MyThings: A social network for stuff?
MyThings is an interesting site that lets users tell stories about the things they own, connect with other people interested in the same goods, and get real utility: The community can help find the value of antiques and artworks, and the site could be used in the future as a repository for warranty and support info on items.
Webware readers may know that I have an aversion to sites that celebrate consumerism. (Please don't tell my CNET bosses.) We have enough stuff, I believe, and we don't need any more encouragement to define ourselves through it. But even though I originally heard this site pitched as "a MySpace for your consumables," (yuck), there is potential for this site to be very useful.
Story of a Turkish wedding rug: Interesting.
(Credit: CNET Networks)The MyThings site was started by Martha Danly, who told the audience at this week's Silicon Valley NewTech Meetup that her first stab at the site was to build a service to help track down looted and stolen artworks from World War II. A bit of that sensibility remains in MyThings. There's a "valuation game" on the site that people can play with others, where they attempt to define the value of unique items. Professionals in the arts and antique world can also play and communicate with the owners of the goods. Presumably this could lead to some sort of business relationship, which is conceptually similar to what My-Currency (review) offers for real estate.
Users can also attach stories to their items, which can range from, "I got this iPod for my birthday!" to more interesting and personal tales of how a person discovered and acquired, say, a rug or a piece of art. These stories can make the valuations more accurate.
For consumer goods such as digital electronics, the site makes it easy to add items. It employs the new CNET API to help a user quickly find and enter goods. (Disclosure: I work at CNET, but I didn't know MyThings was using our API it until I heard the pitch.) Items that are connected to a database of goods can, theoretically, get connected to warranty information, product manuals, recall info, and even insurance records. This could be a great utility.
Consumer electronics utilities: Potentially useful
(Credit: CNET Networks)The system also helps you sell your consumer goods. Its Instant Estimator function quickly finds eBay and Craigslist records that match your items. (Related: Mpire [review].)
I was relieved to hear that all items entered into MyThings are, by default, marked "private." That's good. I wouldn't want to use the system to keep insurance records only to find that I needed the insurance because a burglar had decided to rob me after seeing my possessions online. Moreover, there's no need to enter a real name or location into the system if you don't want to.
MyThings is easy to navigate and use. Yet at the moment, it feels like two different sites to me, one very useful and one less so. It is useful as a tool for people who want to discuss their rare and unique artwork. The valuation game is kind of a social Antiques Roadshow that could work well for people unsure about the value of what they have.
As a site to add value to our consumer goods, it's not quite there. First of all, people who want to bond over iPods or Nikons can easily find existing, vibrant online communities devoted to those items. Secondly, entering in the stuff you own is kind of a drag, even with the easy entry tools on the site. If MyThings partnered with retailers so that when you purchased an item you had the option to add it to your registry, that might be cool, and it would be a good goal for the company to pursue.
Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe. 
It was a pleasure to meet you Tuesday evening at the Silicon Valley High Tech Meetup before my presentation. I appreciate your positive initial feedback. The meetup was our first public forum in the US following the soft launch, and you really captured the essence of MyThings.
Given only 10 minutes to deliver a demo and present MyThings' vision as the world's most valuable registry of belongings, I am delighted that our giant message came across as well as it did.
Your observation that MyThings is an interesting place to share stories about our prized possessions is right on. A natural reaction to a website about "things" is that it's ultra-materialistic, when in fact, our aim is to help people enjoy and get the most from what they own. As you noted, we do that by giving consumers:
- Free market data on the price of items sold on eBay in the past 30 days
- Free online e-valuations for fine arts, antiques, and collectibles
- Portfolios with basic statistics about retail purchases (model #, image, description, specs, retailer, date)
- Access to relevant product information and services (accessories, insurance, warranties) to simplify ownership
It may have been impossible for me to convey and for you to capture every detail correctly, so I'd like to finetune a couple of points if I may.
First, I would love to claim that I'm one of the founders of MyThings, but I'm the CMO, the first US employee and number 20-something in our "born-global" company. Our co-founders are CEO Benny Arbel, who divides his time between our offices in Tel Aviv, London, and Menlo Park; and board member Udi Zaidman, an entrepreneur based in London.
Second, you close your blog with the suggestion that we should partner with retailers to make it easy to add items to your portfolio. Bingo! That's exactly what we're doing. In the UK, where we launched the site in December 2006, we now have active or pending retail integrations with many leading online retailers/OEMs, including Tesco Direct (general retail), Halfords (auto accessories and bicycles), Jessops (photographic equipment), Goldsmiths (fine jewelry), Bonhams (arts and antiques auctions), and Casio (consumer electronics).
Everytime you buy something from one of our partners, the item and relevant purchase details are automatically added to your free, private portfolio.
Our retail integration is not one click ? it's zero clicks. We know that the our digital shoebox has to be a no brainer, or it won't happen. Of course, that's why XML and APIs were created.
We're now developing the same type of retail and OEM partnerships here in the US, so stay tuned as our footprint grows.