Family Tech - Gift Recommendation Engines

This week's Family Tech column is about ways to discover gifts based on the recipients interests.

I mention in passing that it is always good to be thinking about gift giving all year long. I've used a few techniques over the years to remember gifts I see online that I think would be good for people I love.

The simplest is to bookmark them into a folder called "Gifts". The problem with that anyone using your computer can easily discover them. And unless you use folders for each person, you may forget later who you meant the gift for.

Since I have made Evernote a critical part of my life, I simply capture the links of good gifts to Evernote. I can tag the item with "gift" and the persons name. People who use my computer do not poke through my Evernote, but if I was paranoid, I can encrypt individual notes.

The other advantage Evernote has for gifting over simple bookmarks is I can capture a note of an item without having to have a web link. If I see a commercial for an item, and think it is good product for my wife, I can create a note for it now, and research it online later.

As I start shopping for an gift later, I can use the note I originally made for it to record the results of my research (i.e. best stores, best prices etc.)

Now, I just need to way to find more money for gifts.

See other blog posts about Evernote.

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