Your purchases, published in real time for all to see

Original: Your purchases, published in real time for all to see

We've seen the social shopping trend manifested in various forms in recent years, including TeethYou, the Chinese site we covered back in 2007 that let shopping fans show off their favourite purchases. Adding to that concept a heady splash of so-called nowism is Blippy, a Twitter-like effort that lets users automatically publish their shopping transactions in real time for all the world to see.

Launched to the public just last week, California-based Blippy bills itself as "a fun and easy way to see and discuss the things people are buying." Users begin by creating an account and—much like with Twitter—searching for friends who also use the service. Friends can select to follow each other, meaning that they'll see a constantly updated feed reflecting those people's latest purchases. It's up to each user, however, to choose which categories of purchases they'd like to share by actively linking the accounts they'd like to make public. They can choose to automatically share their purchases at vendors including iTunes, Amazon, Netflix and Blockbuster, for example, or they can publish all those made through a particular credit card, debit card or bank account. They can also deliberately keep more private transactions to a "non-Blippy" account. Visible for each linked account, meanwhile, are the amount spent on each individual purchase, as well as a detailed list of w

There are obviously a number of privacy considerations associated with using Blippy, though the site says it performs "super-human feats" to protect its users' data. The potential benefits, however, are intriguing. In addition to paving the way for affiliate fees through the vendors that get mentioned in its stream, Blippy also stands to increase transparency by facilitating reviews and comparisons. To wit: "Imagine being able to tell if you're getting ripped off with what you're paying for a gym membership or on your Comcast bill when compared to what your friends are spending on the same things," as TechCrunch points out. An API is also reportedly in the works, promising even more transparency in the future. In the meantime, one to watch! (Related: Cheap & simple

Website: www.blippy.com
Contact: hello@blippy.com

Spotted by: Benoit Rigaut