Startup BestInClass is trying to solve a problem many consumers face when trying to pick out a digital camera that best suits their needs and preferences. Most consumers spend hours on the internet looking at editorial and user reviews to figure out what digital camera to buy. The site has launched a digital camera recommendation service that helps consumers sort through all of this information in one place and answer the question: “what is the best digital camera for me?”
BestInClass.com uses the recommendations of professionals and hobbyists in the photography industry and then matches their product recommendations to consumer preferences using a proprietary algorithm.The site already has about 750 individual camera selections from photography experts, with more being added weekly. Basically, BestInClass tries to figure out the photography goals of consumers in order to determine what the right camera is for their needs.
Consumers are asked several questions about how they intend to use the camera, trying to differentiate between whether the camera is being used for travel or family photos, how much the consumer wants to spend, or if they have specific areas where they want high quality features (color, pixels etc.). The site returns with a list of tailored product recommendations from experts who have already researched the best products for these needs. Consumers can also read why a particular product was recommended for them and how it compares to other top picks. Consumers can see a side-by-side comparison of editorial recommendations of a product with actual consumer reviews of the product and can buy the product through Amazon.
BestInClass now only focuses on digital cameras but intends to add more consumer electronics products to the list in the near future, including laptops and flat screen televisions. I think BestInClass has a good concept in providing this tailored content to the consumer, but it certainly not an original idea. Competitors include TestFreaks and other sites that provide product reviews like CNET and CrunchGear. BestInClass’s search filter is pretty nifty and with the addition of more consumer electronics, the site could be a useful destination.
Im happy to see people becoming entreprenuers and launching business’s to take control of their own destinys, but do we really need all of these startups that are so so specific niche based? When will it end? New startup company that helps you find the perfect diapers for your kids, new startup that helps you find the perfect table clothe for weekend picnics. Im not trying to be rude, but I think people that know cameras already have an idea of what they want and can find it from Amazon or any other online retailer.
I do wish them the best however, im just getting lost in the abyss of new startups that arent really that interesting.
have a great week ahead.
…. you do not warry, my little lamb. I will use my extraordinary insights to guide you through the darkness… errr, start-up mess. I see everything and know everything on cyber-places…
Anjali SpammerSen
From India
Shut up you useless spammer idiot! you don’t know anything! MORON.
Anjali why are you in every post? This is really annoying, it is up till recently in techcrunch comments I see “first!”. Usually I see some pretty good comments in here, I can’t say the same for now.
Our site is definitely targeting consumers that don’t have much idea about which camera they want. It’s less appropriate if you follow cameras closely and are familiar with the models. I think there’s a lot of people in the former category – I used to be one of them.
How about a “similar” site with the ability to list all digital cameras, _wiki style_ –
http://collecti...=digital+camera
and to compare between them? –
http://collecti...%3BhB2EE0wypNeA
This site is actually great for people who are interested in buying a camera but have felt intimated with the technology and variety.
Assuming that we can trust the comments, I can definitely see older people liking it more than younger crew.
You are correct. The demographics of our visitors does skew older.
You are definitely right on point. I can see the older crowd, that’s much less knowledgeable on techy stuff, visit this website for advice and comparisons.
There are many types of recommendation algorithms that are in use today in e-commerce, but I think that BestInClass is somehow using some type of CBR (case based reasoning) expert system or perhaps a hybrid soft-computing fuzzy-CBR, which is more robust than traditional CBR on its own. I noted that the BestInClass recommendation is static, ie, it doesn’t allow the user to critique or give feedback to the systems about the relevancy of its recommendations.
Such use of CBR in digital camera recommendation in a dynamical critiquing manner is shown in the following paper:
Title:
—-
“An Analysis of Critique Diversity in Case-Based Recommendation”
Abstract:
——-
Critiquing is a well-known form of user feedback in case-based recommender systems. A critique encodes the users preference in relation to a particular feature. For example, in a digital camera recommender a user may be allowed to indicate whether they are interested in cameras with a lower resolution than the one currently presented; so ‘lower resolution’ is an example of a critique over the resolution feature. Recent research demonstrates how the dynamic generation of compound critiques – critiques that operate over multiple features – can deliver significant performance improvements. However user-studies highlight diversity problems that arise during critique generation; for example, one compound critique might constrain resolution, memory and zoom while another might constrain resolution, memory and price. In this paper we describe how critique diversity can be improved and demonstrate that this can lead to significant usability and performance benefits.
PDF Download :
——–
An Analysis of Critique Diversity in Case-Based Recommendation
The dynamic critiquing algorithm (DCA) is described in page 3 of that paper, but one still needs to know CBR algorithm first because without knowing how to develop CBR algorithm, then DCA is useless.
