Archive for the ‘Existing Web Apps’ Category

Idea for New Feature

Monday, March 7th, 2011

I was searching for some information about my camera, when I came across to http://www.testfreaks.co.uk/. It is similar to ProductWiki that Raj reviewed below, but where people are also rating  items that they own or just they have tested. You can find ratings for almost every electronic item you want to buy, from cameras to microwaves. They include numerous categories and each category has its own specifications for rating. All items have a global “Freak Score” which is the overall score of the item out of 10. You can also find some other useful information about the items, as were to buy it and its price.

We can include a similar but more simple feature to Shopster. Users will be able to rate items they own. The user would be able to write his experiences with the item and  put a mark to some categories. These categories could be some global ones as value for money, build quality, performance or something similar, ease of use and an overall score. We can then add a product search to the application and the results will show shops with the selected items and of course its overall score.

ProductWiki

Saturday, February 26th, 2011

Even though ProductWiki does not provide a platform for online shopping, it provides product information which helps users to make shopping decisions.

In my opinion, Shopster application should make use of the services provided by sites like ProductWiki, which will provide shopping related data.

ProductWiki is a wiki for information related to products. I.e. the site contains information about different products which are grouped into categories like computers, fashion, music & recordings etc. The content is added & modified by users like a conventional wiki.

The site aims to provide unbiased, accurate and community-based resource for product information.

ProductWiki is open content, which means nobody owns the content – anyone can use the information on the site in any way they want to, commercial or otherwise, as long as they give credit to ProductWiki as the source.

The project has just started and information for many products may be missing in the list, but it is beginning to gather momentum. The basic information about the products is available in the product page. If any user needs further information, or has issues making purchase decisions, they can start a discussion or comment on a product page and ask for opinions from other users.

Currently the site is focused on English content and products released in North America including some occasional Europe and Japan only product. However, the creators of the site hope to spread globally as the project grows.

source: http://www.productwiki.com/

Social Shopper

Saturday, February 19th, 2011

Social shopper is a facebook application where  a user can search for products based on product name or product categorie. Also users can make review about any type of product they want. Additionally social shopper offers the ability to chat with other friends that have the application

Useful features for Shopster:

-Ability to chat with other users of application

Pros:

-Good separation of categories

-Good user interface

-Top sellers per category

Against:

-Very simple, only basic items, no location based

-Categires of items too general

-Application does not use location information

-Limited number of items

-Limited number of users (30) which in turn means less reviews

-No information about location of store or store

source: http://apps.facebook.com/socialshopper/

DoTogether

Saturday, February 19th, 2011

DoTogether is a facebook application that is similar to a mall but digital and inside facebook. Friends can suggest disguss and give feedback on varius items that they bought. Rewards for users are given in form of discounts. Shop owners pay fees depending on the amount of traffic the shop has.

Useful features for Shopster:
-Rewards are offered to users in order to make them use the application more.
-Coupons in selected shops are provided from which users can benefit with discounts, shop owners can advertise their business and application becomes more popular.
-Users can filter search results based on price.
-Many search options including location based search.
-Can navigate through categories of items that have subcategories.
-Can make a post about something you are searching for on a social networks, so friends can help you find it.

Negative:
-Could have more categories for items.
-Complicated user interface which is confusing and difficult to use.
-Application does not have many users yet.

Source:  http://dotogether.com/Home/dotogether.aspx

Payvment

Saturday, February 19th, 2011

Payvment  is a facebook application, which offers to shop owners space to host their products for free. Users can browse products based on categories or search based on keywords. This application has approximately 400 000 monthly users.

Useful features for Shopster:
-Two applications in one: one application for owners of stores to advertise items and one application for buyers.
Pros:
-Many users that can help the application to function properly.
-Users can shop directly from inside of facebook.
Negative:
-No location based search supported by this application.
-It is like any other eshop that sells various items, it does not suggest (other) shops.

source: http://www.facebook.com/payvment