#consmr

Every day Consumr adds new reviews from our amazing reviewers as well as from thousands of reviewers around the web. It's helping us take one step closer to becoming the "Yelp for products."

We've had a few questions as to how all this works, so let's take the time to explain.

- Everyday people like you log on to the Consumr Barcode Scanner and contribute personal ratings and reviews. They fill out profiles, connect to their social networks, and share their opinions on everything from beauty to baby toys.

- We also bring in opinions from around the web to ensure that you get an instant answer when looking up reviews on your phone. We use some "special sauce" to highlight comments we think you'll be interested in. Instead of searching multiple sites on your phone, we'll give you an answer from all of them!

It’s been a long journey to Consumr 2.0 and there’s a lot to be thankful for. I severely sprained my ankle while running to grab some documents, but I’m thankful it wasn’t worse. I’m thankful for tearing myself away from the office long enough to teach my niece to shoot a bow and arrow (she inspired Consumr!). I'm thankful for understanding loved ones, some of whom are chasing their dreams too. I’m thankful for a great team including my best friend, that helped me go from my drawing on the left to the amazing app on the right. I’m thankful for supportive Consumr users who helped guide the way.

Announcing Consumr  

As of today we're a little easier to spell and whole lot more useful! We're sad to see the old Consmr go but we're proud to introduce the new Consumr, which brings thousands of consumer products like toys, electronics and games to the everyday packaged products we've always covered.

There’s no reason to buy a disappointing product when you have Consumr in your pocket. Just point your phone at a barcode and return crowdsourced, honest reviews for everything from whitening toothpaste and mascara to baby toys and LCD TVs. 

We had to buy a vowel, but Consumr is 100% free in the App Store, and more beautiful than ever. 

So what's new?

Personalized Recommendations & Quick Rate Getting personalized recommendations is as simple as rating products. You'll have fun doing it in our new quick rate. It's like "hot or not" for products. The more you rate, the better the recs.

Visuals and Swipe Consumr combines a clean, visual layout and easy to use gestures (optional) to navigate the app. Just swipe back on any screen or swipe to browse individual products.

Toys, Baby Gear, Electronics, and more We’ve added the most requested categories. Even better, if our community hasn't reviewed a product, we'll now show you reviews from alternative sources so you’ll never have to check different apps & sites again!

Points and Leaderboards Now you can earn points every day for writing reviews, scanning, adding photos and even liking useful reviews. There are prizes every month for the best writers so get reviewing!

Of course, our ever popular ScanBoxes stuffed with samples to try will still go out to our Elite users. You never know when you'll get it... Just be the critic you were born to be!

^ What do they do? Yelp for consumer packaged goods.  Why are they special?

Share consumer reviews, product recalls, and product alternatives for everything from sauces to hair care to baby food 

Offer gamification and social features (badges, user follows) to encourage engagement

Mobile app for product scanning on the fly 

Are they funded? Bootstrapped Who are their comps? Amazon Mobile, GoodGuide How do I find them? Website / Crunchbase / Twitter / Facebook  What else can you tell me? Pitched in June for NYCMobile meetup. App now integrated with Pinterest. 

PIN PRODUCTS YOU WANT IN REAL LIFE WITH CONSMR

As avid recommendation seekers, we know friends are an important part of discovering new products, and one indisputably popular way to keep track of what your friends share, love, and want is with Pinterest.

Today, we’re excited to announce Consmr has launched the first-ever integration of Pinterest on the iPhone. Now you can pin everyday products you like, want, and even share what’s on your wish list or in your shopping bag. Simply scan your favorite Essie nail polish color with Consmr to create a color board to inspire your next manicure, or scan items in your pantry to keep a visual list so you never forget your family's favorite snacks and dinner ingredients. With Consmr, you can quickly and easily pin right in stores as you shop.

THE NEW CONSMR

For our friends with the new iPhone 5, we have redesigned Consmr to show more information at a glance.

For all our users, the Consmr app update also includes frequently requested features like enhanced user profiles. Are you a Bacon Consmr, Baby Consmr, Vegan Consmr, Clean Consmr...? Select the one that reflects you best!

We installed QR code support, product photo add, and Wikipedia-style editing. Our suggestions are also smarter. We'll tell you how other products compare in fat content and whether your friends like it or recommend something else. We'll even show if you should opt for the "generic" store brand if it's just as good. Just look for the label BETTER BUYS in the suggested alternatives.

As always, feedback is welcome. We want to make Consmr the answer to your questions when confronted with a mountain of options at the drugstore and supermarket. Let us know how we can help take the guesswork out of your next trip to Whole Foods or Walmart! Get the Consmr app update now.

Occasionally my sense about things in mobile proves right. 6 months ago when Siri launched, I talked about the largely ignored Yelp integration with Siri. I predicted Yelp and Apple's relationship would improve and they would further integrate into Siri and create tons of value for Yelp. Well, I was the only person not surprised at the lone new feature of Siri in iOS 5.1; deeper Yelp integration.

Here's the official post from Yelp confirming the integration. And there's tons of other coverage everywhere else because Yelp is publicly traded. 

