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Yahoo! Shopping Rings in the Holiday Season With The Shoposphere

Posted on: Tuesday, 15 November 2005, 09:00 CST

Yahoo! Launches New Features That Introduce "Social Commerce" to Online Shopping; New Shoposphere and Pick Lists Features Let Users Merchandise Their Favorite Products and Share Them With the Public

Yahoo! Shopping today announced the beta launch of The Shoposphere and Pick Lists, a set of innovative commerce features designed to bring the social elements of the shopping experience to the online world. Along with a number of site enhancements also rolled out today, these next generation commerce and community features allow online shoppers to find, use, share and expand product information, as well as search for other shoppers' recommendations -- creating powerful new ways to inform and educate people in the purchasing process.

The new Pick Lists beta feature allows users to save their favorites from any of the 90 million product offers available via Yahoo! Shopping (http://shopping.yahoo.com) onto one personalized page. Shoppers can create and assign a theme to as many lists as they wish, and similar to a blog, users can personalize their pages with a title, a note describing the particular list, their name, photo and a listing of other self-generated Pick Lists, plus reviews, thoughts or descriptions of each product. Consumers can also comment on others' Pick Lists, subscribe to and view Pick Lists via RSS (Really Simple Syndication), and also see how another user may be connected to them through the Yahoo! 360 community service.

The new Shoposphere beta aggregates and sorts Pick Lists created by the Yahoo! Shopping community, facilitating a social online shopping experience by allowing users to search, view, read about and purchase specific products recommended by people they know and trust, experts they've never met, and everyone in between. The Shoposphere unifies Yahoo!'s powerful product search technology, expansive shopping platform and active community into a hub for shoppers to discover new products which meet their needs.

"Our goal is to make online shopping better and easier by leveraging emerging technologies and the vibrant Yahoo! community, allowing shoppers to create, build upon and share their areas of interest and expertise," said Rob Solomon, vice president, Yahoo! Shopping Group. "We're excited to deliver a more personalized, entertaining and informative online shopping and search experience by pioneering innovative products that usher in an era of social commerce."

In addition to Shoposphere and Pick Lists, Yahoo! Shopping today rolled out other new features and enhancements designed to make finding the right product fast and convenient, including:

-- Comprehensive Shopping Search with a New Clean Interface: Yahoo! Shopping search now includes more than 90 million product offers and a streamlined interface to make it even easier for consumers to find the best products, merchants, reviews, and prices.

-- My Lists: Shoppers can now easily save favorite products in personalized lists, with no commitment to buy. My Lists can be shared with others as a wish list, and can be used to create separate shopping lists for each shoppers' friends or family.

-- Reviews and Yahoo! 360: Shoppers can now see if a review is written by someone in their Yahoo! 360 community, making product reviews even more useful and relevant.

-- Deals: Coupons, rebates and free shipping offers are integrated into one location next to each product listing in Yahoo! Shopping search. This will help Yahoo! shoppers always get the best deal on an online purchase.

-- Integrated Product Overview Page: Integrates everything you need to research a product and make a purchasing decision into one location, including price comparisons, product specs, user ratings and reviews, editorial reviews, and current deals a particular merchant may be offering.

-- Mobile Shopping beta: Empowers savvy shoppers to access Yahoo! Shopping from a mobile phone and compare product prices while at a brick and mortar store.

-- Open Web Service APIs: Any developer or web site publisher can now create innovative applications that utilize Yahoo! Shopping's shopping search, price compare, reviews, and product specifications.

About Yahoo! Shopping

Powered by Yahoo! Product Search, Yahoo! Shopping provides consumers with a comprehensive, relevant online comparison shopping experience. Yahoo! Shopping, a leading search and comparison shopping destination on the Web, boasts a variety of tools and community features designed to empower consumers with the information they need to make an informed purchase, including the new Shoposphere and Pick Lists, Yahoo! Shopping Gift Finder, side-by-side product comparisons, detailed buyer's guides, consumer product and merchant ratings, unbiased expert product reviews, and more.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is the No. 1 Internet brand globally and the most trafficked Internet destination worldwide. Yahoo! provides online products and services essential to consumers' lives, and offers a full range of tools and marketing solutions for businesses to connect with Internet users around the world. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Source: Business Wire

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