A Review of Riffs.com, A Website To Review Your Favorite Stuff

I’ve known about Riffs for awhile now, but held off on signing up because 1) I already spend way too much time rating music, movies, and whatnot on sites such as Netflix and Listal, and 2) the site didn’t support Safari. Well, #2 has just been fixed, and with my favorite browser now on the site’s good graces, I thought I’d give Riffs a spin.

The basic concept is nothing new. People sign on, rate movies, music, etc., post their comments, get recommendations, and see what people with similar tastes enjoy. However, Riffs does a few things differently. For one thing, the range of stuff you can “riff” seems much more diverse. Sure, you can let everyone know your thoughts about the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but you can also rate stuff from around the house (like spatulas), dates and events, places, bookmarks, and of course, people. They’ve also got an “Everything Else” category for, well, everything else.

But, according to their FAQ, Riffs is much more than just a place to voice your opinion. Like Netflix, it’s a recommendations generator, so the more you rate, the more that is recommended for you. And since Riffs plays heavily on the social aspect of it all, the plan is that you’ll eventually discover other folks who have similar tastes and you can follow their riffs, learning about new things all of the time.

Another thing that Riffs touts quite heavily is their Wiki functionality (or “Bliki” as they put it, since it’s also integrated with blogging capabilities). Basically, the entire Riffs database is completely user-defined. In other words, users can add new items rather than wait for the site’s staff to add them. And members can go in and modify and update any item’s information. Users can’t modify other users’ reviews and profiles, but everything else is pretty much fair game. And naturally, you can riff and comment on other users’ reviews, so you can let others know what you think of their opinions.

A few other interesting features:

• You can sync your iTunes library to Riffs, rating all of your music in one fell swoop and giving you new recommendations based upon the items in your library. (I think this is very cool, a nice way to leverage any time and effort the user has already spent cataloging their interests.)
• You can add any website to the Riffs database with their “Rifflet” (essentially a JavaScript bookmarklet).
• You can create “RiffsRoll” which will then be displayed on your blog or personal website. Everytime you rate something on the site, your “RiffsRoll” is updated.
• Riffs has mobile capabilities. If you’re out on the town, you can chat with other Riffs members via SMS and get suggestions.

From a web developer’s viewpoint, Riffs’ site does feature some pretty flashy interfaces and functionality. Like everyone and their mother, Riffs makes use of AJAX to give their interface a smoother, cooler look and feel.

Unfortunately, using Safari, I’ve noticed a few glitches. For example, after searching for “Last Exile” to see if anyone else had rated the anime series, I was presented with a list of items to rate (which I rated positively, of course). I clicked on the “Next Page” link to see what else there was to rate, and upon seeing nothing of interest, I naturally clicked the “Back” button on my browser. Which, rather than taking me to the previous page, actually took me to an earlier page. Why?

Well, Riffs is apparently using some swanky AJAX goodness to allow users to quickly move back and forth between pages of search results. Which is all fine and dandy, except that it breaks the “Back” button in the user’s browser (at least in Safari). Which meant I had to re-rate all of the items. It’s a minor thing, and I do love all of the nifty little fade effects that dot the site — it makes one want to click on everything, just to see what happens — but it does create a somewhat jarring effect that one has to take into account as they move through the site.

In addition to the aforementioned AJAX-related errors, the wiki functionality of the site virtually ensures that you’ll run into duplicate items. For example, I did a search for “The Cure,” and found the exact same album listed multiple times. The site does have some filters to prevent duplicates, but they apparently don’t work 100%. Also, the the wiki functionality means that the site will contain a fair amount of fluff, which will only grow over time. (Seriously, who wants to “riff” on a spatula?!?)

And that dross is bound to make the navigation increasingly problematic. As I went through my results for “The Cure,” I looked at the “Related Tags” column. At the bottom of the list was an entry for “Piano,” with a “1” next to it. Which implied, to me, that there was 1 piano-related entry for “The Cure.” Clicking on that link took me to a page that listed seven items. One, upon closer inspection, did meet my criteria (it was for an album titled “The Cure,” and not the gloomy rockers) but the other six had no recognizable connection aside from being piano recordings (and based on the initial “Piano” link, they shouldn’t have even been there in the first place).

Riffs is still in “alpha” mode — remember the days when people released fully-developed websites? — so obviously, there are plenty of bugs to iron out. Once more of those get ironed out, it’s bound to be something right up my alley. So why am I not all that hip to “riffing”?

I already spend enough time rating and ranking music and movies (I don’t really care to rate people and eating establishments, but that’s just me). However, I think the biggest reason why I may not “riff” all that much is the rating mechanism employed by the site. Unlike Netflix, which asks you to rate a movie on a scale, Riffs uses a simple, Ebert-esque “thumbs up/thumbs down” approach.

I know it sounds like a fairly minor quibble, but as I began rating stuff, I found myself thinking that, for many items, “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” was just far too simplistic to sum up my feelings about a particular movie or album. Sure, there are those things you really like and those things you really hate, things for which a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” might be appropriate. But many things fall somewhere in-between, and as such, don’t really rate either a “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down.”

I suppose that’s where the comments would come into play, where you could flesh out your thoughts and explain your “riff.” But again, I’m already doing that quite a bit, both here on Opus and on other sites and forums that I frequent.

However, for those of you who don’t spend every waking hour working on your own website, Riffs might be right up your alley. However, I might wait until the beta release comes along or they nail down a few bugs here and there before really diving in. And I claim no responsibility should the site become something of a Flickr-like addiction for you.