The 13th review ;-). Review on General Thoughts About MouthShut

Eons ago in a small town in Kerala(Well, 20 something years ago), a small kid loved to lie down with his head nesting in his grandma’s lap, smelling the sweet aroma of “filter coffee” and listen to her discussing with other neighbourhood “aunties” why they should/should not buy from the neighbourhood store, the latest kanchipuram sari one of the ladies bought on her trips to Tamil Nadu (which is a neighboring state) etc.

Oh no – This is not the extract from a nostalgic short story. I am describing exactly the time I went back down my memory lane when I discovered the site strangely christened “Moutshut”. I was looking for consumer opinions on the new bike I wanted to buy, when Yahoo search threw up this strangely named site (Read about my opinion on the bike at Mouthshut - Automobiles - Motorcycles - By Brand - Hero Honda - Hero Honda Passion). I could not find any better hunting ground for opinions in any other sites the search threw up. I registered - the process is the fastest I have seen – no frills and no newsletters to signup - and more than a year and a half later (which I am told is like a life-time for an above average website) I still am writing/reading reviews on it. (Though it has not beaten My Yahoo to be my homepage :-))

What makes Mouthshut different ?

I reproduce here a portion of the CEO, Faisal’s e-mail:-

“MouthShut.com has grown and thrived as a community connected by two common threads. The first thread, MouthShut’s binding medium, has been the Worldwide Web with its software, servers, routers and connectivity over copper, fiber and microwave. From across the world we have gathered here and shared our experiences. The second thread, the human emotions that have driven our success, has been the passion of consumers - MouthShut members - who believe in empowering others by sharing their own experience.”

Mouthshut is an apparent story of how web can change the way we live our lives. Our site expanded my horizons, exposed me to all (yes, all) kinds of people. It’s a virtual community of people from all walks of life. We have college students, teachers, marketing professionals, chartered accountants, and of course – “the ubiquitous supreme beings” - computer professionals. There are people from all across the globe – the Americas to the Africa to the Down Under.

Features/Ease of Use

<<< Site >>>

This is one of the sites that takes virtually no time to load (well, most of the times) even with a dial-up. Down time is really minimal, barring certain incidents of reviews being lost and restored.

<<< Sections >>>

The opinions are segregated into sections ranging from Entertainment, Books, Automobiles to Travel with a tree-like structure for each section where you drill down to reach a lower level of grouping.

<<< Kewl Home page >>>

The home page design is a kewl one – lot of info, but still uncluttered – The top half lists a star writer, a high ranking and a low ranking review, a review of the day. The bottom half lists the latest 5 reviews, the product categories, opinions wanted (from the mouthpad) and sometimes a special review.

<<< Mouthpad >>>

The mouthpad is an interesting feature – you can suggest topics you want reviewed, or add a review on the items that are nowhere on the product list. Strangely though, this is the bete noire’ for some of my friends – their reviews were rejected for want of appropriate category – :-(.

<<< Community Center >>>

A virtual notice board where you can share information is an interesting feature that adds a personal touch to the site.

Mouthing Opinions

Opinions – Who doesn’t have them ? – right from: - they serve the coffee too warm, the film was dragging towards the end, the cricket team should have chosen to bat first to India is the best etc etc… But what good are they when there is no patient ear to listen to them. Then there are people like a good friend of mine; who used to chat to me a lot about this and that – she is highly opinionated about certain things - her favorite cricket player for one. We are always at loggerheads over who is the best (Well, “the argument still continues”). Now, she is an active member of our site (as of today, she has more reviews to her credit than me and is a star writer – happy for her). And then, there are people who want to take out their grudge on someone, because some hard choices someone made shattered their world, as they knew. (Oh yeah – you find them here too)

The beauty of the site is the opinions are not edited in any manner, except that the site blocks the use of some four-letter words in a reasonable attempt to maintain the decorum. (But some creative members have found a way around it too – they use words that rhyme with the blocked word). This is Article 19 of Constitution of India and its US equivalent - First Amendment personified. (for the lesser mortals this article/amendment guarantees the taken-for-granted right to freedom of speech and expression).

If you want to say that a product sucks, you can very well say that without fear of offending anyone – no big brother breathing down your neck :-).

The bottom line is:-

You are reading this on the coolest site on the net.