Computational neuroscientist Sai Gaddam comes up with a gem of an hack: Makkhichoose

We've had price comparison sites and perhaps even a comparison site for all these sites (a class in recursion). And these tools certainly have value when it comes to an Indian user. 'Price' is certainly a very important if not the most important parameter while making a buying decision, be it online or offline. Sai Gaddam, like many others, knew this and so has come up with this beautiful little chrome extension that let's you know if there's a cheaper option while you're buying something from, say a Flipkart.

I installed the extension and headed over to Flipkart to try buying one of my favourite books again and voila, it shows up a tag, clicking on which a popup notifies me of all the other options.

"I wrote this mainly as a means to obtaining interesting product search data, but it also offers users a nifty way to compare prices -- a peculiarly Indian niche," says Sai. Sai Gaddam is a computational neuroscientist, a data geek, who eked out a degree in electrical engineering from IIT Madras. Along the way, Sai realized that human behavior and the brains that generate it, were far more interesting and he went on to graduate school in the academic haven that is Boston to study neuroscience. There, he built mathematical models of human vision and memory. Sai later had a brief post-doctoral stint in collaboration with Hewlett-Packard building brains for tiny robots using synthetic nanoscale neurons.

Tiring of academia, but still very much in love with his research, Sai decided to venture out on his own. His first book, Billion Wicked Thoughts, was a result of his foray into the wild. Sai continues to be an explorer and is now journeying into the world of anger for his second book. He also lends his expertise to organizations looking to better understand their customers behavior and desires. Sai was recently elected as an INK fellow.

Get your extension here and get in touch with him @saidrgaddam.