Post contributed by Josef Beal -
Lyst.com is a new social shopping site that allows users to shop like their favorite bloggers and those they follow on Twitter. Users sign up to follow "lysts" of bloggers, stores and tweeters, allowing them to see items featured by these "lysts." The items are linked by Lyst.com to site where users can purchase the items, eliminating the endless search for merchandise from specialty labels not often found outside of major markets. Users can create a curated "lyst" of their own personal favorites, like a Pinterest for apparel. The best part: when you sign up with your twitter or facebook, Lyst automatically signs you to follow the "lysts" of those you follow or have "liked", respectively.
Lyst works on an affiliate model, so it "incentivises them to make the site as engaging as possible for users," according to Mike Butcher of techcrunch.com. The site makes money from its partners only when it generates sales.
Sources - Lyst comes out of the closet to open up high fashion, Techcrunch
Are you on the "Lyst"? The Style Confessions blog
www.lyst.com
5. I read an article by Mark Andrejevic called The Work of Being Watched: Interactive Media and the Exploitation of Self-disclosure. While the article details how audiences are actively being watched by advertisers when we pick our favorite shows on OnDemand, Hulu, TiVo, etc., I believe this article relates to websites like Lyst as well. Consumers subject themselves to being monitored by companies and are compromising privacy. When we “like” our interests/wants/needs we are speeding up the commodities process by increasing circulation without even realizing. Viewers are being monitored so advertisers can insure their work is being processed efficiently (ratings, feedback, likes). It’s a slight invasion of privacy. We decide what we want to watch and the information we’re exposed to and believe that we’re in control… while the control has shifted more so to commodities and advertisers. However, websites like Lyst and the process weeding out what we do and do not want to be exposed to (by a simple click of a button) will never go away for one simple fact: connivance.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Emily is talking about. Websites like this while becoming ever so popular and at first glance seem to really benefit the wants of our current society and that is immediacy and convenience, however, participants in these sites have no true understanding of how much of their privacy they are giving up.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I think this is a great opportunity for people that want that convince of signing up for one thing and having all their interests pre filled but it will be interesting to see in several years what the repercussions of this new media lack of privacy will be.
-Rachel Cade
Although I do agree with both Emily and Rachel, I think that society is well aware of this invasion of privacy, but we just don't care anymore. That's a societal problem, not this websites. Just like the majority of the major social media websites that have boomed in the last 10 years (facebook, twitter, pinterest, tumblr, etc), their main objective is to get a strong following (no pun intended) and ultimately MAKE MONEY. Isn't that everyone's main goal?
ReplyDeleteAlthough I find myself being a little biased, since I am currently an Account manager in the sales department of a local radio station. I now understand the deep need for the information that comes out of the invasion of privacy so that I can do my job better. Advertisers don't want to waste our time with advertisements that we don't care about or that don't appeal to us because that is a waste of time and more importantly money.
Digital media is not the only one who is guilty of this. Radio and television are guilty of it too, but they/we are just way more sneaky and we don't ask you the questions up front, we do the research behind your back.
But what I was saying earlier is that society knows about this invasion of privacy and have accepted it, just as we have with all the other technological advances over the past decade, because we care more about getting what we want, when we want, the way we want. We don't care what it takes and what we could ultimately be losing as long as it goes our way.
But this blog post is about the new site, which I think is unnecessary. It will be a huge success, but let's be honest, its the exact same thing as pinterest. The only difference is, is that pinterest can do more. Followers would be better off just sticking with their pinterest and not waste their time or "their invasion of pricacy" (but who really cares about that these days).
Logan couldn't have put it any better, I mean people get it these days, they except the inevitable. There are some things that just will not be private. As for Lyst, I don't quite get the point of it, it seems like a waste of time, course then again a lot of people say facebook is a waste of time or even twitter (although that has become a pretty good information site....Not news, information). But like Logan said why do it when we already have pinterest, I feel like that one would be enough. Of course, going back to facebook and twitter, a lot of people said that those two were the same and that facebook was enough, but they are far different so maybe people will find a big difference with pinterest and lyst. Perhaps Lyst will simply have the myspace-facebook effect and just become more popular and likable than pinterest. Bottom line....it's never enough. There always has to be the next big thing no matter what it is.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note I forgot about another site similar to pinterest and lyst. It's called stumbleUpon. It has many of the same attributes as pinterest and lyst. You tell it what you like and then you hit the "stumble" button and it pulls up web pages, blogs, etc. that you would be interested it and you can post them anywhere. So essentially you have three of these sites, honestly I think stumbleUpon has a better outlook, you don't have to be invited to join, and you really get a lot more information than either of the other sites could give.
ReplyDeleteI think the comments above are choosing to evaluate the way the content on Lyst is provided to users without realizing that it's a shopping site. For those that do the majority of their shopping online, Lyst is a valuable resource, eliminating the need to constantly check multiple sites at the same time. In a world where every second matters, this is only a bonus for users who shop often.
ReplyDeleteAlso, there are concerns that Lyst is too similar to Pinterest. The site is different in that users can actually purchase the products they like from a reputable source. As opposed to Pinterest that purely links users to any source with a photo. Pinterest doesn't go through the effort to make sure those companies selling products are selling verified goods. It's the equivalent of looking for news from non-news sources. Lyst users want legitimate products, not knock-off pawned by some website in China with pretty pictures.
Thirdly, there is a lot of talk of advertisers in the above discussion. Lyst doesn't use advertisers to support the site. It's true they reach out to designers, boutiques and retailers, but nowhere on the site is there any advertising. It's an obvious concern to raise questions of privacy, but that's the price we pay as citizens of the online community. At any moment our entire identities could be taken, so if you're afraid that someone is compiling information about your keystrokes and mouse clicks, why bother accessing the internet?
Lyst is an aggregator of verified fashion sources. And in a place where sources are rarely checked (the Internet), isn't that comforting to know that the products you are purchasing are legitimate?
-Josef Beal
I feel like shopping should be personalized and I think Lyst does this. Instead of me having to look through page after page, I'm simply able to weed out the crap by liking and lysting the things I like. Invasion of privacy? Not really. I signed up, didn't I? As I've done to every single networking site.
ReplyDeleteI feel this is so if you're into social media. What's the point if you're not sharing? Yeah sure, companies get back-end information on us as consumers, as users, as whatever, but in reality, WE signed up. Shouldn't that already be knowledgable? If you don't want anything personalized, I suggest maybe staying off the internet? ...