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Innovation

A tool designed to help eco-conscious, health-minded shoppers

GoodGuide has launched the Purchase Analyzer, an online tool to help shoppers understand how "green" or health-minded their purchases might be--in time for the holiday shopping frenzy.
Written by Reena Jana, Contributor

Just in time for Cyber Monday (the online shopping equivalent of Black Friday), product-rating service GoodGuide has launched a tool to help consumers quickly determine how eco-conscious and healthy their online purchases may be.

The online service, called the Purchase Analyzer, uses information that GoodGuide's scientists have compiled on more than 130,000 products. Users select personal filters related to environmental, social, and health issues that they care about, such as animal welfare and ingredient safety. They can synch these preferences with sites they use such as Amazon.com or even supermarket chains such as Safeway. The software looks through a user's shopping history and suggests goods that should be appealing, based on the issues selected for the filters.

Here's a video featuring GoodGuide founder Dara O'Rourke, a professor of environmental and labor policy at the University of California, Berkeley, using the Purchase Analyzer, which made its debut last week:

Holiday shoppers will be happy to discover that the Purchase Analyzer doesn't only select products that reflect a user's ethics, but also sorts them by price. Meaning beyond ethically minded or health-conscious gifts and personal items, bargains can be easily in one swift action. Which can be a very good thing, too.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

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