Farecast.com, which began in 2006, started out by compiling prices for domestic flight tickets and making free predictions on when to buy them (whether to purchase them immediately or wait for prices to drop).
Each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases a detailed report on inflation, compiling price information for thousands of goods and services with a goal of measuring the change in the cost of living for an average person.
Citywide, the average cost for that service is $5.30, according to Centzy.com, which compiles pricing information about New York City businesses.
From January 2000 through June 2002, the Williams Companies and a subsidiary, Williams Energy Marketing and Trading, reported false natural gas trading information to companies that compile price indexes, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said.
REAL ESTATE An article last Sunday about DashLocker, a laundry and dry-cleaning service, using information provided by Centzy.com, a Web site that compiles pricing information about New York City businesses, misstated the citywide average cost to dry-clean a pair of men's pants.
Benchmark prices are compiled by price reporting agencies.
Although three billion people worldwide use seafood as a key source of animal protein, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations-which compiles prices for other major food categories-has not tracked seafood prices.
Most retailers don't have a point-of-sale system, so PriceBaba compiles prices and inventory to allow customers to see what is available near them, and for what price.
But consumer groups and drug companies said it would not be easy for the government or its contractors to compile the prices, which could change week to week.
In order to find other such markets, Forbes.com compiled post-1990 price appreciation data from NeighborhoodScout.com, a Rhode Island-based real estate research firm that tracks these numbers by aggregating repeat home sales and price data from the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as quarterly mortgage data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
