5 ms·

This website uses scatterplots instead of lists to display products: https://www.productchart.com https://www.productchart.com So on Product Chart, you can fo

by TekMol 7y ago

This website uses scatterplots instead of lists to display products: https://www.productchart.com https://www.productchart.com So on Product Chart, you can for example say "Show me 300 smartphones and put the price on the x-axis and the size on the y-axis". It's a bit like you would lay out things on a table and then organize them by some criteria.

mirimir 7y ago
Wow, that is amazing !!! But then, I love scatterplots.
porker 7y ago
OK this is awesome! Thanks for sharing, it fits my nerd-brain like a glove. Wish it would generalise to everything in life like my own spreadsheets (I say that as a compulsive data-collector)
oftenwrong 7y ago
I'm glad to see this site making progress and gaining attention. I remember it used to be "GNOD": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7465980 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7465980 Also similar, and by another HN user: https://diskprices.com/ https://diskprices.com/ https://battprices.com/ https://battprices.com/
- Fnoord 7y ago
  > https://diskprices.com/ https://diskprices.com/ These do not compare things such as sequential read, sequential write, random read, random write, temperature, MTBF, Backblaze outage percentages (statistical relevant), type of storage (SLC, MLC, AMLC, QLC, TLC, etc), chipset used, and so on, and so forth. I'm scared shitless to check or use the battprices.com as it probably does not do anything like the above either. Which, in case of batteries, can cause something arguably more severe than bad performance or data loss: fire. Don't use websites like these. Instead, read reviews and support websites which release quality reviews.
  - htfu 7y ago
    Dude, they’re just simple lists of products by their base metric, in both cases limited to reputable brands. No fires will ensue just because you now know Duracell offering X is slightly cheaper than Energizer type Y per kWh even though the pack costs more. Breathe!
    - Fnoord 7y ago
      Didn't know, the website name suggested otherwise. Rest of the points still stand.
- heffer 7y ago
  These are great. I miss a page like this for Canada. In Germany, where I'm originally from, we have geizhals.de for product and price comparison that works a lot like these pages you linked and has been around for ages. They have an English version you can check out here: https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb (this links directly to the Laptop section so you can check out their filtering capabilities). Here's their listing of price per TB for SSDs which is very much alike the diskprices.com page you linked: https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=hdssd&sort=r#productlist https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=hdssd&sort=r#productlist
  - synack 7y ago
    https://diskprices.com/?locale=ca https://diskprices.com/?locale=ca
  - thirdsun 7y ago
    > In Germany, where I'm originally from, we have geizhals.de for product and price comparison that works a lot like these pages you linked and has been around for ages. Geizhals is not only useful as a price aggregator, but also when it comes to product discovery itself - often I look for products with very specific attributes, which may be represented by different names and keys between sellers and manufacturers. Geizhals' ability to collect and aggregate them in such detail is second to none. At that point pricing information is just an extra.
justaguyhere 7y ago
Looks really nice! Wouldn't a simple table be a better option in this case though? I quickly got tired hovering over each icon (very small icons too) to look at the specs. Looks very nice though.
- davidivadavid 7y ago
  Yep. I love design and creative ideas, but they still have to be efficient. This just makes me waste my time compared to a table where I can sort/filter by different criteria. Most of the time, "creative" visualizations tend to actually obscure meaning, or worse, mislead viewers. Recommended reading: Show me the numbers by Stephen Few (his blog is also great: http://www.perceptualedge.com/blog/ http://www.perceptualedge.com/blog/)
Fnoord 7y ago
So I checked the Smartphone section. Very limited amount of arguments. The visual representation is nice, but the Tweakers Pricewatch website [1] has a better search because it has better (more) arguments (they could however benefit from the scatterplot system). [1] https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/ https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/
philipodonnell 7y ago
Is there a name for this kind of chart? It doesn't seem to be a scatterplot in the traditional sense because the axes aren't on a regular interval (If you look at adjacent phones the difference in prices aren't even). Its more like a scatterplot with a grid overlay?

by TekMol 7y ago

mirimir 7y ago

Wow, that is amazing !!! But then, I love scatterplots.

porker 7y ago

OK this is awesome! Thanks for sharing, it fits my nerd-brain like a glove. Wish it would generalise to everything in life like my own spreadsheets (I say that as a compulsive data-collector)

oftenwrong 7y ago

I'm glad to see this site making progress and gaining attention. I remember it used to be "GNOD": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7465980 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7465980 Also similar, and by another HN user: https://diskprices.com/ https://diskprices.com/ https://battprices.com/ https://battprices.com/

Fnoord 7y ago
> https://diskprices.com/ https://diskprices.com/ These do not compare things such as sequential read, sequential write, random read, random write, temperature, MTBF, Backblaze outage percentages (statistical relevant), type of storage (SLC, MLC, AMLC, QLC, TLC, etc), chipset used, and so on, and so forth. I'm scared shitless to check or use the battprices.com as it probably does not do anything like the above either. Which, in case of batteries, can cause something arguably more severe than bad performance or data loss: fire. Don't use websites like these. Instead, read reviews and support websites which release quality reviews.
- htfu 7y ago
  Dude, they’re just simple lists of products by their base metric, in both cases limited to reputable brands. No fires will ensue just because you now know Duracell offering X is slightly cheaper than Energizer type Y per kWh even though the pack costs more. Breathe!
  - Fnoord 7y ago
    Didn't know, the website name suggested otherwise. Rest of the points still stand.
heffer 7y ago
These are great. I miss a page like this for Canada. In Germany, where I'm originally from, we have geizhals.de for product and price comparison that works a lot like these pages you linked and has been around for ages. They have an English version you can check out here: https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb (this links directly to the Laptop section so you can check out their filtering capabilities). Here's their listing of price per TB for SSDs which is very much alike the diskprices.com page you linked: https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=hdssd&sort=r#productlist https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=hdssd&sort=r#productlist
- synack 7y ago
  https://diskprices.com/?locale=ca https://diskprices.com/?locale=ca
- thirdsun 7y ago
  > In Germany, where I'm originally from, we have geizhals.de for product and price comparison that works a lot like these pages you linked and has been around for ages. Geizhals is not only useful as a price aggregator, but also when it comes to product discovery itself - often I look for products with very specific attributes, which may be represented by different names and keys between sellers and manufacturers. Geizhals' ability to collect and aggregate them in such detail is second to none. At that point pricing information is just an extra.

justaguyhere 7y ago

Looks really nice! Wouldn't a simple table be a better option in this case though? I quickly got tired hovering over each icon (very small icons too) to look at the specs. Looks very nice though.

davidivadavid 7y ago
Yep. I love design and creative ideas, but they still have to be efficient. This just makes me waste my time compared to a table where I can sort/filter by different criteria. Most of the time, "creative" visualizations tend to actually obscure meaning, or worse, mislead viewers. Recommended reading: Show me the numbers by Stephen Few (his blog is also great: http://www.perceptualedge.com/blog/ http://www.perceptualedge.com/blog/)

Fnoord 7y ago

So I checked the Smartphone section. Very limited amount of arguments. The visual representation is nice, but the Tweakers Pricewatch website [1] has a better search because it has better (more) arguments (they could however benefit from the scatterplot system). [1] https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/ https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/

philipodonnell 7y ago

Is there a name for this kind of chart? It doesn't seem to be a scatterplot in the traditional sense because the axes aren't on a regular interval (If you look at adjacent phones the difference in prices aren't even). Its more like a scatterplot with a grid overlay?