Today a new startup is hitting the scene aiming to grab some of the success we’re seeing in the recommendations sector. It’s a combination between recommendation services like LiveStar and Stamped, and puts them on the web like Pinterest. And to bring everything full circle, Snoox works hard to automatically integrate “click-to-buy” links with the likes of Best Buy, Amazon, and GrubHub.
I’ve been using Snoox for most of the morning and I have to say it’s pretty rewarding. You build pages like Food, Hotels, Restaurants, whatever, and then recommend individual brands or products under those umbrellas.
The site automatically generates thumbnail options from the Internet, asks for a recommendation and tries to pull in a “to buy” link if possible. Otherwise, you can add a link yourself and specify whether it’s a store link, more info, video, etc.
You can even customize certain pages with a special background to add a little personality. This is, after all, a representation of the things and places that you would share with someone else. And Facebook Connect makes those connections real. It’s your best impression.
I could never catch on to Pinterest. It seemed like a lot of purposeless browsing and the creation of something worth browsing, and for what? Likewise, the art of giving a recommendation (not getting, necessarily), seems far more suited to the web.
On Snoox, there is a certain weight of responsibility with each post. These are recommendations. And not just that, but they’re recommendations with links, direct to the retailer.
There is still some work to do. Certain software finds a link (usually Android apps through Amazon) while other apps can’t be found. There were a few restaurants that it couldn’t quite locate, etc. Either way, this will almost instantly get better with more use (not to sound like Apple or anything). Once you have a great recommendation in mind, it’s hard to let a little failed search stop you with an “Add New” button right there, in orange, staring at you.
As I said, giving recommendations makes perfect sense on the web. In fact, the more recommendations I give, the more ideas I have about things I love and would recommend. But getting a recommendation in a pinch has mobile written all over it. This will be the real test of Snoox.
The mobile web version is pretty awful. But according to the release, Snoox is working on new platforms as we speak.