Let InvisibleHand guide you to better buying

Oct 21, 2009 by Dan Taylor    37 Comments    Posted under: Technology

It’s not too often that I get really jazzed about browser plugins, but this one, InvisbleHand is simply too genius NOT to get jazzed about. The concept is simple enough, but no one’s gone the distance to actually write the script. Until now.

InvisibleHand is a firefox addon that will let you know when a product you’re viewing is available elsewhere at a lower price. If you’re like me, you might go to one of the big guys first to have detailed product descriptions, images, etc., and then likely begin the Googling to find it at a better price. InvisibleHand does the work for you (and probably does a better job).

When browsing for products on the big ones, Best Buy, Amazon, Overstock, Borders, etc., InvisibleHand will slide open from the toolbar alerting you that the item you’re looking at could be purchased elsewhere on the cheap.

Not only will InvisibleHand give you the absolute rock bottom price, but also present you with options from other retailers, sorted by price.

In this example, I chose a MBP, but the plugin works with a wide variety of popular electronics, toys, games, books, home improvement, DIY gear, etc. The full list is here.

I put InvisibleHand through it’s paces, even looking for some rather obscure gear on Crutchfield, and the plugin performed beautifully. The largest savings I (would have) recorded was a decent $123.87 on an HD video camera. And all of this for free? Bonus!

Check out InvisibleHand today, and get the Christmas savings going on early this year!

Update: the good folks over at invisible hand are doing a great job with their PR, and just sent me (and 200 of you) an exclusive beta key for their upcoming version.  Leave a comment below, and I’ll ping the code on over to you.

Working with MindMeister

Oct 2, 2009 by Dan Taylor    13 Comments    Posted under: News, Technology

Sadly, things like a personal blog take a bit of a back seat when you’ve got a ton of stuff going on.  Such is the case here, as the past two weeks have been filled with meetings, discussions, and new collaborations.  While I can’t go into all of the details of everything that I’m working on right now (pesky NDA’s and such), I’m happy to announce that I’m now working with a Vienna, Austria/Feldkirchen, Germany based SaaS, MindMeister.com.  I’ll be working on marketing and promotion projects with them, and am truly excited about this software.

A bit about MindMeister

MindMeister brings the concept of mind mapping to the web, using its facilities for real-time collaboration to allow truly global brainstorming sessions. Users can create, manage and share mind maps online and access them anytime, from anywhere. In brainstorming mode, fellow MindMeisters from around the world (or just in different rooms) can simultaneously work on the same mind map and see each other’s changes as they happen.

That’s the official website copy (not written by me), and it does a good job of explaining what MindMeister is and does, but to put it bluntly – this thing is one of the greatest organizational tools I’ve ever seen.  Think about your traditional whiteboard – the board that everyone chalks their ideas up on, and where current ideas get expanded, and new ones are created.  Once that whiteboard is filled, chances are the best of the best get carried over to the next iteration.  What if you could store every change that was made to this whiteboard?  Forever?  Enter MindMeister.  There’s a whole bit about the history feature that I could get into, but all I’ll say at this point is….stay tuned.

Ok, so we’ve got ideas saved for perpetuity.  Great.  The problem with the whiteboard is not only that it has limited space, but it’s also physically stationary.  Chances are, your corporate whiteboard isn’t making any international voyages anytime soon.  Through the power of the internet, MindMeister takes the traditional whiteboard and makes it global.  Project managers in Toyko can interact, share, and collaborate on ideas with their counterparts in San Francisco, Sao Paolo, and Sydney, all in real time (provided there’s enough coffee to span those time zones).  And for those that just couldn’t keep their eyelids open, mindmaps can be saved, emailed, embedded, exported…you name it, chances are the folks at MindMeister make an option for you to share it.

Free accounts are offered, but have limited functionality.  Think of it as a try before you buy.  The free version will give you a taste of the complete package, but is akin to driving a V6 with only 4 cylinders firing.  Good, but not the full experience.  I could go on and on about this fantastic software, but why take it from me?  Head on over to MindMeister and get your own map going