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V3 Crowdstorm has arrived – UK & US
April 25th, 2008 by philip.wilkinson

Hurray – we’ve finally got our much improved site out there for Crowdstorm UK and Crowdstorm USA

Crowdstorm Browse & Refine

We’re concentrating on making it stable now, ironing out the remaining 67 bugs, and ensuring the speed is high enough. If you see any bugs or want to make some general feedback – use the green link at the top of the page, fill in your comments, then press submit. We’re not making a big fuss about this one as we’ve still lots of things to do to it.

You’ll notice we’re now importing a lot more content in user reviews and expert reviews, and we’ve got a few deals to announce in the next few weeks. Also – welcome to our new Television and DVD Player categories!

Key things still to do:

  • Clean & simplify a few of the pages
  • Implement new designs for user profiles and dashboard
  • Work on a smoother login process
  • Make it easier to ask questions and submit other content types
  • Improving the algorithms for Crowd recommendations, related review content etc..
  • Rewrite and check all the emails and alerts we send to users
  • Watch and monitor how everybody uses the site so we can improve things..

Lastly, as mentioned above – this is a quiet release and we don’t want anyone blogging it in the current format, if you don’t mind. Ta very much.


8 Responses  
  • James Penman writes:
    April 25th, 2008 at 10:28 am

    Great update. Have followed Crowdstorm for the last few years and with this iteration suspect the effort will pay off. Look forward to contributing.

  • philip.wilkinson writes:
    April 25th, 2008 at 11:48 am

    Thanks James – it’s been a few months of head down trying to get things right. I’m confident in this one but keen to get any feedback.. :-)

  • James Penman writes:
    April 25th, 2008 at 2:53 pm

    Feedback – how do you want it? Here or mail? Am researching latest digital SLRs at the mo for a new website so would be happy to test Crowdstorm.

  • Philip Wilkinson writes:
    April 25th, 2008 at 3:42 pm

    here’s fine thanks – let the world see!

  • James Penman writes:
    April 29th, 2008 at 4:49 pm

    Signed up and had a good look around. Great concept, great bit of kit but hampered by speed. Am waiting for a response to a question but initial reaction:

    1. Sign up – uploaded image, didn’t want to invite friends, didn’t know where to go so hit logo.

    2. Was looking for a mid-market digital SLR. Want someone to tell me what to buy and then to be provided with all the evidence to support that recommendation.

    3. Very, very cool to have all user reviews in one place (ie amazon, dooyoo etc). Found myself wanting to check if Crowdstorm had imported all the reviews, ie could I trust technology.

    4. ‘Thoughts’ excellent although wanted a single click on thoughts in the search listing to link to the thoughts themselves.

    5. Wanted to see £ in main listing as this is one way I mentally filter quality of product.

    6. Site very slow here. All this great info and I can’t get at it quickly. Found that frustrating.

    7. Want more content (video etc) but understand that comes after the technology is in place.

    8. Asked a question in box to right of site and thought that would send it but another box came up and had to cut/paste that across. Probably did something wrong though knowing me.

    Again, have followed Crowdstorm for a couple of years and think perserverence will pay off with this iteration.

  • James Penman writes:
    April 30th, 2008 at 4:41 pm

    Asked some questions y’day. Received some great feedback today. Happy punter.

    Still finding site slow here though.

    Hope feedback of help. Cheers, James.

  • philip.wilkinson writes:
    April 30th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

    Thanks James – brilliant feedback. On site speed – we’re having issues with the “cache” on the site as it was originally optimised for the old site. Dev team have been given this a priority to fix and have also been reducing page sizes and api call requests… stay tuned.

    Other feedback.

    1: Nice spot – we’ll add a skip link back in there
    2: and what was the best method for you to do this – asking question on categor page?
    3: Did you trust it?
    4: Agreed – will put this in.
    5: A bit more difficult – but makes sense
    6: See above
    7: Yep – working on a couple of deals that might see this happen sooner rather than later
    8: Nope – that’s us with some bad usability – re-doing the q&a a bit this week..

    I owe you many many beers…

  • James Penman writes:
    April 30th, 2008 at 8:48 pm

    Hi Phil,
    Very much like what you’re doing so happy to contribute/use site. On points:
    2. I liked asking questions, getting a response (they were useful and not just padding), researching to confirm what was being recommended. Clearly, what’s cool about the site is that it brings all this together. Am buying something in next 24hrs as a result of this process so it worked. I want to be told what-ish to buy and then research around that starting point.
    3. I’m not sure you can trust any site to begin with. The quick responses to questions and the volume of good info on the site means I’m inclined to. It’s also innovative and interesting and not just a bit of crap that someone’s built in a month and expects users to fill with content/their mates recommendations so as a user I’m going to be patient.



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