David Beach's Blog

Yahoo! Shopping API and Angels

Yesterday we here at Yahoo! Shopping released a public API for you to play with. That's right, you shopping geeks, now you too can create your own comparison shopping site using our fabulous web service. Yip!

I want to see crazy things coming from you. What would Yahoo! Shopping look like in zero gravity? What if you could drag and drop everything onto your own personal virtual shopping donkey? What if comparing products was just like baking a big apple pie?

Go for it! The gauntlet is thrown. Let's see what you can do.

Here's something funny that happened to me the other day... On Sunday I was sitting in Lulu Carpenter's Coffee, drinking a double espresso over ice and surfing ye olde Internet. I was wearing an Apple T-Shirt. When this kid came up to me and said; "Hey, you work at Apple?"
I said, that I didn't.

"Then why are you wearing that shirt?" asked the post pubescent man boy.

"Because I like it." I said.

"And why are you using an HP laptop if you're wearing an Apple shirt?"

"I work at Yahoo!" I said.

Well this sent the guy spinning out of control. "Yahoo! What do you do? Where in Yahoo?"

I told him I was a product manager for Yahoo! Shopping.

"Yahoo! Shopping!" he yelped. "Let me tell you what's wrong with Yahoo! Shopping."

He proceeded to tell me that Yahoo! Shopping is too busy, too cluttered, has too many graphics, and needs to be simpler.  "It needs to be like Craig's List!" He said that Craig's List was so easy. You just clicked on the link of what you wanted and you were there. If you wanted to refine your search, you just typed in what you were looking for. So simple!

All of a sudden this woman from the table next to mine quietly interrupted.

"Excuse me." She said. "But I tend to agree with what this young man is saying."

"About Craig's List?" I asked.

"No about Yahoo! Shopping... It's too busy. Too cluttered. I'd love for it to be easier to use and less complicated. I'd love for the page to be more simple."

This woman was in her 50s and seemed very sincere. Fantastic!

I said I agree 100% and promised to help.

But now they can help themselves! Luke (the kid's name was Luke), Luke if you're out there. Pick up our API and make Yahoo! Shopping just like Craig's List! Get your rocks off! Make it all blue text links and clean and simple. Go nuts. I'd llike to see it.

I dig when you get information out of the blue from people you don't know. And they open your eyes to things. I call these people "angels."  Whether they're in a focus group or in a random coffee shop. I love hearing this stuff. But now with our web services, I can start seeing this stuff!

Have fun Luke!

Best Digital Camera Hunt #2... The Web

I decided to broaden my search for the best digital camera for me. Cast as wide a net as possible. First, I realized that though I wanted a D-SLR -- The Canon Digital Rebel or the new Nikon D50 -- it was going to be a hard sell to the rest of the household. Spending about a grand on a camera right now just wouldn't fly. So I decided to find the best camera available for under $400. Here's what I did. I started with Yahoo! Search (there's really no reason to use Google any more, you know). I searched for "recommended digital cameras" and ended up at dpreview. No surprise there. I backed up and tried again. I searched for "best digital camera under $400" and found a great result in the first position from photo.net.  Philip Greenspun is a hero of mine and I used to go to photo.net all the time when it was more about him and his travels. This is what I saw above the fold when I went to the photo.net result from Yahoo:

   

Lynn Wood apr 08, 2005; 02:07 p.m.

Hi, I am wondering what digital camera you all would recommend under $400.00? I had a Kodak Easy Share camera, which was only 3.1MP, but worked pretty well, but it just broke. I really don't want to spend more than $400.00. What would you suggest? Is the Sony DSCW5 any good? Thanks!
Answers        

Rob Bernhard , apr 08, 2005; 02:14 p.m.

Canon A95 and the Sony W5 are good choices. 

Most digital point and shoot cameras in this price range would be sufficient.  The differences are most often subtle at best.

I had a Sony before and I wasn't really thrilled with it. But I was intrigued by the Canon A95. I then went back to Yahoo! Search. I searched for  "canon a95 review" and wound up at dpreview again. I like dpreview, but I find it too technical and detailed. The trick is to go to the conclusion page as quickly as possible. I want an overview opinion first, then give me the details. Digital Photography Review has to be one of the most SEO friendly sites around. The review looked good. The camera came "Highly Recommended" by them. Not bad. But I still wasn't satisfied.

In many studies, we've found that our users prefer "user reviews" over "expert reviews." We often hear something like this; "I don't trust experts,' they only have the camera for a few days. I want to hear from someone who bought it and owns it and has used it for several months. Only a user review can give me that."

I searched for "canon a95 user reviews" and looked for a site I recognized. I ended up at CNET. (I have to admit I did expect Amazon to show up on the first page of the web results. I filed a bug.) The CNET user ratings and comments were good. So I went back to the search result and clicked on the Yahoo Shopping link. The first few reviews are a tad bizarre, but the rest are pretty informative and very positive.  I decided to check the prices since I was there. Most well under $300. That should make some people happy. I clicked on the Amazon link and read their user reviews for good measure. Even though they were glowing, that's not what sold me. What sold me were the photos taken with the Canon A95 submitted by users. Pretty impressive. I think this is one of Amazon's best features.  Especially for digital camera shopping. I added the A95 to my cart to save it (price; $269), as I was 90% sold. But I thought I should go to Flickr to search on the tag "A95." There were some decent shots there, some pretty pedestrian ones, but they all looked good. I clicked back to Amazon, searched for a 512MB Compact Flash card, added that to the cart and checked out.

My hunt was over.

I think this process was pretty typical. I used search and went to half a dozen or more sites to find the right camera. Perhaps the average person who isn't as impulsive will go to dozens of sites to look at quite a few different models. They might click around dpreview to see what else is there, they might even ask a question on photo.net and wait for a reply. My point is this. When it comes to making a considered shopping decision, there is no single site that can provide the answer. The search engine comes closest as it is its nature to bring information to you. So I believe that it is a powerful search engine that will be the crown on the king of e-commerce. Not a surprise, but it's the possibilities of a powerful search engine and what can be done with the search experience that will provide the solution...

I'm looking forward to getting my Canon A95. I'm pretty sure I made the right decision. A very good quality 5.0 MP camera with a nice lens, good macro capabilities, great automatic and manual features, and small enough to travel well. I'm going to Bangalore, India for a project and I want to make sure to have a camera ready to document the experience. I'll let you know how it goes.

-beach