Smarter SMS Launches

www.smarter.com SMARTER.COM LAUNCHES TRUE COMPARISON SHOPPING VIA SMS Los Angeles, CA – October 19, 2004 - Smarter.com, one of the fastest growing comparison shopping search engines, announced today the Beta launch of its free shopping service via SMS (Short Messaging Service). “We’re excited to be the first true comparison shopping engine to deploy our services via SMS,” said Harry Tsao, Vice-President of Product Management. “Consumers now have access to a free service they can use while they’re away from the computer. Imagine being in store and wondering whether you’re getting the best possible deal on a particular product. That question can now be answered, free of charge, usually in one minute or less.” The Smarter SMS service differs from the recently launched Google SMS service in its “true” comparison shopping component. Whereas Google may return a price from a random retailer for a product search, Smarter.com returns the lowest price found for a specific product amongst hundreds of merchants. “Our goal is to facilitate transactions between consumers and our merchant partners, and that goal is closer to reality now that we can help our merchant partners tap into the offline world,” said Talmadge O’Neill, Vice President of Business Development. “In choosing a number to launch the service with, we chose to launch with a standard phone number in the United States since research has shown consumer reluctance to adopt 5-digit ‘short codes’ as they are weary of paid/scam services via SMS. We want to build consumer trust by using a standard phone number that people are familiar with.” Consumers can access the free Smarter SMS service by text messaging product names or SKUs (commonly known as manufacturer part numbers) to (610) SMARTER or (610) 762-7837. Consumers are free to search using generic keywords like ‘mini ipods’ or ‘dell dimension’, but are recommended to be as specific as possible, using the SKU number for best results. Those interested in learning more about the Smarter.com SMS Service can visit www.smarter.com/sms/. ABOUT SMARTER.COM Smarter.com is a comprehensive online shopping engine that helps consumers make smarter buying decisions. We empower consumers by comparing the attributes of over one million products in the computer and consumer electronics categories and by publishing user product reviews in order to help consumers make informed purchase decisions. For more information please visit www.smarter.com.