Introducing Product Recommendations from Kallow.com

As an early adopter and tech enthusiast I am often questioned by friends, neighbors, and the occasional stranger at the big box store to recommend a product.  The choices in consumer electronics can be overwhelming.

Kallow.com looks to make product recommendations pure and simple.  The site is co-founded by  Caleb Elston of Toluu.  This new project was born out of the need to help people pick the right items from those big box stores.

Caleb says,

“(We) were inspired by how often we have friends and family contact us asking for recommendations for tvs, cameras, or speakers.”

Simple is the name of the game for Kallow.com.  Caleb and his co-founder and friend Jordan look

“to take the clutter out of electronics buying.”

The site is simple.  Go to the Kallow home page.  Pick a product and there will be one recommendation that you can not go wrong with.  One product in that category that Caleb and Jordan have personally tested and recommend.

Kallow seems to be all about simplicity.   The recommendations are not based upon price or platform.  The recommendations are personal.   Check out Kallow it is live now.  I will be keeping an eye on this one to see it grow and change.

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Toluu Releases Feed Preview

Toluu updated again this morning releasing another great feature.  The latest feature is Feed preview functionality throughout the site.  When you mouseover a Feed title a window is revealed listing the last 5 blog posts contained in that feed.

ToluuPU1

I spoke to Caleb Elston the Toluu founder about this feature.  He said,

“We actually decided to build in this functionality when we found ourselves passing by feeds because we didn’t want to wait for the page to load or have to hit the back button. Since we weren’t always willing to take a risk on a feed to see if it might be interesting we knew other users wouldn’t either.”

This should save users time and give you a better idea of the content of a feed.  Caleb had discovered first hand that feed titles may be bad but the content worth taking a look at.  He mentioned that while testing this feature he had “already found a few more blogs I had no idea existed.”

I previously made a long Toluu enhancement list I titled “My Toluu Wishlist” based upon the great potential I see in the young application. Toluu’s development in the last month has seen dramatic speed increases throughout the site and many UI enhancements.  Toluu continues to roll out features.

If you tried Toluu early on I urge you to give it another try.  It is faster, much more responsive, and the UI is more intuitive.  If you need an invite I have some.   Leave a comment if you want one.

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Toluu On The Move

Web 2.0 is about potential in my opinion.  Many of the Web 2.0 web applications usually only debut with a few good ideas.  They implement one or two features not much beyond proof of concept and subsequently go into a private alpha or beta holding pattern.  This wait and see mode is to determine interest by VCs, early adopters, and to measure buzz.

Early adopters may give the application a try but unless the buzz takes off development may be very slow.  Toluu is not normal.  Toluu breaks the mold.  I keep writing about Toluu because of its changing growing feature set.  I also see the enormous potential for an application like Toluu.

Caleb Elston the Toluu founder has done a wonderful job at taking a different tact in assuring the success of his startup.  The difference is the continuing feature development.  He has continually made hardware and software developments.  The applications stability, feature set, and application speed are drastically improved from a mere 2 months ago.

Today Toluu rolls out another set of features enhancements aimed at improving the user experience.  The enhancements include UI changes to the Matches screen, the Contacts page, and the Subscribers feed view.

The matching view is improved with the ability to add contacts directly from the view.  3 filtering options were added.  All-Time, This Month, and This Week are now available as options.  “This month” and  “This Week” will display matches from new users from the past week or month.  The Matches UI also includes a total match count.  Caleb said about the matching,

“I was finding the page was getting stale for me and so I wanted to make it more useful.”

Toluu Match Improvements

The contacts page was also improved to be cleaner and displays a total contact count.  Even small UI improvements are great for the end user.

On a feed page the subscribers tab was added in last round of enhancements to let the user see who was subscribed to that feed.  This view has been improved as well letting you add contacts directly from this view.

I talked with Caleb about these enhancements and this stuck with me;

“We hope these new updates will help people connect easier and in turn make their time on Toluu more fruitful.”

The simple little UI changes decrease the learning curve for new users, make existing users happy, and contribute to the overall feel of the application.  Toluu’s attention to detail and constant improvements make this application one to watch.

More enhancements are on the horizon for Toluu as well it seems.  Would you like to try it? Leave a comment I have invites.