Continuous Improvement

Our shopping advice service is now called SaneShopping.

At SaneShopping.com, you’ll find a new website to go with the new name. We made many changes that our users requested:

- Better recommendations
- More helpful status updates while we’re researching your request
- Simpler navigation, with less clutter

We’ve also expanded The SaneShopping Magazine (formerly Style Guide), adding three new experts who will write about style, fashion, and interior design. Here are three of their articles:

Look for Less: Stylish Lighting by Angela Gardner

What’s Fresh for Fall by Jill Davis

Creating an Outdoor Room by Shirley Halnan

This animated short film can help you imagine how ClayValet’s personal advice service works.  We divide our work into many small tasks, and we make sure each task is done well.

I found it on the web tonight while researching a future project.  It was in the short film contest at Cannes 2008, and it was produced by the excellent Jantze Studios.  Enjoy their site:

Mr. Lux - At Your Service

Today on the STS list, Bryan Starbuck (of TalentSpring) asked me to share some of our Mechanical Turk experience - how much it costs, how we do quality control, how long it takes to get answers.

Here’s my first brief answer. I definitely have more to say on the subject, so I promise to follow-up soon.
Read the rest of this entry »

Our new website is now live, with better reports and a fresh look.

If ClayValet were a cheesy teen movie, this would be the plot:

Clay V. was the nerdy, smart kid. He did everyone’s homework but never got to hang with the popular crowd. One day, Clay decided to spend his allowance on new clothes, a haircut, and contact lenses.

Now, Clay looks great! He gets high-fives from all the cool kids and even a few winks from the ladies. Clay still does everyone’s homework (even faster!), but no one is embarrassed to sit with him at lunch.

The story continues…stay tuned!

Read the press release (PDF)

Y Combinator’s Hacker News is my favorite source of tech news these days. It’s a community news site operated by Paul Graham for his startup incubator and like-minded entrepreneurs. Our redesign is ready to launch tomorrow, so we asked them for early feedback tonight. There were good comments, insightful questions, even a bit of criticism. Notably absent: the random noise you might expect from an active, opinionated community. On the Internet, Hacker News is exceptionally civilized.

Read the discussion here.