TechFold - Bold tech & web commentary

ThemBid.com - “Make them bid” on your requests

ThemBid is a fresh new entrant to the the same space as DoMyStuff.com - allowing you to post requests and have relevant service providers bid on your business.

Requests receive bids, and questions, negotiations, etc. can take place in comments. Here’s a good in action example. Businesses and individuals bidding for business on ThemBid.com have profile pages that include maps, reviews, an Apple-esque star-rating, and links to BBB (Better Business Bureau) search-result pages.

ThemBid also crosses into classifieds, offering a simple way to post things that may not fit into the service marketplace.

First Impressions & Suggestions

ThemBid does a good job of covering off high level functionality, but falls short on detail and usability. Given the new-ness of the site, it doesn’t come as a surprise, and I’d expect it to improve over time. For the moment though, compared to DoMyStuff, ThemBid comes across as more of an after hours effort…

More Structured Data Please: Requests have relatively little structured data associated with them, making the process more complicated than it needs to be (i.e.: for “babysitter needed,” days and hours required should be a structured field). Structured data should ideally be category specific.

Category and Location Browsing: Requests are posted to categories & locations - but browsing by either as a criteria is an awkward process - you can’t tell how many requests or classifieds are in each category or location, making browsing a time consuming, hit-or-miss proposition.

Search: Hmm. There doesn’t appear to be a text/keyword means of searching the site at all. That would be a good thing to include.

Design: A know that design and appearance is fundamentally subjective, and lord only knows, Craigslist is a 100% design-free blockbuster - but I find the appearance of ThemBid to be a little tough on the eyes. Greys & reds just don’t seem to contrast well online, and overall the design - to my eye at least looks dated. Given some of the slick functionality that the sight offers, a more eye-grabbing contemporary design would go a long way to converting visitors into members and speaking to ThemBid’s credibility.

Functional Clarity: Classifieds, Requests, and Companies need to be conceptually separated more clearly. There’s stuff in classifieds that could be a Request, and vice versa. My suggestion would be to drop classifieds entirely and focus on the more unique aspect of the site (requests/bids) better.

Summary

ThemBid is a new entrant to a sparsely populated space that I call “reverse classifieds.” Given the headaches of launching anything new in the Classifieds space (craigslist & ebay are their own barriers to entry), “reversing” the equation provides a unique and attention grabbing angle. ThemBid is new and shows it around the edges, but has early mover advantage. If they can keep iterating the site on a rapid basis, ThemBid could get some traction.

Of course, there’s little in the way of barriers to entry protecting ThemBid, so speed of execution is key. Also, providing a viral angle - for example a “Bid on My Request” widget to embed on blogs or MySpace pages, or Facebook platform integration - would capitalize on their early mover position.

If you want to follow their progress, keep an eye on the ThemBid.com blog.

classifieds, craigslist, domystuff thembid

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