Hey all you iPhone owners… Looks like an iPhone consumer network is launching… Check out: TheBlackApp.com

The ease of comparing prices on the Internet has done a lot to do away with major price differences between individual items at retailers, whether online or off. But where they still get you is when you buy many items from the same store and you throw in the high-margin coffee with the cut-rate shampoo. Higher-priced single items, such as a digital camera or an MP3 player, lend themselves more to online research. Finding the best deal is just a matter of selecting your preferred comparison shopping site (Shopping.com, mySimon, etc.). But what happens when you want to compare an entire cart of groceries across several merchants? Put simply, you are out of luck. Unless of course you happen to be living in the UK and making good use of mySupermarket.

mySupermarket, which has been around since 2006, claims to be the first comparison service that allows users to compare a cart of multiple items across retailers—in its case, groceries, across British supermarket chains Tesco, Sainsbury’s Ocado & ASDA.

It can compare not only identical items (a one-liter bottle of Coke), but also similar non-identical items, such one-liter bottles of mineral water from two separate brands. To accomplish this, mySupermarket classified 100,000 grocery products sold online in the UK according to multiple criteria and sub-criteria. The rules, weightings and relationships between different sub-criteria are incorporated into the company’s algorithms.

Up-to-date pricing is achieved using a combination of proprietary crawlers and manual validation processes to access real time prices from the supermarkets’ own sites. MySupermarket marries those prices with its own image database. It obtains products from the manufacturers and retailers and then uses in-house image production combined with post-processing facilities in Thailand.

The company claims an average online grocery cart includes approximately 50 items, with a total cost of 80-110 English pounds ($160-$220). By finding savings for consumers that average 20 percent per cart, and consumers accepting about half those recommendations, the actual savings average around 10 pounds ($20) per cart.

The way mySupermarket works is that users login to mySupermarket and fill-up a “trolley” (British for “shopping cart”). They are then presented with three types of recommendations:

1. Potential savings from switching the entire cart to another supermarket.
2. Potential savings from swapping items in the cart to alternatives from within the same supermarket.
3. Health conscious recommendations (calories, saturates, fat, salt, sugar) for swapping items to healthier alternatives.

The final step—payment—is actually performed on the desired supermarket’s own payment page. It should be noted that the service is absolutely free to consumers.

So where does mySupermarket derive its revenue from? Two sources: The first, targeted advertising based on the cart’s contents.

The second, a data service provided to the retailers and merchants which includes price listings, inventory listings (by zipcode), as well as comparison and analysis of products sold within the UK grocery sector. These days mySupermarket is focusing on expanding its UK business, as well as adding features, ad/promotion services and data reporting capabilities.

They are also considering requests to license their technology for non-grocery multi-item comparison shopping.

Head over to DH Consulting for Part II of the series outlining the process of writing an effective business plan.

In Part II, Doron discusses what an investor expects to learn about the product/service after having read through the business plan.

Start-up consultant, Doron Habshush, is launching a new Meetup next month. The gathering is aimed at entrepreneurs seeking the input and feedback of industry experts.

More info here.

My friend Doron Habshush over at DH Consulting has set-out on a series of posts outlining the process of writing a business plan. It’s a good read so go check it out:

• Introduction: From Concept to Realization
• Part 1: Executive Summary

One of the key ingredients to success on the Web is rapid iteration, and to do so, eliciting user feedback is a must. As we know, TechCrunch is a breeding ground for avid beta testers keen to provide input and suggestions. Yet, more often than not, when we do offer feedback to a site all we receive in return is an auto-reply, thank-you email. When was the last time you submitted feedback to a site that was then followed up with an actual acknowledgment that the bug was fixed or the feature integrated? My guess, not very often.Kampyle—yet another Yossi Vardi startup from Israel—has developed a feedback management platform aimed at assisting site owners better manage this feedback loop and, along the way, increase customer loyalty and satisfaction. The underlying premise here being that users expect not only to be heard, but also responded to. This is especially true when providing feedback on services, products or customer experiences. Sites that manage their feedback right end up with deeper customer engagement, lower shopping cart abandonment, and better usability.

There are four moving parts in Kampyle’s feedback analysis platform:

1. Collection: A feedback collection form (see screenshot on right) is launched through buttons scattered across a site. Kampyle will roll out advanced customization options throughout the coming weeks.

