Exclusive: eBay Launches Browser Highlighter to Compare Pricing, Make Skype Calls

eBay launched a new browser extension tool tonight that lets you highlight different products in Firefox or Internet Explorer and compare the pricing of those products on eBay. The tool also includes Skype functionality, which will let you click on a number in your browser and call it directly via Skype.

Dubbed Browser Highlighter, eBay’s latest tool will run only on Windows machines for now, but will eventually be rolled out for Macs and Apple’s Safari browser in the coming weeks.

After installing Browser Highlighter, a small icon is placed to the right of the address bar in Firefox or Internet Explorer. When you click the icon, you have the option of turning the “Compare on eBay” function, as well as the “Skype Phone Number Recognition” tool on or off. When either one or both are turned on, the information you search for in the browser becomes an interactive space to compare the price of products on eBay or make phone calls with Skype.

Because it’s only in beta, eBay’s “Compare on eBay” tool won’t work on any site you visit. Instead, it will only work on Google Search, Google Shopping, Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Shopping, Amazon Search Results, Amazon Product Pages and Nextag. If the company sees strong use of the tool on those sites, it will expand its compatibility to other services.  More

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