Jun 21, 2005

Paper aggregators or cheap sales tools...or both?

An old article from Salon that disses those new shopping mags like Lucky and Cargo.

That was my first take on them, too. You know, full of superior consumer self-knowledge and whatnot. In a new spin on "authentic snobbery," the author snidely asks, "Why spend years building a personal aesthetic when you can just buy one?" She hates the mags b/c they allow people to buy cool things w/out having to search all over them. Imagine that! Now the ubercool are pissed b/c it's getting harder and harder to be...um...a snobby ubercoolster. Whatever.

Anyway, after reading and thinking about aggregators a little while, it dawned me (duh!) that these mags are just that. And what's the difference between them and Gizmodo, when you really think about it?

Personally, I think this is one of the things to get in on right now. There's so much crap to read/buy/learn/consume online that people are going to want endorsed-aggregators. I mean, if Sergey Brin said a certain coffee machine was cool, wouldn't you give it a second look?

1 comment:

EVK4 said...

I've never read Cargo, but Lucky is pretty interesting. What they need now is Sale!...the magazine that is published so quickly it can tell you when the cool stuff is on sale and cheap. I'd pay extra for that one.