Price-comparison sites, or "shopping bots," scour the Net for the lowest prices on products so you don't have to do it yourself. But how good are the results? I took a look at MySimon, DealTime, and PriceWatch. Here's what I found.

How they work

Basically, you enter in an item and the shopping bot returns a list of all the best places for you to shop. You can also browse by category. But not all shopping bots are created equal. Some search more merchants than others, which can lead to different results.

The cream of the crop

MySimon includes over 2,000 online merchants in its search engine. Each search is context-sensitive, meaning you end up with less junk and fewer useless sites. You can sign in to become a MySimon member, but it's not required. MySimon won PC Magazine's Editor's Choice award.

The best site for novices

If you're new to the world of online comparison shopping, DealTime is the site for you. This site basically does your shopping for you and downloads its selections to your desktop. In addition to searching online shops, it also scours Net auctions.

Looking for electronics?

Price Watch seems to be the place to look for computer and electronics products. It's one of Leo Laporte's favorite sites!

Comparison: Which is the best?

To find out where I could get the lowest price, I tested each site. I looked for a 27-inch TV.

• DealTime found the bargain price, $234, and came up with 200 hits from 79 merchants.
  
• MySimon returned 168 hits, with a low price of $259.
  
• Price Watch found six items. The lowest price among them was $319.
  

Other comparison-shopping sites you might try include Excite Product Finder, powered by Jango, and Bottomdollar.com.