Jan
24
2006Introducing MyBigRiver.com
24
2006
Today, I’m proud to announce that one of my crazy ideas has actually seen the light of day. MyBigRiver.com is an online tool that searches Amazon.com using web services and AJAX. The general idea is that, as you type, it automatically shows the top search result for that item. It’s like “incremental search” for all of Amazon.com. This may sound kind of unnecessary and pointless, but once you start using it, I hope you’ll find it as fun and addictive as I do. There is also a very practical use for the tool –for which I’ve optimized the site. It’s an excellent way to quickly snag a link to a product you want to recommend on your blog or other website. There will be much more functionality along these lines rolling out in the future.
One quick tip for people looking to launch little projects like this. Focus on the really unique part of what you’re cooking up, and focus on releasing SOMETHING that does only THAT. I actually had the foundation of MyBigRiver.com operational for months now, but I got carried away adding a bunch of other features, which I never could manage to quite wrap up. So, I finally went back and stripped away everything that wasn’t essential. I have a feeling that once people start using the site, it’ll give me much more incentive to roll out cool new features than I could generate for myself, toiling away in anonymity.
Well, check out the site, and if you enjoy it, please spread the word! If you have a blog, double-please spread the word there. If you have advice regarding where I can promote the site to a receptive audience (AJAX enthusiast sites, etc) I’d love to hear that as well. Have fun!
Jeff, this is awesome! Wonderfully clean user interface, nice use of AJAX, and useful service.
Dave 1/25/06 @ 5:07 pmWay to go!