Review: edgeio

I’ve had time to play with a new service called edgeio. Essentially, it’s a service that enables bloggers to post listings (job, help wanted, housing, etc.) to their blogs. Edgeio then crawls the blogs and finds the posts tagged ‘listing’ and will aggregate them. The service is free to use but will also provide publishers with additional paid services (to help increase exposure).

At first glance the website is a lot to try and navigate. I found myself not noticing some things that I should have. For instance when creating an account it was not very clear to me how to pick my location. I finally figured out that not only do I have to put in the zip code/city but I then have to click the corresponding city that pops up. I figured by putting in the zip I had done my part. This registration process took three times becuase the error message at the top didn’t stand out. I didn’t realize the captcha changed each time. Haha, I do know how to use the interweb, I swear.

edgeio.JPGThe listings are pretty straight forward. If you click the thumbnail you can see that the listing basically pulls the text (‘I would like to sell…’) from the blog entry and any other information (price, location, tags). I had a few thoughts just looking at the listing though. For instance, when I ‘Subscribe’ what kind of information is going to be sent via RSS? I also thought that the ‘report spam’ button would be useful. But, I suspect (read: hope) edgeio will also have some mechanisms in place. I also like the fact that edgeio incorporates ‘Other Profiles’ like ebay and flickr.

edgeio2.JPGHere is my sample listing which you can see to the right (the page where you manage the listing). Within a few seconds of adding my blog to my profile it had the listing added and a comfirmation email in my inbox. Managing listings are pretty straight forward. But, you can’t change any of the content through the edgeio website. From what I can tell all you’re able to do is change your tags, the listing status, and the price. I wasn’t able to determine whether or not an update to the blog means an update to the listing. I haven’t seen my update yet but they claim that once the blog is added it will routinely check up on it (every 24 hours). Luckily I can go to ‘My Edgeio’ and hit ‘Check for new posts’ under the appropriate blog. Interestingly enough my post was updated but I don’t see it on the page (it has the updates on the ‘Manage’ page, though). Update: It just took a little while…

Anyway, I feel this will have some interesting implications on how individual business is done online. No longer do we have to pay a buck to put something on ebay. This seems like craigslist meets web2.0 meets blogs. I’m interested to see what the paid services consist of. I guess my final thought is: will the blogosphere catch on? Personally, I think if I had anything of substance (services, jobs, stuff for sale) to add I would certainly use edgeio. It’d be silly not to.
[tags]tech, web2.0, edgeio, blogging, commerce, listing[/tags]

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About Devin Reams

My name is Devin Reams and I founded this site to provide a useful news and review resource for Colorado skiers and snowboarders (and mountain enthusiasts). I've been skiing since I was a little kid (we moved out here when I was five years old) and I plan to ski for years beyond that. Although cosnow is not my full-time job it is my full-time winter hobby. I've been an "Epic Local" passholder since 2006 (when it was called a "Colorado Pass" or "Five Mountain Pass"). My favorite resorts are Beaver Creek and Breckenridge.

3 thoughts on “Review: edgeio

  1. Pingback: UserDriven

  2. Noah Winecoff

    If this had a lot of users I could see it taking off. But one question that?s raised is…will sellers have some sort of reputation on the site? With ebay you can build some sort of ‘quick trust’ with the seller by reading his/her comments and seller rating. Just a thought.

    Great review BTW.

    Reply
  3. Devin

    Hey Noah, I believe your concern is addressed through the ability to link your ebay profile. Thus, showing your current ‘seller status’. I guess the more you start to utilize the site the more it will become evident you’re a good seller, as well. Who knows.. good question.

    Reply

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