Krillion Archive

I came across two websites that offer very distinctive and specific services, MyDesignIn and Krillion (both in Beta). And after getting to know more about their features, and being able to speak with the people behind these companies, I thought that MyDesignIn and Krillion could end up working very well together as a sort of mash-up.

MyDesignIn

MyDesignIn is an online home design tool that allows you to re-create room layouts (in flash) and drag-and-drop photos of sinks, stoves, sofas, etc. onto the layout for an architectual representation. The photos used are ones you've collected with their bookmarking tool from manufacturers' sites like Kohler, or retailers' sites like Pottery Barn.

Interestingly enough, MyDesignIn is a social network as well. So adding photos to the larger collection of furniture and appliances only offers greater variety for the entire community. Room layouts can be saved and shared as well. If you don't have the time to draw your own L-shaped kitchen using MyDesignIn, you can take someone else's and modify it accordingly. Windows and doors are easily added, removed, and re-sized. The end result is a comprehensivly scaled blueprint of your room, and this can be printed or emailed to your friends and family, or contractor and designer. Others can also be invited to collaborate on the design, making furniture arrangement suggestions as well as other possible changes.

Among the things they'd like to do in the future is add local search results for the products used in members' designs.

That's where I thought Krillion could come into play.

Krillion

Krillion is a search engine that specifically finds appliances locally. They have an extensive search process that sifts through maps, addresses, images, price points, manufacturers and retailers to offer up the best local search result list one could imagine. You'll not only get the closest places to find that Whirlpool refridgerator, but you'll get the prices of each search result (among other useful details), along with a click-to-call feature that will direct you to the necessary department, not the basic customer service line. This search for a specific loaction in addition to a specific product makes this an Actionable Local Search. It's designed for the ready-to-buy consumer that has already spent a lot of time researching the item they'd like to buy.

Why MyDesignIn and Krillion are such a good fit

MyDesignIn and Krillion have very similar values and objectives. Their user-base are consumers that have or are willing to spend a good amount of time preparing for their next steps. Their models are invaluable to advertisers, as their demographic is most likely of a higher socio-economic status, and is nicely targeted by MyDesignIn and Krillion services. The end user for both of these services is inevitibly driven to local offline locations, providing business for local retailers and precious data that can be used for analytics and marketing.

For Krillion to be able to provide the search results for the very objects users are inserting in their designs on MyDesignIn, this added value provides a means to an end for both services. As Krillion aims to be included in the search indexes for which we typcially get our search results from anyway, MyDesignIn may find themselves utilizing Krillion's search finess regardless.

This article was written by Kristen Nicole, who writes for 606tech.com.