
Show HN: Our attempt at solving the wishlist problem.. - jbbarnes
http://www.ultimategiftlists.com
======
MicahWedemeyer
You might want to make the GiftMark more prominent, like a popup as part of
the initial welcome. I just focused on the main area and thought it was only
possible to add what was displayed on the page. The only reason I went
clicking was to help evaluate the app, and I tink under normal circumstances I
never would have clicked a menu item for "Add gifts from around the web"

Cool idea all around. Good luck!

~~~
jbbarnes
Yeh we completely agree - looking at stats and how many people are installing
'giftmark' we knew we had a problem. We'll look to address it - thanks for the
feedback, it's much appreciated. Would you make the giftmark part of the site
as part of the sign up?

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blauwbilgorgel
Well done! Some feedback: Resize your product images
("/images/I/8137AFcYkrL._AA1500_.jpg") or request smaller ones. Remove
whitespace before DOCTYPE. Try to avoid session/state URL's: dzYzMzJfNTAzNg==.
Specify Canonical or apply www to non-www redirect. The homepage contains
content, but this is only accessible with javascript and styling, or without
javascript and styling. Consider a <noscript> warning or giving a user and
searchbot access to the content with styles on, but javascript off. Adding to
this a matter of taste: The background is like the background for iOS touch
browsers when the end of a website is reached. That texture has some meaning
attached to it for some, that make it in my opinion rather unsafe, to use for
other design elements on the web. There is (possibly due to heavy load) a good
6-7 seconds between the dissapearance of the loading graphic, and the loading
of new content "tiles", maybe you can add an onload callback for removal of
loading graphic.

And a question: What is your organic SEO strategy? Will all visitors come from
social? The website behaves like a web-app, so there is very little content to
rank with. Are these personal shopping lists publicly available? What happens
if people share these shopping lists? I don't see them indexed (yet), so they
might not be flowing any link juice. Could you add a blog or something?

~~~
whyleyc
This is great feedback. I would add:

\- Load your ToS and Contact pages in new windows. I didn't notice that they
had appeared in the gift list zone - this definitely doesn't feel the right
place to put them.

\- I would consider exposing the list ID as part of the URL so that users can
copy and paste them around in chat windows / email / twitter, in case they
don't want to use your sharing services.

\- I would second the idea of a blog as a way of promoting interesting and/or
useful gift ideas.

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Eduard
I use the add-on Ghostery, which filters out page elements that are known as
trackers, including the ShareThis buttons. So I couldn't see any buttons below
the statement "Share this list using the buttons below."

One solution to this problem is to offer at least one share button that is
provided solely by your site.

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Fletch137
The idea's great, but I think the look of the site could do with a rework. It
feels a little dark and cramped.

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ypg
From a personal standpoint, I think the web design is quite attractive, but I
would be looking for something simpler and more functional. The only reason
that I would approach the site is for gift ideas, (I would use Amazon for
buying, actually storing a wishlist of hopeful transactions). My train of
though it to start with the person who I'm buying a present for, and
brainstorm what I should buy them based on what I know about them. It seems
that the site is organized in a way that assumes you already know what you're
looking for.

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tbundy
If your loved one isn't considerate enough to use Ultimate Gift Lists:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4865223>

~~~
dribb
Haha, us hustler's work is never through. Like the different approach.

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dulse
Cool idea, good job on executing so quickly (2 weeks!).

Small note: this is totally fine for the MVP you have, but I found sorting
items alphabetically to be annoying. Why would I want to see things that
happen to start with letters nearer the beginning of the alphabet first? As
you iterate, might be something to think about. Maybe price point or
popularity would be more helpful ways to organize the stuff.

~~~
jbbarnes
Thanks, glad you seem to like it.

Yeh we'll definitely sort differently in the future. We'll also allow users to
drag tiles around and arrange their list in anyway they want..

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yesimahuman
Looks interesting, congrats on shipping! A few friends of mine actually built
something similar recently, more about sharing Christmas lists with your
family and making sure no one gets you the same thing, etc. If you're
interested, it's called Scrooge Buster (<http://www.scroogebuster.com/>)

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brador
Not loading, but what is the wishlist problem?

~~~
jbbarnes
That every Christmas and birthday my family ask me what I want for
Xmas/birthday and that I have to email them a bunch of links as to what it is
that I want. Maybe it isn't a problem, but it bugs me and my mate so we built
something that we found useful that we thought could be beneficial to others.
thanks!

~~~
matb33
Same here... Over 10 years ago my mom gave me a paper list of gift ideas for
the whole family. I was supposed to cross off what I was buying to avoid
duplicates. Didn't take long for me to write a web app to manage it. I rewrote
it last year after 10+ long years of solid usage:
<http://www.gifttracker.net/>

It's a slightly different take on the wish list "problem" in that mine isn't
about getting gift ideas, it's about sharing lists and reserving to avoid
duplicates.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Pretty clinical approach to gift-giving? Were socks and new underwear on the
list? How about a 12-pack of WD-40 for dad?

~~~
matb33
Wait until you get married, then you'll understand ;) Wedding registries, baby
registries... And in many cases that type of gift-giving extends to Christmas
and birthdays.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Married for 30 years. 3 brothers, 2 sisters, 13 nieces and nephews. Still
haven't resorted to asking people what they want. What's the point? They can
get that for themselves.

~~~
matb33
I deleted my previous comment as perhaps I am taking your comment too
personally.

I agree with you that it is nice to be surprised. I am just pointing out that
there are legitimate uses for the "clinical" approach to gift giving: wedding
and baby registries are quite common. If you don't know the newlyweds/parents
nor the contents of their house very well, the registry can go a long way to
giving them a gift that they actually need and will use.

