I explored an idea at work for a site I called The Best One that would have a single product recommendation in each category. You want a car? Get a Honda Civic. MP3 player? iPod Nano. Video game system? Nintendo Wii. And so on.
The inspiration was basically taking the concepts of review sites to the extreme. They already filter through all the options and provide a few to choose from. Why not go all the way and distill it down to the top pick? If the site establishes a reputation of trust, then it's a very powerful thing.
You can get around the fact that some people value attributes differently by having narrower categories. So you actually want an SUV? Get a RAV4. Family sedan? Honda Accord. Sports car? Corvette.
Turns out, there's really not much business opportunity in such a play, so we tabled it. But in the process of doing research, I found a site that is 80% there. It's called ConsumerSearch. It's basically a meta-review site, where they survey popular and respected reviews and compile them into a single list of recommendations, much like MetaCritic or RottenTomatoes.
I just used it today when I decided I needed a Bluetooth headset for my cell phone now that the hands-free law is coming up really soon now in CA. Went on the site, found they recommend the Jawbone. Saw that Jawbone just came out with v2 of their headset. Bought one. Total time invested, about 20 minutes (mostly spent trying to find an online seller and seeing if I could get a discount).
Other interesting sites to check out in the recommendation space are Cool Tools and Uncle Mark.
The inspiration was basically taking the concepts of review sites to the extreme. They already filter through all the options and provide a few to choose from. Why not go all the way and distill it down to the top pick? If the site establishes a reputation of trust, then it's a very powerful thing.
You can get around the fact that some people value attributes differently by having narrower categories. So you actually want an SUV? Get a RAV4. Family sedan? Honda Accord. Sports car? Corvette.
Turns out, there's really not much business opportunity in such a play, so we tabled it. But in the process of doing research, I found a site that is 80% there. It's called ConsumerSearch. It's basically a meta-review site, where they survey popular and respected reviews and compile them into a single list of recommendations, much like MetaCritic or RottenTomatoes.
I just used it today when I decided I needed a Bluetooth headset for my cell phone now that the hands-free law is coming up really soon now in CA. Went on the site, found they recommend the Jawbone. Saw that Jawbone just came out with v2 of their headset. Bought one. Total time invested, about 20 minutes (mostly spent trying to find an online seller and seeing if I could get a discount).
Other interesting sites to check out in the recommendation space are Cool Tools and Uncle Mark.
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