Tinyview, a startup that wants to be the “mobile browser” for product search and shopping, is expanding its functionality. Today the company has updated its iPhone app and adding a web presence for users.
Tinyview is the brainchild of Raj Lalwani, who earlier this year sold his startup birthday and holiday reminders Facebook app, Social Calendar, to Walmart. The iOS app aims to solve the pain point of mobile purchasing via search.
The startup, which originally launched last August, allows you to pre-load all of your checkout information, including addresses, email, payments and more. Within the app, you can search for a product or item, and Tinyview will show results from retailers like Amazon, Nordstrom, Zappos, Fandango and others. If you find an item you’d like to purchase on Nordstrom, the app can automatically auto-fill all the information into the checkout process.
Users can now create lists of products they want, and friends can comment, like products or suggest new products. You can also share lists on Facebook, email, etc. And TinyView now shows products that are trending and being saved to lists by others. There’s also a built-in barcode scanner and QR code reader to find products in stores in the app.
Lalwani adds that the startup will add game mechanics to the app, allowing users to earn points for certain user actions. He explains that he wants to do for e-commerce what Shopkick is doing for brick-and-mortar stores when it comes to discovery and viral sharing.