Cheers

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Yeah; I guess there's the class of obligatory gifts that social circumstances
extort out of us. We no longer question why we're going to a wedding of
somebody we don't know.

Still, the idea that somebody has set up a list of 'acceptable gifts' sticks
in my craw.

I have a friend that always gives a wooden trencher board as a wedding gift
for anybody. Different enough not to be duplicated.

~~~
matb33
Ah I see where you're coming from. The list I was speaking of originally was a
wishlist. It wasn't a "buy only these things or you're no longer family" ;)
Incidentally my app supports "secret gifts". You can enter a surprise gift
that everyone but the recipient can see. That avoids duplicate gift buying
even when someone else had the same great idea for a "secret gift" that you
did :)

------
BenSS
Cool implementation, but wouldn't use it personally. Mostly because my
immediate family already knows about Amazon wishlists, which also let you add
anything (even not on amazon). I'll admit the interface is a lot cooler here.
Have you looked at Amazon's implementation?

~~~
jbbarnes
Thanks - glad you liked it. Yep we've had a look and we think one reason that
ours has an advantage over theirs is because of the big feature of our site,
which may not of been obvious, the 'giftmark' bookmarklet - this means that
you can add any items you want when you browse the web rather than just being
limited to our default items. If you drag that bookmarklet up to the toolbar
and then when you see an item on the web you like, you click the 'giftmark'
button and it adds that item to your list (with a picture). With this feature
added to the picture based layout we hoped we could get the edge over them - a
tough ask i know.

Glad you liked it though. Say if we let you import your Amazon wishlist? Would
that make you more tempted to use our service?

~~~
BenSS
Well, Amazon also has the exact same ability to add anything on the web - add-
on/extension available for most browsers. Importing my existing amazon list
would be an incentive for me to at least try it in more depth. However, I
might view it more an an extension of my current amazon list rather than a
replacement.

~~~
lazerwalker
For reference: <http://www.amazon.com/wishlist/get-button>

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Eduard
I guess the business model here is affiliate marketing. I noticed that the
URLs you use to redirect to Amazon.co.uk product pages don't include the
"tag=your-associate-id" query string parameter. Are you still eligible for
commission?

~~~
jbbarnes
Yep it is affiliate marketing - we just launched to friends and family here in
the UK to begin with but have just applied to SkimLinks so will turn any of
our links into affiliate links.

~~~
jasongill
VigLink does the same as SkimLinks (has been around longer too, and is backed
by Google Ventures) and they don't make you wait if you're referred by another
VigLink member. You can use my referral link (if you'd like) to at least get
your monetiziation up and going ASAP. <http://www.viglink.com/?vgref=6106>

~~~
jbbarnes
That's really kind - thank you..

~~~
jp1989
In addition to that, don't Skimlinks take a cut of your comms? It really seems
easier (and more profitable) to use the Amazon Affiliate Program. Someone
correct me if I'm wrong though!

------
angry-hacker
Nice idea and execution but I didn't find anything interesting... I don't need
to make a list if I want to buy someone iPad or Kindle fire... but that's my
taste, maybe other people find new ideas from there.

~~~
jbbarnes
Hi thanks for the feedback. The big feature of this site, which may not of
been obvious, is the 'giftmark' bookmarklet - this means that you can add any
items you want when you browse the web rather than just being limited to our
default items. If you drag that bookmarklet up to the toolbar and then when
you see an item on the web you like, you click the 'giftmark' button and it
adds that item to your list (with a picture).

~~~
angry-hacker
I completely missed it so I guess you should do a better job introducing it to
your users as a main feature, also create browsers plugins - bookmarklet might
work for HN user, but not for 99% others, it also gives you a little more
publicity.

Also I did find something interesting from Gadgets section but the width of
the "pinterest style" boxes are so narrow, the pictures small and no price
tags - it's hard to get my attention at least.

~~~
jbbarnes
Ok cool - we'll make it much more prominent. With regard to the second bit of
feedback - we'll be adding price soon and will continue to iterate so the
pictures are sharper and better quality, and bigger, but we wanted to get it
out there before xmas and get people's feedback. We'll add it to the list.
Thanks

------
nulluk
This was submitted just 2 days ago for anyone wishing to see the existing
comments: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4857287>

~~~
jbbarnes
Yeh hope people don't think we are spamming - we wanted to launch on a quiet
day (Saturday morning) and just get some stats to see if people knew that the
bookmarklet existed (if they installed it) and if they knew to save it. Based
on this we've made improvments over the weekend ready for launch today.

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SeanKilleen
FYI, our WebSense filter at work filters this for "potentially harmful
content." Likely a mistake on the filter's part, but thought you'd like to
know.

~~~
jbbarnes
Cool thanks - we'll double check to make sure we haven't got anything
controversial as part of our default content!

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jbbarnes
We've spent around 2 weeks or so developing this and we'd love any feedback
you may have...thanks in advance.

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camflan
Seems like a pinterest clone, even the bookmarklet seems copy/pasted.

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znowi
Is there a special reason why you chose ASP.NET for this project?

~~~
jbbarnes
I am not the coder, my friend is - I will let him answer you. From my limited
knowledge I know that my friends skills lie with this technology and therefore
he built something using a technology he is comfortable with. As I say he'll
answer you properly in a bit..cheers

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aptwebapps
Not loading right now ...

~~~
jbbarnes
The curse of the HN homepage - we are taking a look at it, sorry for the
outage..

