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Love in the time of facebook
Every year, about this time, the old chestnut about the commercial corruption of St Valentine's Day gets an airing. But whether or not you subscribe to the sentimental validity of the day, there's simply no denying the commercial aspect. The value of the flowers, chocolates, jewellery, cards et al runs into the billions for UK retail - and the online slice of this heart-shaped cake is growing year-on-year.
Of course the range of Valentine's Day gifts available online is so immeasurably vast as to be limited only by the shopper's imagination. However there is such a thing as too much choice, particularly for time-starved business folk worried about getting the wrong thing and/or missing a delivery deadline. This is one of the reasons so many of us stick to the safer options we mentioned earlier. But such dilemmas may become relegated to the annals of history, at least if the operators of websites such as wishpot.com and nomoresox.com get their way.
Straddling the two super-powers of e-commerce and social networking, these portals are essentially on-line gift lists, enabling members to pre-select desirable items from across the internet for others to buy them. Some Brits may consider such lists as presumptuous but there's an inescapable practicality that will appeal to others.
Of course wish lists are hardly new, major e-commerce portals such as Amazon have used this functionality for some time. But of course their wish lists only hold items reserved from their own site. Wishpot and Nomoresox have a different approach.
Where Wishpot seeks to harness the power of existing social networking behemoth Facebook (by enabling lists to be published as part of a Facebook profile), Nomoresox seems more intent on establishing a community of its own. Members are encouraged to build a Nomoresox profile, add significant dates like birthdays (or Valentine's Day!), add gifts of course then invite friends to join and share their lists. Friends then receive reminders of your upcoming events. Visitors can access everybody's profile and all the gifts, (except those who prefer to add a guest password) - the idea being that you can tap into other people's gift ideas.
Wishpot has a fresh, slick-looking interface and some clever tricks up its cybersleeves. Not least of these is the 'magic button' users can add to their browser's toolbar. This enables them to add items to their Wishpot lists instantly from anywhere on the web. The site also allows for the creation of multiple lists for different occasions and provides price drop alerts on any reserved items. Users are helped to find the best prices for selected items online, they can assign ratings to gifts, receive donations for items they wish to buy and, of course, share lists with their friends.
While Nomoresox seems to be targeted at individuals, Wishpot's ambitions are far wider - providing a 'Social Storefront' for companies wishing to sell their products via social networking portals like Twitter and Facebook.
Both sites are relatively intuitive to use and neither requires a vast amount of set-up time. There were, however, a few broken links to products which, if more widespread, could quickly irritate the notoriously impatient web-using public. But all-in-all users who are sold on the basic concept could be up and listing in no time.
Certainly there seems to be no lack of people willing to commit their details to the various manifestations of the social networking phenomenon and thus there's every chance these sites will do well. For some there will perhaps remain a nagging doubt about the premise of sites like these - that listing desired presents takes away people's ability to surprise and delight with spontaneously chosen gifts. Of course those who feel that way will keep having to practice their grateful smiles in the face of unwanted tat!
