Too much information. In conversation, it means roughly "Stop! I didn't want to know that." But it's also a cry heard more and more often from search-engine users who type in a generic query like digital cameras and get back an Everest of results (21 million at Google, 21.5 million at MSN Search, and 38.1 million at Yahoo, to be precise). For shoppers in pursuit of product reviews or retail listings, general-­purpose search engines just aren't the right tools.

But shopping portals like Shopzilla, PriceGrabber, Shopping.com, and Froogle have their own shortcomings, argues Silicon Valley entrepreneur Michael Yang. They generally assume that shoppers have already decided what they want to buy and are simply comparing prices. "But shopping is really a two-stage process," says Yang, who is 43. "Once you decide what is the best product, then you start comparing prices. And the comparison-shopping sites are only focused on getting you the best price."