Add this to my list of predictions in mobile that have paid off. Here are the others:

Android - I started working on an Android app at the end of 2008. I told everyone it was the next big OS, carriers would all eventually get on board as an alternative to iPhone, and BB would still matter but slowly die off. I even did an interview with Google at Google I/O in May of '09 (there was only 1 Android phone at that time) stating exactly why I thought Android was the next big platform. Now it IS the biggest platform.

Foursquare - One month after they launched I called Naveen (while he was still working out of a coffee shop) to say "let's partner." Pretty sure my next call with Dennis was in a coffee shop too. Fast forward to today... 20 million users, a $600 million valuation. On the other side - millions of dollars worth of partnership press, and 300,000 young/urban/social fans for a traditional brand (Zagat).

Augmented Reality - 6 months before Yelp's "monocle", I launched NRU -- an augmented reality restaurant finder on Android. At PaidContent Mobile 2010 I called this a cool but gimmicky step 1 of AR, with step 2 being when we can bring AR to a lightweight wearable device with visual processing to compensate for GPS accuracy (Google AR Goggles anyone?). I still say even the Google AR glasses will be a little "too soon". Maybe by version 3 or version 4 they'll be in the right spot.  

Foodspotting - I reached out to them at launch and built their first brand partnership. I could see Alexa and Ted were doing this right. 2 million users later, 1 million food photos later, and a ton of floundering copycats... I expect these guys to be a serious acquisition target of a larger player in the local space within the next year. No large company could realistically generate and collect these photos themselves... you need a very unique type of userbase to do this. Their photos are a valuable asset for anyone serious about taking on local food. 

Flipboard - While some content providers panicked at launch, I helped curate and ensure content was feed smoothly when the app went public. 2010 App of the Year, 5 million users. And a traditional print brand gets front and center in the Food section of what would become the essential content consumption experience on tablets. 

Ad Supported Android (Angry Birds!) - A few years ago at Harvard Business School I said the launch of an ad supported Angry Birds was the future of Android. Meanwhile many people were shocked a top selling iPhone app was being given away for free. The CEO of Angry Birds (Rovio) was in the audience and thanked me. Are these guys the next Zynga?

iPad - Fine, this was a no brainer to some. But you had to "believe" if you were crazy enough to decide on your own to produce an app in the period between Steve Job's announcement speech and launch app submission day (less than 60 days). That app went on to be #33 on the all-time top selling iPad apps list.

Android Tablets would be DOA - I said these were not going to work any time soon because the reasons why Android would (and did) work does not apply to Android tablets. There was a lot of hype as they were in development and I remember Eric Schmidt holding one at some event to try to hype it up. I refused to spend any time developing for Android tablets. Turns out it was the right call. 

1. "Trip Your Face" - by Hotels.com

The Good: Quality of video, willing to take a risk from the norm The Bad: Everything else (face recognition tool, story lines, purpose etc)

2. Trying to explain to your client what a QR code is.

Here's an easy to read article from Flyte New Media (they help small biz market online). Just a head's up 1 in 5 Canadian's now own smartphones (needed for QR codes).

3. Let your CPG client's know about this one! Consmr, the "Yelp" for products.

As the TNW blog notes, it was only a matter of time. Consmr lets you rate, review and check-in to packaged goods.

Canadians can access the tool from the web, but do not yet have access to the app version.

Watch out, "like," there's a new social currency in town and its name is "star." Today, Advertising Age broke a story about a new reviews site for consumer packaged goods (CPG) that launched today in beta: Consmr. Want to know which detergent is best for you? Which brand of microwave popcorn you'll enjoy the most? What type of glue will hold your art project together best? Other consumers will answer all of your grocery and drugstore questions.

Packaged goods account for $12 billion in e-commerce, which is why entrepreneurs Ryan Charles and Noah Zitsman put together Consmr.com.   

"Product discovery hasn't really changed yet because of the social web," said Mr. Charles.

Apart from hashtags, Twitter followers and Facebook fans, it can be argued that this is the first information source of its kind in the social world to organize brand affinity in a way that translates to consumer recommendation and behavior changes in the CPG category.

The site provides benefits for brands and journalists like brand profile pages, allows magazine sites like Men's Health and Women's Health to provide brand reviews, and incentivizes bloggers to cross-promote their reviews. And the site provides benefits to consumers: it borrows from the old Facebook idea of "flair" and allows brands to distribute badges of sorts and reward consumers for "checking in" to products. Consumers can also share their purchases and reviews on Twitter and Facebook -- in case you really want people to know how much you love your brand of toothpaste.  

Consmr provides a soapbox that didn't exist in the social world for people who like to voice their opinions and share their brand experiences, all in one place. It's like the Google of CPG (currently with a catalog of 50,000 products) with Bing's feature of telling you what your friends like.  

The site plans to open its API in the future, so developers and third parties can tap into Consmr’s data. And, with Charles' past in mobile, brands can expect to be a part of a mobile app soon. The makers are counting on self-population and consumer reviews to get off the ground, so get to starring.