This sounds interesting. On a very high level, a good solution to this would feel like window-shopping in a huge mall. Amazon.com is great if you know what you'

This sounds interesting. On a very high level, a good solution to this would feel like window-shopping in a huge mall. Amazon.com is great if you know what you're looking for, (as GavinB said), but it's doesn't work for discovery. I can't meander through Amazon.com to check out products and I wouldn't go there for fun. Compare that to your local mall, where people go to just hang out. Shopping is often a pass time and a social experience, not a mission, yet most sites are optimized for the last "stage" of shopping--the stage where you actually make a purchase, or the penultimate stage--the one where you compare a few specific products. The last stages are the most profitable and easiest to implement, so that's why they came about first. But if you can grab a consumer at an earlier stage, when they're brainstorming bridal shower ideas, or when they're bored at work and checking out new cell phones, and if you optimize for discovery as well as sales, they'll come back and buy from you. The challenges/pitfalls/competitors are numerous, obvious, and non-obvious. Good luck to the team that attempts this!