My2cents - What's your opinion?

on 5/6/10 6:57 PM

Tested version: 1.0.1
Latest version: 1.0.4
Requires Android: from 1.5

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Summary

I always get excited when I come across an app that’s really original and well made.
The question is, whether the above applies to my2cents.

my2cents is one of those recommendation-type apps. It allows you to read other people’s opinions about certain products, as well as share your own thoughts. This way, if you’re in the market for buying something, you can read up on it and make an even more informed decision.

Why am I not 100% convinced that this app rocks? Read on and you’ll find out.

Features & Use

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my2cents allows you to scan a product’s barcode using the barcode scanner. After the scan, a product database will be accessed via http, and once the product you’re interested in has been found the information is sent to your phone. You can then write a comment about the product. It isn’t actually possible to rate it in the traditional way, as there is no grading system with stars or the like.

Once you’ve written your review, just press “Send” and the rating will be sent back to the my2cents server. You can also tweet the rating to your followers, provided you’ve entered the details of your Twitter account in the app itself.

You can view the community’s entire stream within my2cents—that is to say, who has just been viewing and commenting on which products. You can also, of course, access the ratings, as well as leave your own “two cents”.

A functions button will allow you to review all the products that you have so far a) rated yourself, b) commented on, or c) simply looked at.

Bottom line:
This is a simple program with an interesting concept—and probably quite a lot of potential, too! The products I was interested in were nearly always recognized and found.

Why was my introduction so skeptical then, you may ask. Here are my reasons:

1. This app depends on an active community. Building a community is much harder than you might assume, and the advantages that this app has to offer can only come about when the app is backed by a strong community. This makes sense: the more people that are involved who are rating themselves, the more ratings there will be, d-uh. The tricky thing is to get to the critical mass, and I’m not convinced that this app offers enough functions that would make the app sufficiently interesting to use on a daily basis for even a small community.
2. It’s difficult to get a hang of the rating system. At first glance, it’s difficult to make out whether the community finds a product to be good or bad, or maybe just so-so. And above all: what are the flaws? It’s as though the app wasn’t made for the users at all, but rather for the developers of the products, who can in this way access valuable market research data. This is an absolutely legitimate approach, and no doubt one of the app developers’ goals. However, you have to put a bit of effort into your endeavors before you can reap their fruits, and there needs to be a lot more creative input invested into this app before it can be used on a daily basis.
3. Sure, Twitter is a great means of feedback—but where’s Facebook in all this? A “Like” button should definitely be added to the app.

As I said: all in all this is a great concept. But there’s still a long way to go before this app will be a success. Having said that, we’ll be keeping our eyes on it.

Screen & Controls

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The screen is nice and tidy, and reminds me somewhat of Hoccer. It doesn’t take long at all to figure out how to use the program. my2cents seems to be one of those organizations that really values user experiences.

I’d like to see more of these neat and tidy looking apps!