ThisNext Widget - A Review

ThisNext Widget Review

The ThisNext Widget attempts to create a distributed, social shopping experience in which people are able to recommend products and services to their friends (and/or readers) via their blogs or personal Web sites.

Unlike most of the other widgets that I’ve checked out, the ThisNext widget is not an add-on to an existing service – it is a core aspect of the service itself. Indeed, it would appear that ThisNext would not have been built if not for the widget component.

The ThisNext service is divided into three core actions:

- Discover

- Recommend

- Shopcast

The “Discover” piece of the process entails browsing the recommendations of others on the ThisNext Web site. The “Recommend” part entails writing product / service recommendations for others. And “Shopcast” is the catchy term that ThisNext uses for the act of placing your distributed social shopping recommendations on your blog.

 Applications and Opportunity

There is plenty of action in the social shopping space. Sites like Kaboodle, ThisNext, CrowdStorm, and MyPicklist are moving aggressively to try and advance the e-commerce experience by applying social media principles to the world of e-commerce. The rapid proliferation of blogs is providing millions of consumers with soapboxes to push their opinions upon the world. These social shopping sites are hoping that those opinions being pushed will increasingly include product and service recommendations.

Virtually everyone has at some point made a product or service recommendation to a friend. With global Internet penetration pushing 16%, an increasing number of folks are being empowered to make those recommendations via the Web. ThisNext is trying to be the dominant mechanism that enables these recommendations.

So it’s pretty clear why folks are getting excited about this space. Recommending products is not a new behavior for consumers to learn. Blogs are proliferating rapidly, and it would make sense that the ecommerce enabled by these blogs would also be on a steep curve. Through the concept of shopcasting, ThisNext is trying to place themselves squarely at the intersection of blogs and ecommerce.

So why would the ThisNext widget take off? Currently, it would appear that they are relying on a viral strategy (and impressive PR) in which they convince a few prominent early adopters like Fred Wilson and Jason Calacanis to put the ThisNext widget on their blogs, and hope that others follow. Unlike the MeeboMe widget, for example, ThisNext won’t be able to count on community owners pushing their widgets. In the absence of some large bizdev deal, ThisNext will have to build its widget user base one by one.

Configuration

The ThisNext widget is a script, which means it won’t work with MySpace orFriendster, or in Blogger posts. I’m surprised, given that the composition of this widget is primarily text and images, that ThisNext chose not to make something available to these large communities by creating an HTML version of the widget. I would have to think that this is in the works.

That being said, creating a ThisNext widget is an exceptionally clean and simple experience. The process starts by clicking the “Recommend” tab. This triggers a tool that allows the reviewer to submit a recommendation for anything – whether it’s already in the ThisNext database or not.

Once you write your review, you need to click the “Shopcast” tab at the top of the page. It would probably be easier for rookies if there were a prompt on the review page itself to “shopcast this recommendation” or something, but that’s a minor point.

Clicking “Shopcast” launches ThisNext’s widget generator. Configuration is done through 8 different checkboxes, which give the publisher pretty good control of how they want the widget to show up on their blog.  If you want, you can also create lists of recommendations by theme.

The widget itself is a gorgeous, clean design. My only quibble here is that depending on how long your review is, the widget could eat up virtually all of your sidebar real estate. It might not be a bad idea to crop the review after a certain number of characters, and add a “view full review” option to the widget (note: you can hide the entire review if you so choose).

Testing

There were no problems adding the ThisNext widget to the sidebars of either ThisNext or Blogger. As mentioned earlier, this widget does not work with MySpace, Friendster, or any other community that does not allow scripts.

Editorial

ThisNext has garnered impressive buzz and supporters in a very short period of time. Social shopping is clearly a space that is getting people excited, and ThisNext has put together a very impressive service in a short period of time.  I'm also a fan of the little bookmarklet that allows you to add stuff to your ThisNext recommendations from your browser.

While the purpose of this blog is to review widgets, because the ThisNext widget is driven by content generated on its destination site, there needs to be some discussion of how this content is incentivized.

I’m not sure if ThisNext has an answer yet for the question of what will motivate people to post on their site. The on site user recognition systems are not very developed (though I like the smart, funny, useful designations). There is no revenue sharing. As many of us know, there is fierce competition for the tiny percentage of users who require neither recognition nor a selfish interest to contribute. After their initial launch buzz dies down, ThisNext is going to run into the hard, cold reality of competing with thousands of other start ups for the attention of the tiny percentage of Internet users who will contribute explicit data.

As I posted on the TechCrunch blog, my other concern regarding ThisNext’s prospects is Amazon. They control point of sale reviews which tend to be easier to solicit than destination site reviews, they have a built in rewards system in the Amazon Associates program, and they have a massive database of accumulated reviews. If social shopping starts to show some promise, my gut tells me that Amazon will move in and dominate.

Despite all of these concerns, I am impressed by ThisNext’s offering and their positioning of their widget as a core piece of their business. As Jason Calacanis says, the race to solve social shopping will be a long one – and ThisNext is off to a very good start.

Click through to post your own review of the ThisNext widget.

Comments

[claudio]

Why would people set up social shopping websites? I really dont understand, isnt it just some kinda linking system? They have a list of all shopping sites right?

Thanks Claudio

[Work from Home]

Thanks for the review!

[Work from Home]

I think its a "social Shopping" widget