May 16 2007

Commence the Wishlisting!

Posted by Sophia as Gadgets, Software, The Web

You and I may be gadget freaks, but we can’t own ‘em all. What could we possibly do once we see or hear about a cool new tech toy we’d love to get our hands on but can’t (at the moment, at least)? Why, add it to our wishlist, of course!

Amazon Wishlists

I believe it was Amazon that popularized the concept of a virtual wishlist. You’d find them on the sidebars of people’s personal websites even before blogging really caught on. But these lists were mostly made of book titles, not necessarily gadgets. Eventually wishlists have been incorporated as one of the neater features of online shops. But like Amazon’s, the wishlists do not work across multiple online shops.

Web 2.0 Wishlists

These days, you don’t really need to stick to the Amazon Wishlist format anymore. Wishlistr lets you add a website as an item on your wishlist. Or you can search for products you wish to add manually. Even better is that you can export the list as an RSS feed.

Another site you can use as an online wishlist is StyleHive, since it’s filled with features that describe, tag, share, and discover products you’d want to have or already have, although the community is geared more towards the stylish rather than the techie crowd (not that they’re necessarily mutually exclusive, though).

Similarly-structured wishlist management sites include Wists, WishRadar, Gifttagging, grat.uito.us, MetaWishlist, and GiftHat.

Bookmarks as Wishlists

If you don’t want another web account to manage your wishlists with, simply use your favorite bookmarking service, e.g. del.icio.us, to tag the webpage of the product you’re eyeing with the word “wishlist”. So if I wanted to
view my wishlist, I can just type in del.icio.us/sofimi/wishlist.

Blog Your Wishlist

Finally, why not blog your wishlist? Your blog post does not have to be a literal list, but perhaps a product (or two) you’d like to add to your personal wishlist. You can always tag your post (if your blog supports tagging/labels) with “wishlist”, or you can create a whole new category revolving around your Wishlist! And if you have enough time, take things to the next level by opening a whole new blog so you can add items to your wishlist all year long!

Share and Enjoy:

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

The Joys of Unboxing

4 Responses

technosearch
16|May|2007

Great post. Helps searching and getting what you want easier. Will try some of the stuff you mentioned there.

Btw, is there a website somewhat opposite of the wishlist idea? Meaning, I want to know who are the people who has this kind of thing/material in their wishlist?
ia
17|May|2007

Thank you, technosearch! Glad to see my post was actually useful. Haha.

You have a great question. Most of the mentioned sites call themselves social, which *should* mean they have features that let them share their lists with family and friends. So if you know which site they’re using, just visit their URL (if it’s public) or sign up (if it’s private). Somtimes, people simply put their wishlists on their websites so it’d be easier to find. Right now those are the common possibilities I’m aware of.
Mr Butterscotch
17|May|2007

I wonder if having “cool” stuff in your wishlist grants you kudos. I think we may be about to find out as I think this would make an excellent future article! Wishlists are cool as they can bring a crowd together in mutual appreciation - unfortunately they can be depressing as the list grows bigger whilst the cash to spend on goodies grows smaller!
Tom
19|Sep|2007

We just recently launched a site which also solves the problems you’re talking about:

http://wishlisting.com/

In response to technosearch’s question, as part of making the site social we do show you, on a given item, who wants it and provide some general demographics (average age, percent male/female) which I always find interesting. For example, check out the Wii:
http://www.wishlisting.com/#wish/1846

Also, as you mentioned, we are one of the sites that provides good/legible public URLs for individual people’s wishlists so it’s easy to share them with friends and family. This is mine:
http://www.wishlisting.com/#person/tlianza

Please check it out and let me know what you think. There is a feedback form at the bottom of the page.

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