The first German Web 2.0 platform dedicated to gifts, sosmart.de, is now online. The platform was developed by my current employer, netz98 new media gmbh in Mainz (whose website I had the opportunity to implement in TYPO3).
SoSmart has thus launched ahead of its competitor edelight. Both platforms should benefit from the competition (much as Google and Microsoft do) and offer users real added value.
SoSmart is implemented entirely using AJAX technology. This means the page is never reloaded in full. That makes the application feel extremely fresh and easy to use. Since there were a few initial problems with the large dataset, I got to rework the import routines. The application has been running smoothly ever since, and all data is brought up to date every night.
SoSmart brings together several innovative concepts. I think edelight now needs to step up its game.
So things remain exciting...