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Need a little help with your gadgets? You don’t have to call tech support anymore. I’ve run across two applications recently taking different approaches to solving your gadget woes.
The first is Retrevo. Launched at DEMOfall last month, Retrevo is a vertical search engine that lets you look up your devices to find product documentation, reviews and articles, manufacturer info and coverage from “forums and blogs.” Michael Calore at Wired asks, “Why not just use Google?” Aside from the user interface, which gives you category filters on one side and a preview pane on the other, Retrevo gives you instant access to useful little items like product manuals. I searched for my Sony Cybershot DSC-P10, and a PDF version of the user guide came up first on the list. On the other hand, I searched Google for “Sony Cybershot DSC-P10 manual” and the guide didn’t even make the first page. I love the idea of not having to save a zillion product manuals anymore. I can never remember which drawer I put them in…
The second application is su.pport.us which I discovered through David Berlind’s blog on ZDNet. The idea is great. su.pport.us is a wiki that anyone can contribute to. Know something useful about your cell phone’s features? Got tips on how to get a certain networked printer up and running? su.pport.us is the place to post it. Like I said, the idea is great. Unfortunately, there’s very little content so far. Consider this a rallying cry. Go put your knowledge to work! There are people out there who need it.
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On-line support for consumer electronics…
How many times did you misplace that manual for your latest gear. I know, I know…you don’t read the manuals. What if you needed to? Sure, you can Google away, but what if there was a targeted web-service to help you out? What if that service provide…
Mari, thank you for a good article. One thing we are really proud of is deep content retrieval. If your question/query has an answer inside a user manual, we will bring you the exact page inside the manual automatically. We will keep you posted as we introduce some really cool features over the course of next few months. And we would love to get comments, suggestions, feedback from your readership.
Sneak Peek at Retrevo’s new “Daily Deals” Service
Thank you for checking out Retrevo.com. Retrevo will be announcing a new “Daily Deals” service that provides a one-stop, meta-search for finding the best web-only deals on consumer electronics products/gadgets. The Daily Deals portion of the site hasn’t launched yet, however, you can preview it at http://alpha.retrevo.com. Just plug in your favorite gadget in the search bar and click on ?daily deals? on the left hand side. I invite you to check it out and let us know what you think. Thanks!
Best,
Lori
http://www.retrevo.com
[...] while back I had a chance to talk with Vipin Jain, CEO of Retrevo. Retrevo is a vertical search engine for consumer electronics that I first saw back at DEMOfall ‘06. I loved the idea, particularly because of the search [...]
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