Is there any computer-related price API available out there ?

Question

My website lists some computer parts (like CPU, RAM, graphic card and so on) and I would like to display the current price for each of theses parts.

So, I would like to know if you've heard about a public and free API which, given a computer-related product name (like "Intel core 2 duo E8400") will return a price.

I would like to request any computer-related part, like CPU, RAM, graphic card, cases, power-supply and so on.

I would prefer a language-independent API (like REST, WS-* or even RSS) and, if possible, Europe/Frances based (showing price currently applied in France).

Any suggestion ?

Answer 1

1. Check out the Amazon "Product Advertising API". It lets you query the entire Amazon catalog in several countries, including for computer hardware (and yes, they do apparently carry the E8400). REST and SOAP interfaces are supported, and there are bindings for numerous programming languages. Product descriptions include prices and availability. awszone.com has (had?) a web interface to the API that you could experiment with. There may be some legal bounds, as this API promotes Amazon's store -- read the license carefully.

2. Check out the affiliate programs of the likes of newegg, tigerdirect and buy.com. Their interface often amounts to a nightly updated product file, however.

3. The following caveats hold for all such services: (a) for a given query, you are likely to get multiple results rather than just one -- somewhat like google search results. (b) check for availability in the API as well; a price does not necessarily indicate a user could purchase the product at that price if the item is not in stock -- and perhaps was not in stock for years.