Chrome’s shopping insights make it way cheaper to treat myself

As an avid runner in the middle of marathon training, I go through a lot of shoes — like, a lot of shoes. When averaging 50 miles per week, I can burn through a pair in a little over a month, and then it’s time to treat myself. That said, I’m not made of money. I can’t just run out and pay full price every time I need fresh foam under my feet. So, I have to be careful about looking for deals and spending wisely. And now, a new Chrome extension has made that easier than ever. Here’s how.

The idea of an extension to track product prices in a web browser is nothing new. My colleague Rita praised the popular Amazon tracker CamelCamelCamel when she asked me if I’d tried Google’s version. At the time, I hadn’t given Google’s shopping insights a shot yet, but I’d used (and liked) the version that Microsoft introduced to Edge a while back. The only problem is that I mostly work on a MacBook Air, and the last thing I need is a third browser kicking around.

When I found out that Google had added a similar feature to Chrome, which I use across my Android phone of the week and my laptop, I was ready to try it out. And, as it turns out, the setup process couldn’t be more straightforward — open a product page, tap the Track Price button, and wait to see how it fluctuates over time. Naturally, I took it as a sign to monitor about half a dozen running shoes.

See, right now, I’m in the market for a faster daily trainer that I can use for a few workouts. That means a relatively new launch like the Adidas AdiZero Evo SL, New Balance Rebel v5, or the Asics Novablast 5. So, I opened all their product pages, added the Skechers Aero Spark for good measure, and set up my price tracking reminders.

At this point, I’ve only been following my selected footwear for about a week, so there hasn’t been much movement. That said, a few of the shoes — the Evo SL and the Aero Spark — have been on the market for long enough that they’ve gained pricing history. I can slide along a timeline for both shoes, noting when they’ve been discounted and hoping for new deals.

As an elder member of Gen-Z, I’ve reserved different screens in my life for different purposes — or rather, purchases. Basically, the more important the product, the bigger the screen I have to buy it on. Surprisingly, it seems like Google feels the same way.

For me, price tracking on my phone is mainly reserved for monitoring how much something will cost. I probably won’t go through the checkout process on my Pixel, but I’ll always know what I’m about to pay. With Google’s price tracking in Chrome, that’s perfectly fine. If you have tracked products open in other tabs, whenever you go to the Switch Tabs menu, you’ll see a quick pricing badge pop up, indicating either a price increase or decrease that you can reference quickly.

When you’re ready to buy, it seems like Google would rather you switch to a medium screen like a Chromebook or Windows laptop. I say so because instead of throwing out price change badges, Chrome for desktop offers discount badges. When you see one, you can easily copy and paste the discount code to your cart, taking some guesswork from checking sites like RetailMeNot or SimplyCodes. I’ve yet to see one of these coveted discount codes, though, probably because I’m looking for relatively new running shoes.

Also, as expected, Google treats iOS and iPadOS like Android in terms of shopping insights. Both platforms get price alerts and easy history tracking over discounts, which is helpful for research purposes before you open the same tab on your laptop to finish the job.

Unfortunately, though, I think Google’s shopping insights are sometimes a bit too focused. In this extended running shoe example that you’re probably tired of reading about — as are many of my friends — it’s pretty clear that I’ve narrowed down which models I’m interested in. However, I’m not nearly as picky when it comes to colors, so I’ve just been setting up tracking notifications for the first colorway that pops up.

Sometimes it’s fine, like the Novablast 5 that defaulted to an easy-to-wear beige I won’t mind dirtying up. Other times, it’s not so easy. I opened the product page for the Adidas Evo SL in a bright yellow colorway — think as neon as a middle school boy would wear — and set up notifications right away. At first, I thought nothing of it, figuring Chrome would also track the other colorways on Adidas’s website. I was wrong.

At least with shoes, when you set up notifications for one colorway, that’s all you get — and only from that site. I would much prefer to know if another colorway dropped so I could consider it, or even be sent to another retailer, but that’s not how Google rolls right now. And, with how I carefully research before buying, it looks like I’ll have two dozen tracking insights set up before I buy a new pair of shoes. Is that too many? Yes, probably, but at least I know I’ll get the best price along the way.