To the founders of BestInClass, if you want to improve your algorithms than Google the following 2 names who are leading world experts in CBR technoloqies where they have contributed outstanding publications in the CBR domain.
#1) Dr David. W. Aha (US Navy Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence)
#2) Dr. Ian Watson (Auckland University, Computer Science Department – New Zealand)
Dr. Aha is from the US, perhaps it would be much easier to communicate with him, since you’re US based and Dr. Watson is from here in New Zealand. I have met Dr. Aha when he came to New Zealand in 2003 to chair the international CBR conference held at University of Auckland. Dr. Aha used to have a Java CBR engine (API) available from his site available for request, but I have noted that it is not available anymore from there.
Remember that there is no algorithm today that is going to be secret forever, because there are millions of industry and academic researchers around the world that explore every topic and any topic in computing. What does that mean? It means that sometimes someone somewhere thinks that they invented something new, but unbeknown to them that what they thought they invented has already been researched and published by some researchers out there and this is a fact of life. You will start to lose your competitive advantage if you don’t want to evolve your algorithm, because someone from somewhere out there could come up with a system that can outperform your system (retrieval accuracy, etc,…) and all of a sudden you’ll lose your competitive advantage. Just a thought, perhaps you may want to get in touch with the CBR community.
More BS dressed up as something other than BS. What’s next, an “intelligent algorithm” to help me choose my coffee? And the big question – it is as good an eHarmonys patented “35 question” test that helps to find compatibility. If there’s one constant in the universe, it’s BS.
site is broken:
using IE 8, I get two errors on a search page:
Webpage error details
User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1;
Timestamp: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:47:58 UTC
Message: ‘this.input_elem.readAttribute(…)’ is null or not an object
Line: 200
Char: 5
Code: 0
URI: http://www.best...r.js?1235525624
Message: ‘elem’ is null or not an object
Line: 12
Char: 4
Code: 0
URI: http://www.best...s.js?1236634579
pity…
don’t use IE8 — problem fixed!
Yeah, sorry, we don’t support IE8 yet, until it comes out for real. I think these problems are with the prototype javascript library, which hasn’t released an IE8 version yet.
thank you
what about GPS-enabled cameras? I don’t see them under Features, any plan on including that option?
Yes, we are starting to track digital cameras that include this feature and will soon offer the option to find recommendations that include it.
I think this is too niche. Wow, will really be tough! I generally like to write positive, supportive comments for entrepreneurs but this to me is a stretch.
We appreciate your support. Digital Cameras is just our first category. Our solution will address any product category where there are many different options available, and the best choice for a person depends upon subjective factors, such as quality and intended uses for the product, as well as objective factors, such as preferred size/color/brand, available budget, and desired features.
David, have you guys looked at retrevo ? I saw a demo by them at a tech meetup and was kind of impressed with them …. they kind of mentioned the similar problem that novice users face. How do you guys differ from them ?
BestInClass.com matches expert recommendations that were authored to address a consumer’s purchase goals and uses these recommendations to select the best product. Retrevo aggregates reviews posted on the web to rate each product and provides options to filter this list by price, brand, and features. The advantage with the former approach is the capability to directly address subjective needs, such as the intended uses for the product, and the experts explain why the recommended products were selected and how they compare with the other top picks. Retrovo is a fine site if, for example, you’re looking for averaged consumer opinions about cheap digital cameras. If instead you have more specific needs, such as “Best Pink Ultra Compact Canon Point and Shoot Digital Camera for Child and Low Light Photos Under $200,” and you want to understand why the offered cameras are considered the best according to camera hobbyists and professionals, I think you’ll find our BestInClass.com to be more useful.
Certainly not an original idea. Will takes lots of marketing to get their name out there to compete.
Not impressed.
For people who are too lazy to research.
As for me, I would much prefer to spend 5 hours of my life at DPReview.com
I think this is great. I doubt they’re going to stick to just digital cameras alone – they just need to start somewhere. I personally spend countless hours researching a product before buying it, be it a laptop, digital camera, or a phone. It would definitely be nice to find it all in one place. Just make sure you give users the ability to discuss stuff. I personally like seeing users disagree with another user’s review, and stating their reasons. It really helps in narrowing down which product is for which type of user.
All in all, best of luck David!
Too crowded space. They need to find a niche that is not already served..
I noticed that you guys are using Amazon for your affiliate program. What do you think about their 24 hour cookie?
@above,
Shut up a$$hole. Stop spamming.