With vertical search on the rise, it's no surprise that the market for shopping search products has become so competitive. A new player in the market, however, seems to have drawn inspiration from Pandora to create a kind of personalized search for shoppers. Essentially, StylePath.com allows users to create profile and then rate items on a scale of 1-10 so that when they're are browsing various categories or search results, they are shown items that are more suitable to their personal taste. As a recent press release explains:

Boston, MA (PRWEB) October 17, 2007 -- StylePath.com today launched the first website that finds products for shoppers by learning their individual taste. StylePath's patented technology simplifies online shopping by offering personalized product recommendations tailored to each user's unique style profile.
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How it works: Visit stylepath.com, choose a product category, and create a style profile by quickly rating a few test images. StylePath's patented technology finds aesthetic patterns in your profile that match products with similar attributes from thousands of websites. Use the "more similar products" feature to both zero in on what you're looking for and improve future searches by teaching the algorithm more about your style.

Now, the StylePath.com browsing experience offers a blend of good and bad. On the one hand browsing and searching for items is an extremely user friendly process. Pages tend to be relatively minimalist, and feature only modules that cater to the user's experience as an online shopper. While search results feature functions that enhance the user's objective of finding certain products, additional modules feature other criteria by which a user might want to browse inventory. However, availing yourself of features outside of the search results is not all that straight forward. For example, navigating to your own profile is a multiple click process. Consider the following screenshot.

Hovering over any given thumbnail brings up a bubble with a range of information about the item. Furthermore, below the thumbnail is a link to view similar items. There are also sidebar modules for browsing categories by brandname, price range, popular items, and your wish list. However, there is no direct link to your account or profile page. Rather, users must click on More > Sitemap, and then select choices from a menu on that landing page. What is interesting, however, is that the Style Mates' Picks in the right hand sidebar are products that users have actually flagged as being interesting.

Granted, the most interesting feature of this search engine is that it alleges that it can determine your taste preferences, and then shows you search results that are more compatible with those preferences. This feature works much in the same way as the music genome project offered by Pandora.com. To avail themselves of this feature, users must first choose the category of products that they want to personalize search results for. Each personalized category is called a profile

Unlike most shopping portals, there are ten categories from which to choose. I imagine, however, that the number of categories has been constrained partly by the newness of the technology, and partly by the fact that only a certain range of products are fit to be judged on their appearance (hence the term StylePath). Furthermore, users can either opt to have name their profiles either named after the category that the profile falls into it, or choose a name for themselves.

The next step in the creation of a profile is to rate products. After selecting a profile category, the user is shown six items and asked to rate each one on a scale of 0-10. Unlike personality assessments that leave you wonder just what precisely a "3" or a "7" stand for, StylePath.com offer explanation for each of these rating, and those labels appear beneath the thumbnail for each of the items as you rate them. A rating from 0-1 is Ughh, 2-3 is Not for me, 4-5 is Whatever, 6-8 is LIke it, and 9-10 is Love it!. After the user has rated these six items, they are asked to rate another six, and are then taken to a results page much like the one featured in the first screenshot above, but that displays results that reflect their personal taste.

The StylePath.com has a few other features intended to enhance user's shopping experience. A StyleSpace page allows users to browse other users' favorite items (which feeds the StyleMate's Picks module on SERPs). Furthermore, the 3D Decorator helps users plan the decor of entire rooms; first they select a from a general motif, and then users can rotate all items in the room between two choices. This last feature leaves a lot to be desired in the way of versatility and selection, but it is a good point of departure for the online shopper looking for inspiration.

In sum, StylePath.com has integrated some interesting Web 2.0 and personalization elements with product search. Where I think they fall short is two-fold. First, their range of product categories is rather limited. Granted, this is probably because the site is young and there are only so many category of items that lend themselves to being rated. However, finding a way to expand on this range in a timely fashion will probably be integral in whether or not they're a success. Secondly, if they hope to user the social element as a selling feature, then they'll have to give users more instant-access to their profiles. Essentially, users will need to be able to manage their pick or favorites, as well change their profiles as their own taste evolves over time.