Some ideas are either so good (or so easy to copy), that it's only a matter of time before they have been cloned so many time that they become cliché. Popurls was exactly such an idea - a simple web site that aggregates headlines from various Web 2.0 blogs and social media sites.
The latest Popurls clone is Smashbuys: a site that displays the top sellers in various categories at some of the major online retailers, including Amazon, Newegg, and iTunes.
]]> If Smashbuys were only a Popurls clone, though, it would hardly be worth writing about here. However, Smashbuys does put an interesting twist on Popurls - it adds a second layer of information on top of the simple display of top 10 lists. Smashbuys keeps track of what items are most popular among its users and displays that information right next to the individual product. Thanks to this, we now know that Coldplay's 'Viva La Vida' is the top album on iTunes, but Smashbuy's users were far more interested in Disney's 'Camp Rock.'
Smashbuys' business model seems quite simple: affiliate marketing. While Smashbuys doesn't seem to disclose this anywhere on the site, every link to the sellers' sites has an affiliate code in it.
Overall, Smashbuys puts an interesting spin on the Popurls model. The top 10 lists will probably work best for for books, music, and movie tickets, but I'm not sure how many people make their electronics buying decisions this way.
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