March 25, 2006

Squidoo: pulling Amazon lists out of Amazon

One of the cool Amazon feature is the list -- users post their 10 favorite Taiwanese films, 17 favorite waffle-making gadgets, and so on.

It's handy and fun. It draws on primal foraging instincts. And it's closely tied to Amazon, and only losely tied to the listmaker. Amazon has user profiles, but they are tightly constrained.

Squidoo enables users to make lists, and offers to help its members increase their fame and fortune by linking their personal site to the Google-friendly link haven. It's an odd combination of fun amateur topics such as the coolest laptop bags and sandwich recipes, and moderately creepy get-rich-quick ads for foreign exchange trading and mystery shopping.

The lists are much prettier than a bare delicious link collection, but they take a little more effort to create. Time will tell if it has the magical combination of benefit to the individual and increasing benefit to the group.

Posted by alevin at March 25, 2006 01:40 PM | TrackBack
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