We haven’t had much to say in a while…something we intend to rectify soon. But we saw this recently, and thought it might be of some help. Venturebeat reports that Retrevo, a search engine for gadgets, is attempting to simplify the information overload that comes when you try to make a gadget purchase.
When you make a search, each resulting device/gadget is ranked by a combination of “value†(the number of desirable features at the price point) and community sentiment (the combined wisdom of experts and consumers). The results pages offer the product’s model number, a picture of the product, its price range and two cartoon thumbs. One thumb represents value, the other represents community sentiment. They can point up, sideways, or down. The top ten results contain a reasonable mix of high value, low cost products with good buzz around them and medium and high-cost products that deliver what you would hope to get at those price points.
The site lets you choose between the expert and consumer opinions.
The company says its product index doesn’t contain out-of-date products or those that aren’t widely available in stores. This compares favorably with CNET, where I often find myself reading positive reviews for last year’s technology. It’s also more simple and elegant than Buzzillions, which requires more input to find devices you might like.
So check out Retrevo at www.retrevo.com. We did some random searches, and intend to try this product a bit more.