You've GOT the see this movie!

August 21, 2009 9:05 AM

Is there an web app via which people can recommend things (movies, music, books, etc.) to me?

I feel a bit stupid asking this, because something this obvious must exist, and I should know about it. But I don't.

What I want is this:

A friend of mine goes to (say) recommend.to/grumblebee. He fills out a simple form indicating that he thinks I'd like a book called "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. If he wants, he can write why thinks I'd like it, and he can (optionally) post a link to the book on Amazon.

I can check the page for recommendations, or I can opt to get an email whenever anyone recommends things to me.

IMPORTANT: I would like a low-bar-of-entry. I don't want friends of mine to have to sign up. They just go to the page, fill out the form, press POST, and they're done.

Also, I don't want this to be part of a social-networking site. Not everyone is on Facebook (really!).

I want this, because lovely people are always recommending things to me. They make these recommendations through a bewildering number of channels: email, Facebook, Twitter, IM... Inevitably, I lose track of them and can't find them when I need them.

I'd like to "train" my friends to shoot stuff to recommend.to/grumblebee. If it's something they have to join, many of them will not do it. But if it's a simple form, it shouldn't be a problem.

Basically, it would be like a delicious page for me -- but one created by friends of mine.

posted by grumblebee to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Step 1. Your friends creates link in Delicious and tags it with some unique tag for you.

Step 2: You set up RSS feed from Delicious for that tag.

Step 3: Done.

Has added benefit of archiving all the recommendations on Delicious for you.
posted by COD at 10:01 AM on August 21

Another idea, if you had a public Backpack page they could simply email the recs to the secret email address for that page and they would show up there.
posted by COD at 10:03 AM on August 21

Sounds to me like you need a Moleskine or similar notebook. When someone recommends something you write it down in there and you can take it with you to the record store or wherever. What you're asking is really self-centered, you want your friends to submit things via some kind of special channel in order to cater to your lack of organization. Is it really that hard to save emails? You have gmail so you can search your mail, you never have to delete, and your IM conversations are automatically saved... If you really feel the need to make your friends use yet another "web app" it would be pretty easy to set up a blog with a comment field that would alert you when someone makes a suggestion.
posted by Locobot at 10:11 AM on August 21

I understand how this comes across as selfish.

I have several friends who bombard me with suggestions -- like ten a day. I really AM interested in them, but they come so fast -- and when I'm busy -- that it's hard for me to deal with them. I think these folks would be happy to log them somewhere, as long as it's not too difficult for them.

As it is, they're always having to deal with me saying, "What was that movie you mentioned?" Or they ask me if I've read the book they told me about, and I have to admit that I don't even remember the title. It's not just that I can't search. It's that I don't think to search. But if there was a site I checked every day, I wouldn't have to.

I would be happy to dump my recommendations to a similar site.
posted by grumblebee at 10:30 AM on August 21

Actually - this is the only reason I use Facebook - my friends and I share our book, movie and music interests and recomendations.
posted by jkaczor at 9:55 PM on August 21

Oops, I see you discounted Facebook.

What about a dead simple new email alias... "[e-mail]" ?
posted by jkaczor at 9:57 PM on August 21

if your friends are already on delicious they can tag things "for:grumblebee" and you'll get a notification, but they will need to sign up for an account. without requiring a sign up, what will keep the spambots away?
posted by jrishel at 1:34 PM on August 23