So I'm feeling a little down tonight, and I decided that shopping for chocolate is just the thing to do. And for me, shopping means hitting the shopping aggregators - Yahoo Shopping, Froogle, Shopping.com and Amazon. I do this because often I find little gems that I would never otherwise find in the search engines or directories.

And, because I was feeling particularly sucky, I decided to try and find the most expensive chocolate online. Okay, I wasn't going to buy the most expensive thing, but it would presumably find me a store with very expensive, good chocolate. The goal: to find something more extravagant than Godiva, whose 12 months of Godiva package weighs in at $350 and tempts me unmercifully every time I look at it.

Luckily, all of the aggregators sort by price, so this should be a simple thing. Should.

Froogle results: Disappointing. The highest priced item was $254.70 for a case of chocolates. 12 boxes of them. Not exactly consumer-level chocolate. And tiny thumbnails, a huge pet peeve with me. Small thumbnails are fine for many things, but not for shopping.

But Froogle's a "free" search, in that companies don't have to pay to be in the index. Surely a paid index would have higher quality results...

Yahoo's results: Horrifying. Tiny thumbs. Disgusting URL. And I don't know whether these results are because of programmer error or serious shopping engine spam, but their price sort is completely useless.

A chocolate gift basket for $13659.58? Does anybody at Yahoo even search their own engine?

Shopping.com: Better. At least the results were more useful, even if they didn't quite top the price bar I had set. Extra points for not forcing me to encode a half-dozen ampersands in the URL.

Amazon.com: The clear winner, because they beat the price bar. They also had really yummy looking chocolate, but that's beside the point.

My problem with paid results, in the end, is you only get a select view instead of a comprehensive one. Only companies who are aggregator-savvy and willing to pony up the dough will get featured. Meanwhile, some really tasty treats stay hidden.

Some great finds I ran across after I gave up on the aggregators:

Burl Wood Chocolate Vault
And yes, I know the price isn't just for the chocolate, but still. How pretty.
The Maison Dark Chocolate Collection
For when you're feeling particularly low, this is available in sizes up to 157 pieces.
24 Carat Cake
Okay, not as expensive, but come on. Tell me you're not drooling.

Fine, fine, enough chocolate, let me get to the point here.

The point?

1. Froogle and Yahoo! better get their butts in gear.
2. Every aggregator could benefit from combining paid and free listings.
3. Thank God for Lindor 70% chocolates or I'd never have finished this post.

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