How does Kelkoo work...

[d000hg]

... and why is it so inconsistent?

I use it mainly for DVDs, and while it frequently turns up the same sites as cheapest (Play, Blah, etc) it often will for instance not display a certain DVD from Play even though Play have it in stock at a cheap price at the time.
Do sites have to subscribe to Kelkoo or provide a Kelkoo-friendly feed, or is it scraping pages to automate the process?

I remember when kelkoo used to be wonderful but these days I often end up manually checking other sites in case they were missed. Is there a better site for UK e-purchasing?

 

[Mehmeh]

subscribe usually passed as xml to the kelkoo service.

not sure how the odd one is missed...but i've noticed it too.

Possibly some text error when importing it to kelkoo.

 

[voodooflux]

Do sites have to subscribe to Kelkoo or provide a Kelkoo-friendly feed, or is it scraping pages to automate the process?

From their FAQ:

How do I get my products listed?

• Product feed upload
  For free we will help you produce a file, in a specific format, that can be updated and uploaded each night.
  
  
• Kelkoo Spider
  For a fee we can scan your site and collect your offers, then list them on Kelkoo*.

*Kelkoo Spider - With this method Kelkoo cannot guarantee perfect listings for every product.

 

[Clippy]

... and why is it so inconsistent?

I use it mainly for DVDs, and while it frequently turns up the same sites as cheapest (Play, Blah, etc) it often will for instance not display a certain DVD from Play even though Play have it in stock at a cheap price at the time.
Do sites have to subscribe to Kelkoo or provide a Kelkoo-friendly feed, or is it scraping pages to automate the process?

I remember when kelkoo used to be wonderful but these days I often end up manually checking other sites in case they were missed. Is there a better site for UK e-purchasing?

Not sure of the technicalities, but most of the comparison sites such as this moved from an impartial service to one where e-tailers pay to have their stuff listed.

Hence, why the results achieved should be taken with a pinch of salt.

For DVD's, I use Find DVD which is still impartial.