
Eggs, Milk, Bread - the World’s First Grocery API - PeterRosdahl
http://blog.programmableweb.com/2009/07/14/eggs-milk-bread-the-worlds-first-grocery-api/
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jmtame
i've been trying to say this for a while, but everything is going to move to
the mobile device. as the hardware catches up, the experience is going to
become as ubiquitous as the desktop (or rather the laptop).

your driver's license? put it on your phone. paying for something? put it on
your phone. waiting in a line? just order it on your phone. there's obviously
some technical barriers right now, especially with e-commerce, but it will
come. social media is flavor of the day right now, but when the hardware
catches up, things like wallets are going to disappear.

~~~
jsonscripter
There's no such barriers in Japan, where it is common for one to pay for items
using your cellphone. They can also order things on their phone by taking
pictures of a standardized 2D barcode on a flyer or poster.

The hardware _has_ caught up, it's the telecoms that have not.

~~~
profquail
Telecoms certainly have to take the first step (and they'll drag their feet
the entire way), but the second step is getting people to change their lives
around the technology. IMO, most of the US would still lag behind (in terms of
mobile technology) even if the wireless infrastructure was upgraded because
they don't really care to use it (i.e. they're happy with the way they do
things now).

As for this API, I think it's fantastic, but they should really take it a step
further. If there's some sort of national or international consortium of
retailers, they should create a free, unified API such that a good produced
anywhere in the world will have an entry in the system. It'd even be cool if
they added a rebate submission system into it as well, instead of having to
mail in rebates for things.

~~~
jsonscripter
If you build it, they will come.

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rsheridan6
Combine something like this with ubiquitous RFID and a
refrigerator/pantry/freezer that can read it and you could have a program that
keeps track of the food you have, warns you when something can be expected to
go bad, and suggest recipes based on what you have. That would be useful and
would reduce the amount of food wasted.

~~~
frossie
I would definitely like to be able to look into the contents of my fridge
before I left work (to know what to pick up). Expiry dates, especially for
items in the pantry that don't get turned over as often as the fridge contents
would also be handy.

Recipe suggestions don't work that well in my opinion (you can do this already
to some extent, for example with bigoven.com but also with a simple google
search). You need non-trivial intelligence to do that automatically. The one
thing a cook knows is what ingredients are important. For example if I have
shrimp in the freezer and orzo in the pantry, I can google for "shrimp and
orzo recipe", end up with a recipe with 8 additional ingredients of which I
have only 2; and yet I would know whether I could make it (eg. I don't have
fresh basil but I could throw in some dried thyme and it would still be
edible, skip the olives, etc etc). So I don't see this as a big selling point.

The other thing I look forward to with ubiquitous RFID is whether we can
eliminate the unload cart/scan/repack groceries hoopla. I use reuseable bags,
some insulated for frozen goods - I'd like to wander round the store, back my
bags as I go along and as I like them packed (anal? moi?) and just pay and
stroll out.

~~~
rsheridan6
>For example if I have shrimp in the freezer and orzo in the pantry, I can
google for "shrimp and orzo recipe", end up with a recipe with 8 additional
ingredients of which I have only 2; and yet I would know whether I could make
it (eg. I don't have fresh basil but I could throw in some dried thyme and it
would still be edible, skip the olives, etc etc).

This is amenable to automation. You could tell a computer which ingredients
are expensive, which are likely to be unnecessary, and which can be
substituted. I wouldn't expect it to work perfectly, and it wouldn't do
anything you couldn't do by hand with google, but if it saved you some time it
could be useful.

>The other thing I look forward to with ubiquitous RFID is whether we can
eliminate the unload cart/scan/repack groceries hoopla.

You could also eliminate the problem of keeping track of how much money the
items in your cart cost, and whether you're being charged what the label said,
because the price would pop up as you put it in your cart. But a good API
might lead to convenient online ordering and ubiquitous delivery, which should
appeal to you if you're environmentally conscious enough to reuse bags,
because the amount of energy saved by having a delivery driver make a round
compared to having hundreds of customers drive back and forth would dwarf the
savings you make by not throwing out some plastic bags.

~~~
frossie
Fair point. The energy cost of delivery could or could not be lower than
consumer pickup - I think it would depend on the area. In low density areas it
may be that consumer pickup during normal commute patterns does have a lower
energy cost. But I would order online if I could to save time, even if I had
to pick up my order myself.

BTW in my area plastic bags are frowned upon not so much due to energy
production cost but more due to disposal problems (the only local landfill is
almost full). In fact the local council occasionally toys with banning their
use completely. So even people who are not the traditional environmental types
are starting to use them.

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pbhjpbhj
It says in the article they're going to release information including
customers favourites .. that's personal information - they'll need individual
permission to do that.

You can imagine the headlines "Tesco.net confirms MP for Basingstoke is sex
fiend" when the favourites show the married MP that is away from home all week
buys 20 condoms, 2 packs of lube and a copy of the Gay Times every week.

~~~
duvander
They'll only include an individual customer's favorites if the customer has
authenticated with a particular application.

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ashishk
The only way local advertising will work is a pay-per-lead model.

The only way that will happen is if companies like these guys open up API's.

I'm very impressed!