2. Analysis: Kampyle provides user feedback along with contextual data such as screen resolution, browser type, operating system, etc. Slicing and grouping functionality delivers a greater understanding of why an issue occurred, which ultimately translates into what to do about it.
3. Management: Data and suggested corrective actions are arranged in intuitive dashboards. Data is exportable to XML & Excel. Nothing much to write home about here.

4. Action: CRM-like functionality completes the feedback loop by allowing site owners to inform groups and individual users of the corrective action they have taken. The notification even includes a link to where the fix was made and offers a thumbs-up/down rating to further express satisfaction.

All-in-all a wide variety of companies can benefit from a service such as Kampyle’s, which is bridging the gap between CRM and site-side analytics. Extending the CRM functionality to piggyback on full-blown CRM platforms such as SalesForce, SugarCRM, and even Zoho would go a long way in popularizing the service.

Kamplye is still in closed beta so pricing is yet to be established, but once the service is commercially available 250 TechCrunch readers will get their first month free. Sign-up here to get on the list.

This post was originally posted on TechCrunch.com where I cover the Israeli startup scene.

Just when I thought I was able to get over the reactions to my Globes interview (see earlier posts), here comes a Union Square Ventures deal that stirred my emotions again.

I always tell people that the readers’ comments on my TechCrunch posts–even the negative ones–are substantive and form conversations which are no less interesting than the post itself.

This is not the case in Israel where comments–or “Talk Backs” in the local jargon–are essentially sound-offs, with zero inclination for a conversation. In fact, the term itself–”Talk Backs”–is completely against the notion of a “conversation”.

I find this sad. Sadder even is the fact that I sense neither Globes nor TheMarker are making any effort to develop in-article conversations.

Fortunately, this is not the case in the rest of the world, and companies such as Disqus and VC’s such as Union Square understand the force and quality of conversations–and empowering them!

The Israel Venture Association (IVA) is announcing that this year’s AnnualIsrael Startup Competition will be held in partnership with DEMO and Red Herring Magazine as part of the IVA’s 2008 Hi-Tech Conference to be held in Tel Aviv onMay 19 and 20, 2008.

This year’s competition will be split into 4 categories: Software and Internet; Communications; Life Sciences; early stage (pre-revenue startup). A Judges Panel will select 3 finalists from each f the above-mentioned categories. The finalists will be invited to present their product at a DEMO-style session to be held on the opening night of the conference, May 19, 2008. Following the demo session, the overall winner will be selected: 50% f the vote from the Judges’ Panel and 50% via SMS by conference participants.

The overall competition winner will receive:

• Automatic entry into DEMO Germany 2008 as a demonstrator
• Profile in Red Herring Magazine and the Israeli media

To be eligible to compete in this year’s competition, companies must:

1. Be private companies in one of the above-mentioned categories
2. Be venture funded by an investor that is a member of IVA
3. Have 2007 revenues of less than $20 million
4. Have a physical presence in Israel
5. Have a product that can be demonstrated at the Conference without the assistance of PowerPoint slides, screenshots or other ways of representation.

What products is the IVA looking for?

• A product that makes a significant contribution to the state of the art in its target market
• A product that changes the marketplace into which it is introduced

Application deadline is: April 8, 2008.

Sign-up Form: Here (Word doc)

MeeMix is looking for an internet marketing professional.

If you are one or know a person with relevant qualifications let them know at: jobs@meemix.com

The position is full time in Tel Aviv.

Qualifications:

• English as a mother tongue
• Experience with SMO methodologies and strategies
• Experience with SMM and SEM
• Some experience with editing and creative/marketing writing
• Experience with account management, media buying, inventory sales
• Project Management

Advantage:

• Creativity
• Internet savants/power user
• High analytic abilities
• Experience with SEO
• Experience in the music industry
• Previous experience in internet companies

Well, I am very frustrated with the Globes interview with me and more specifically the reactions it has received.

The face-to-face interview was conducted over a week ago and to the best of my recollection I was rather positive throughout. The printed interview came out with what I and other are perceiving as a negative overtone. As I said, I’m pretty frustrated about this.

I’ve emailed Noa Pereg the Globes reporter asking that she provide me with a copy of the recored interview so I can be absolutely sure of what was said.

I’ll keep you updated…