Try This: Measy. Choosing electronics made easy.

TNW Quick Look

Measy makes choosing the perfect gadget simple.

Hits: No sign-up required, great user interface, detailed results

Misses: Limited gadget categories available

Overall: 4/5

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The Details
If you’ve ever asked a sales rep to help you choose the perfect digital camera, or surveyed your friends for feedback on their favourite e-readers, you’ll love the simplicity of Measy. Originally called Glassbooth, Measy evolved out of an effort simplify the voting choices in the 2007 election. The main idea now is to find product choices that suit your needs.

There’s no sign-up required to use the site, so you can jump straight in and choose your product category. This is an area that really needs updating for the site to really take off, but so far you can choose from digital cameras, DSLRs, e-readers, HDTVs, netbooks, and smartphones. I would love to see video cameras, laptops, and game consoles here in the future, but they’ve made a great start. If you prefer to start by looking at what’s available, you can choose the ‘explore’ option, and check out reviews, pictures, and price comparisons of your chosen product. For those who know what they need, however, the ‘quiz’ option offers a simple way of choosing your preferences and budget.

Once you’ve indicated your budget, preferred brands (if any), and the relative importance of various functions of the product, you can view details of the top matching products. The product that matches your choices best will be shown to start with, complete with a clear overview, detailed specs, close-up images, and score analysis. Using reviews from around the Web, Measy creates a Compass Score, which combines ratings for how well each feature fits your requirements and the average reviewer’s rating. Each feature rating also has a ‘show details’ option, which explains how the rating is achieved.

Sharing your results is easy, as each product page has buttons for Twitter and Facebook built in, and a link ready to copy-and-paste. If you choose to sign up for a free account, you can also keep track of products you’ve viewed, and create a favourites list.

If you’re thinking about buying any electronics, try using Measy to help you pick the best one, or check out the Measy blog for great posts on shopping decisions like finding the perfect toaster or comparing plasma, LCD and OLED TV sets.