New sites make e-shopping easier

For e-commerce fans, two interesting sites give shoppers a Web 2.0-flavored sampling of new ways to find and buy items online.

Mpire.com and Slide.com both go after Web-smart consumers looking for help in deciding when an item is a buy or a bad deal.

Search Mpire for an iPod Nano, for instance, and it not only finds an assortment of sellers, it also shows a graph predicting the price range over time.

It also highlights sellers only on Craigslist, if that’s your choice.

Slide at first seems like yet another photo-sharing site with a few other bells and whistles. In fact, that’s just the window dressing. Founder Max Levchin, who started PayPal, figured out a way to mix slideshows with product information. The result, if one signs up and downloads software to your computer, is the option of seeing a slideshows of items being sold across the Web.

The product choices could be wider, but Levchin promises Slide will be adding more consumer sites in the future.

Zillow adds features

Immensely popular Zillow.com (based in Seattle) has added several features that make the site even more addictive. Zillow provides pricing information and details on more than 67 million homes across the country, with maps and interactive features like a “heat map” showing recent sales activity within a city.

The Web site now allows owners to change or modify information that Zillow may have gotten wrong or that’s incomplete. Zillow then uses the updated info to provide a Zestimate, an approximate sale value for the property.

Rescued by phone

Here’s a site that can ensure you have options for leaving a boring party without being impolite: Popularitydialer.com lets you arrange for your cell phone to be called at an assigned time. When the call comes, you hear a pre-recorded half of a conversation. Voilá, you’re outta there, with your ethics almost intact. The site is currently free in beta form. Donations accepted.