“‘Decide,’ just in time for Black Friday, helps you learn whether the price of a product is about to fall. How does it accomplish this magic? The five Ph.D.’s on its staff don’t hurt. Together they’ve created an algorithm that predicts a gadget’s future price based, among other factors, on the historical price data of other gadgets in its class. Along with a suggestion of whether to buy a product now or wait for a better price or new model, the app supplies a confidence score, a price and model history, and new-product rumors from around the web. So far, CEO Mike Fridgen says it has predicted price with 77% accuracy.”
(Decide.com, founded by UW CSE professor Oren Etzioni and four UW alums, today is 80% staffed by UW alums.)