RecommendBox, a new site where friends can share recommendations, launches today. The site allows friends to make recommendations and request recommendations in categories like books, movies, places, clothing, music, restaurants and services.
Now, before you say ‘haven’t we seen that somewhere before?’, here’s their pitch:
Their idea is that while there are a lot of recommendation sites out there, what people actually recommend to their private social network is different to what they would just review on a public site.
They say recommendations and reviews are different – when you write a review you give your view on something. When you make a recommendation you are suggesting to someone that they will like something.
I have to say, the difference between the two maybe end up being completely semantic. But that’s their idea anyway.
Perhaps what’s more key about the service is that all recommendations and recommendation requests are private, so therefore encouraging a little more honesty and frankness out of people I guess.
RecommendBox has integrated with the Amazon and Google Local APIs – so it will suggest products and search queries for your recommendations. Future plans for the service include the creation of a collaborative filtering engine, a la Amazon and any number of other sites.
RecommendBox is a bootstrapped UK startup co-founded by Robert Loch, who has been running a networking event in London for a while called Internet People. There’s many a London-based startup that has attended one of his dinners or central London parties. He was also co-founder of Soflow Inc which last year morphed into Wis.dm. The other co-founder is Scott Rutherford, previous head of the development at Cominded (which launched Yabb recently) and was CEO and co-founder of Axomic.