This Times article says “with names such as Crowdstorm, Kaboodle, StyleHive and Whatsbuzzing, these internet businesses claim to measure the buzz around products and aggregate personal recommendations to tip you off about what is hot. So many of these firms have sprung up recently that, come January, savvy investors might be picking up two for one in the sales.The trend is called social shopping, and it relies on similar social-networking technologies that have enabled YouTube to automate its selection of must-see videos and MySpace to determine who at any moment is cool. The sites typically let members ‘tag’ products they like, grab images and information from the web and display it all in one place, and then humanise the data by organising it into themed shopping lists for kids’ toys or executive gadgets”.

Social shopping