Froogle Wish Lists »
When I first saw the news that Froogle was offering shopping lists, I thought it was way cool. I added a book to mine. While using it, however, I see three problems.
First of all is the link to get to the list. Namely, I like the Amazon format better. No email address to expose to the world. Even if I didn't mind my email address existing on the web for all to see, I don't know that I want to give it out to everyone - even a GMail account that I rarely use. While you can enter a secondary address in your Google account, you can't use it to access your list. I tried. That's a dumb feature, since they have it in your account. And you can set up different accounts, but I've got enough accounts already, so no thanks. They could also let you use your account name instead of the email address when referencing your list. I can sign on with just my account name, without specifying my email address. But using it in the shoppinglist doesn't seem to work (at least right now).
There is also a problem that the list is only good for a single item from a single vendor. For instance, the book I picked out, I selected from Wal-Mart. That particular item (the one from Wal-Mart) is on my list. Meanwhile, all sorts of other providers could carry the book (and they do), perhaps for a cheaper price (I didn't check that). For speciality items that only come from one provider, it's not an issue. But for books, DVDs and the like, I'd much prefer to be able to enter an ISBN number or UPC code or something, and let Google show all possible options.
The final problem I have is with shipping. All of the results surely offer shipping, as that's necessary with e-commerce. But not everyone who stumbles across my list will have my address. At Amazon, my address is built into the list. People simply pick from the list and order it and it's shipped to me. They don't need to know where I live. Not that it's a huge secret or anything, as I'm not that difficult to find. But it simply isn't included in the Froogle lists. For people who know you well (and presumably where you live), it's not much of an issue. And I can even see that someone could look to see what you want then go out and buy it and give it to you as a present. But for those who would like to send a quasi-anonymous gift, as is the case with many lists used on the web, it simply doesn't work. Sorry, Google. You're close, but no cigar this time around.
Comments (4)
As to #1 -- could you use tinyurl.com to mask it? It wouldn't protect someone who clicked through to it, but it would keep someone from casually harvesting it off or a link on your home page.
The other two items make a certain sense, particularly the shipping address -- and it's difficult to imagine how it would be handled otherwise. I suspect I'll use the Froogle list for ...
... additional wish lists for folks who already know my address.
... as a personal shopping list where I want to record non-Amazon items for later purchase (or, heck, Amazon ones).
Posted by *** Dave | November 30, 2004 9:48 PM
Sure, you could mask the URL - but I'm all about convenience. I have an alternate email in my account. I have an alias in my account. Why do I have to use another service to mask the address, when I could just use my account alias (for instance)?
Thus far, there's very little that I would add to a wish list for someone else that I cannot find at Amazon. It may not be the cheapest price, but at least it's all in one place and people can use it easily to buy me stuff if they should be so inclined. Froogle would be sweet if it would allow me to pick an item and then let the browser pick the store from which to buy the item (and include that shipping address).
As to personal shopping lists, I feel about the same. Most of what I need to list on a regular basis consists of books and DVDs. Thus far, Amazon does it the best, and I don't want to maintain it in multiple places if possible. Thus, the best solution is the one I'll use.
I did find yesterday that Home Depot has a wish list, which even includes your shipping address - but it has to be individually emailed to people. That's a bit of a pain. I wrote to ask them about it, and they responded that a web link is not currently available due to associate linking policies. Nice response time, but no love for me. Ah well. Back to Amazon (again).
Posted by Chad Everett | December 1, 2004 6:12 AM
Have you thought of using one of the online services to manage all of them? Like this program I've been working on? wishlist.bry.net
Posted by Bryan | December 5, 2004 4:44 PM
Actually, yes. I used to use The Things I Want. The problem is that it's not particularly well integrated. For instance, on your site (I did register), it allows me to specify an address. But there's no integration with it. Someone would need to note my address, then go to a particular location by using one of the items in my list, enter the address manually, and complete their purchase. There is also (apparently) no way to indicate that something has been purchased.
While I agree that Amazon may not hold the answer, thus far theirs is the closest to what I need, so I think I'm going to stick it out there for a while. Let me know if you update your offering, especially if you manage to integrate it with sites or something. That would be sweet. Thanks for the link.
Posted by Chad Everett | December 5, 2004 5:18 PM