I Feel So Used
Submitted by jim on Fri, 01/20/2006 - 13:30
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Another day, another pet project, but at least this one is fairly topical to we movie, book, and music lovers. I just whipped up a site called "I Feel So Used" that facilitates tracking used items at Amazon, highlighting the price difference between used and new. I know I like to bide my time while I wait for the used prices to drop, and this ought to help me keep tabs on that. Here's a taste of what the meat of the site looks like.
I really dig the site, but every now and then I'd try to enter a product that would generate an error. Then again, each time it told me it was notifying the webmaster, so I'm guessing you already knew that. :-) Any idea what's causing the problems?
I think it would be pretty sweet to have a feature where you could set minimum quality standards for each product - for example, I could set it to only include the items rated "Very Good" or better. Of course, if that's agonizingly difficult, don't worry about it.
Thanks AJ!
Regarding the bug, I finally checked my "errors" inbox late last night. :-) I think I fixed the problem (the ampersand in "Seasons 1 & 2" wasn't being encoded properly). Let me know if it gives you any more trouble!
As for minimum quality standards, it looks like the Amazon API makes it a little tricky for me to do that. It returns a variable LowestUsedPrice, but no such variable QualityOfLowestUsedPriceItem. So I'd have to loop through all the used offers (which may span multiple pages/requests) and do my own analysis of which one is the lowest price for a given user's quality preferences. I like the idea, but I think at this point it'll have to sit on the shelf.
For the very small, select group that have given this a whirl (And what are the rest of you waiting for? How else are you going to find out that season three of the marvelous Homicide is $48 (!) off?), I added a few new features. Mostly bells and whistles, but they make me happy. You can sort by clicking on column headers, and there's a slider that highlights the good deals in a somewhat funky fashion (not to mention superfluous, what with being able to sort now n' all).
Keep creating nifty web-apps. You'll eventually get BoingBoinged and/or Dugg. :-)
Thanks! Probably unlikely though. My development philosophy has generally been to create sites/apps that interest me, and then put them out there under the assumption that I'm not all that unusual, so other folks are bound to find them interesting as well.
The strategy is hit-or-miss, more often miss.
I can't decide if it's because I am—despite the odds—unusual, or because my interests just aren't all that interesting. :-)
Actually, it's simpler. You just need to create something nifty with the Google Maps API. I've seen like 30 of those things Dugg or BoingBoinged.
Sell out and create one that tracks indie rock concerts in NYC, or something. :-)
:-) Good call.