, bug reports: all very welcome. Thanks in advance.

Cheers!
Carlo.