I’ve been checking out Yahoo’s newest goodie: Shoposphere (shopping.yahoo.com/shoposphere/). The ever productive Yahoo Search Blog has the details:

The Shoposphere and Pick Lists are examples of social commerce. We believe the community of shoppers is one of the best sources for product information and advice. The Shoposphere is a place to discover interesting and cool products thematically arranged into Pick Lists by other shoppers. It’s always changing. It includes new lists in a “product stream” and highest rated lists which are a fun way to explore new products and trends.

Pick List
The object is to search around and save products to a list. You can create your own list or use one of the pre-defined lists: My Wish List and Stuff I Own. I added a few CDs [see my Yahoo Shopping Wish List] I’ve been enjoying listening to tracks on LAUNCHcast [Hmm review]. CDs I’d like to own. One of which we already ordered through Amazon that wasn’t available in any retail stores (a Quiet Riot CD from 2001).

The problem I have with lists like these is maintainence. Somebody (usually the list creator) has to maintain these lists or they become outdated and no longer useful. What good is a wish list where you have since bought the items? I have started an Amazon wish list just about every year back as far as I can remember and they are cool for a few hours, maybe a few weeks and then become dated and forgotten; I’d have to research these URL(s) to link them here and even that seems like too much work.

This isn’t any kind of bash against the Yahoo’s entry to this area, it’s more of my own experience with these type lists and services. I flirted around with epinions for awhile too which is sort of similar to what the Shoposphere is doing. I even made $4-5 for my time.

Shoposphere
As for the Shoposphere which lets other reviewers vote on how useful your custom pick lists are? One advantage for this service: serendipitous shopping. It could help you find items you are interested in possibly buying without having to surf through various online stores. Some of the early user-created pick lists are interesting like Gadgets for the Lazy. I found a couple things to add to my Wish List.

Overall, I can see why Yahoo did this, but how much time will I really be spending there? Especially after the holiday shopping season? Probably very little. What about you?

Update 5:36 am PST: Almost instantly after publishing this (don’t you just love how that happens?) I thought of one webmaster-related usage: if you share interesting, useful lists people might check your profile and visit your website.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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