(no subject)

[electricland]

Dear appliance manufacturers/bored programmers:

When you have a moment, please construct a website. As a baffled consumer, I'd like to be able to do the following:

- Search for appliances (all manufacturers) with essential and nice-to-have features, including size and energy efficiency, plus colour and price range
- Compare different models
- Suggest additional features that may be of interest
- Narrow the search as needed

So, for instance, I wouldn't have to wade through all 199 single-oven electric stoves on Sears' website; I could specify that I'm looking for self-cleaning ovens that will fit in a 30" space, are white or stainless steel, and have either a glass cooktop or solid elements. Optional nice-to-have features include a hidden-bake element and a convection oven. Let me sort by energy rating and price.

Honestly, do I have to think of everything?

And how was everyone's weekend?

Comments

[stilldeepwater.livejournal.com]

See www.epinion.com . It is very useful for appliance and electronic gadget shopping. You can look up anything and the website will compile lists of appliances from every manufacturer, compare features and price, plus there are overall ratings based on reviews from people who have bought a particular model.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

OOOOH!

I will look this up. Thank you!

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Checked it out. Very nice! I can think of a couple of improvements I'd make -- like drop-down menus or check boxes for minimum and maximum price, and check boxes for certain features if you're not 100% certain which version you'd like -- but it's definitely getting on for what I had in mind. Thank you so much!

[mrs-cake.livejournal.com]

Not half demanding, are you? Maybe they can't afford a web developer? ;)

My weekend was crap because too hot. I hate heat. It makes me grumpy and horrible. How was yours?

[archaica.livejournal.com]

We web developers come very cheap, especially when there's unemployed ones of us laying around looking to undercut the established persons in order to find work! :)

[mrs-cake.livejournal.com]

Really? Wow. Our networker told us (when we approached him about a business idea involving an online database searchable by different criteria) that the whole thing would cost us about £30,000 to develop! I'm surprised his pants weren't smoking at the time :)

Ell? I take it back, then.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

That does seem like a lot. It would probably depend on whether the database already existed, or if he's starting from scratch. Half the point of a database is so you can search for stuff in it, after all. (Wait, maybe it's the whole point. Anyway.)

But if all the outlets got together... or the manufacturers... hey, if you had one centralized database and each distributor offered a filtered set based on what they sold? That would be sweet. One day...

[electricland.livejournal.com]

My weekend involved a lot of appliance shopping, which got a little painful. But then we went to the cottage, which was very nice, although a little overcast and windy and mosquitoey (wow, that sounds appealing). Sorry you're beaten down by the heat. I have to admit, I prefer it to cold (bitching notwithstanding).