The concept is interesting. It’s been done before in various other forms; social shopping is something that has been around for many months already. Yet, Turnto’s implementation is light. Very light. The widget is quite nondescript. Nothing to install whatsoever. You just sign up, connect with your friends, and start browsing.
That second step, though, is a major one. The biggest hurdle of all. This goes as much for end users as for websites, too. Users need to engage people they know through invitations, which is rarely a fun process to trudge though. (The company lists LinkedIn, AOL Mail, Gmail, MSN/Hotmail, Yahoo Mail/Rocketmail, and .Mac as import options.) Oppositely, TurnTo lists sites such as Angara, Compsource, Teavana, and EarthWatch as participants in the launch. As you will immediately recognize, the starter group is infinitesimally small when sized up against the full spectrum of destinations it might inhabit in widget form. It will have to grow. A lot. (TurnTo tells Mashable that four more are under implementation, including three Internet retail 500 sites.)
Leaving aside the obstacles for adoption for a moment, once you do establish connections, it’s very simple to operate. Say you’re really into tea. Maybe you’re an artisan with herbs and leaves and spices and things. And your friends are, too. In that case, if you were to trek over to Teavana, you could share recommendations or learn from others about things they found appealing. This at once gives you a social element to your shopping experience in a particular spot on the Web. And it allows websites to provide that service without having to expend much effort in shaping their pages to cater to such demand, if it indeed exists amongst friends.
