I’ll post a larger explanation of the Portal functionality when it’s live so you can see it at the same time. In the meantime check it out here while we wait for the DNS fairies to do their magic. http://wp2.bby.manage.net

Shortly after the new portal comes online, we will have a Terms of Service change. I’m working on getting a special guest to make the blog post about that along with answering questions you might have.

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I think this is really interesting. I know a few people who have Sync technology in their car and they love it. I myself haven’t had a chance to play with it but the feature set is really interesting. Not to mention all the possibilities depending on what’s accessible via the API.

So, who’s going to be the first one to do something with Remix and Sync?

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The widget will show by category the top 5 best-selling products in the category selected. You can also enter your zipcode to see local store availability and then click a buy link to be taken to BestBuy.com to purchase the item. Additional photos of the item are also shown.

This was designed with our non-developers and affiliates in mind. Basically you hit the ‘copy me’ button in the upper right, select your platform of choice and put in your affiliate number. Instantly you have something on your website, blog, Facebook page, etc that uses Remix and will credit sales to your affiliate account.

So, there are a few ground rules with this:

• This is a TEST version.
• The final will be hosted in a different location, subsequently this one will go dark and no longer work.
• Please give any feedback you have on the functionality of the widget itself, it has gone through quite a bit of internal testing but more eyes are always better.
• Send feedback on this blog post, via email, twitter or Remix Forums.
• Right now the widget is on a blank page, there will be better structure around it once it’s launched.

We hope you like it! Now tell us how to make it better.

Link to the Best Buy Best Selling Widget

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As you may or may not know I’ve been working on getting us a new portal. Something with a little more expandability and functionality for you and for us.

Well, I have the site up for a preview. I’d like for you all to check it out and let me know what you think.

I’ve created some forum sections over there for you to leave comments if you like. Your Mashery login from the current portal will work.

If you don’t wish to leave your feedback on the forums you can use Twitter (@bestbuyremix) or email (remix AT bestbuy DOT com).

Without further delay:

New Remix Portal Test

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Check out this article on Billboard Biz: Napster Opens Service To Developers

Thanks to those of you in the Remix community who helped us test the API recently! If you read the article and press releases about the API today, you’ll notice that you (the Remix Community) recieved credit for helping them test it out. So awesome work!

Check out their developer portal at: http://developer.napster.com

Now lets see some cool results with the API. How about some that use Remix somehow as well?

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Since it’s a good topic, I thought it would be a good idea to post my response up on the blog and see if I can generate some good discussion around the topic.

It all starts with an idea, the key here is a unique idea. Most of those ideas are either:
1) Something nobody else is doing
2) A way to do it better than someone else is doing it now

It shouldn’t matter if they only use Best Buy data, other data sources in conjunction with Remix, or decide not to use Remix at all. I’ve had this conversation with many developers over email recently, the first question I ask after they tell me their idea is “How is what you are doing different or better than X or Y or Z?” That’s the first question you have to ask yourself. Not only that but how are you going to market that difference? How do you tell people your idea is better and they should use it?

I’ve said it in previous articles, but lets say you are creating a site or application that basically does the same thing that BestBuy.com does. Why would people use it when they can just go to BestBuy.com? Now same scenario, except you have a set of 5 features that BestBuy.com does not have. When someone comes to your site do they know that on the home page? Do you communicate that in search results? Do you talk about it where you can? If not then you aren’t showing off why your application is more powerful than what’s already out there.

Take basic marketing for BestBuy.com for example. One of our key offerings is in-store pickup for products purchased online. It’s promoted quite a bit in our ads and online, right?

Also keep in mind that things you develop by yourself may get you noticed by other companies who wish to have you do something for them based on your current work. There are multiple different ways these stories can play out.

What we promise to do is provide data, support and assistance where we can to help you with your idea. If you need someone to bounce ideas off of or another perspective I’m happy to do that. With our upcoming portal improvements there will be a new sample gallery that is easier for me to update and maintain. I don’t see any reason that we can’t put most applications in there. That would also help with getting noticed.

Again the call to action here is the same as in previous articles, what are you doing that’s unique? How do you stand out in the crowd? Also with that, how can I help?

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We worked through the day to narrow down the issue. Once the issue was found it took some time to re-publish the updates. The cache on our end was then cleared to ensure everyone was receiving the most current pricing.

We apologize for any inconvenience or issues this may have caused, we appreciate everyone who contacted us informing us of the incorrect pricing. Thanks everyone for your patience! Please feel free to let us know if you see persisting problems.

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activeUpdateDate – This is the last time the ‘active’ status of the product was changed. Basically when it’s turned on or off for BestBuy.com. A product that is inactive is generally unavailable online.

priceUpdateDate – This is fairly straightforward. The one key here is that this is the date the price was changed in the BestBuy.com system which may not be the same day. So if you do an API query for prices updated today, you may see a different total tomorrow when you do the same query for the same day.

inStoreAvailabilityUpdateDate – This date reflects the last change to True/False for availability.

onlineAvailabilityUpdateDate – Same as the inStore version in the context of BestBuy.com.

itemUpdateDate – This is the date that something other than price was updated for the record. This would include all of the aformentioned update dates.

So that’s the rundown of the update dates. One piece of feedback we have heard is that we still need an overall ‘record update date’ that includes price. This one we’ve been hearing for awhile and it’s on a list of things to act upon.

So, what other questions does everyone have? Did this help? What other things would you like explained?

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I would just like to take the time to point out that we place no restrictions on using our data in mobile applications. In fact, we strongly encourage it! It’s the belief of many folks on this team and the organization as a whole that being able to display this data on mobile devices is the direction to go.

In fact according to the Developer Portal it’s this simple when using the API:

• Don’t claim to be Best Buy
• Acknowledge that the data came from us when you use it
• If you offer commerce, we need to be one of the options

We already have a few mobile applications using our data with no problem (ShopSavvy, etc).  If you come up with an application let me know and we might actually feature it in our Sample Gallery (which in our new portal will really cool by the way).

If you have any questions about any restrictions or anything else in general let me know!

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Updates will be provided as I receive them.

UPDATE 1: The archives are still unavailable. We currently plan on the archives being available by end of business today. Further updates will be provided when possible.

UPDATE 2: Archives are now fully available and have been since roughly 5:30PM CST.

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