RateItAll Mailbag

We often get entertaining messages sent to us via the web, or via post. Like the RateItAll user plagued by recurring dreams of an offline RateItAll themed nightclub. Or the preacher furious that their default avatar was a serpent.

Here is a polite, handwritten request from Ohio for some tobacco coupons. If only we could grant these sort of wishes :(

RateItAll Economy - On The Rise

For those of you participating in the RateItAll Economy revenue sharing program, you might want to check your stats. We made a few tweaks, and we are hearing reports of big improvements in earnings.

Messaging Spam

We are having some problems with a spammer using RateItAll's messaging system to send commercial pitches.

A fix will be pushed shortly, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

I guess it's flattering that a spammer would take the time to write a messaging script just for us - we are oddly touched :)

Major Search Enhancements

For the last few days, we have been heads down tweaking our search algorithm. Specifically, we have been focusing on 1) prioritizing exact matches for queries in search results; 2) prioritizing listings with lots of reviews over listings with few reviews in the event of duplicate results; 3) doing a better job of handling characters like -,&,', etc.

I think we've made a lot of progress. Check out this query for Jessica Alba - you will now see many exact matches at the top of the results, with the listing with the most reviews coming first. The movie District 9 was impossible to find previously as well - now it's top ranked.

Please help us hammer on this new search algorithm - search for popular items, your own RateItAll nickname, specific lists, etc, and feel free to send us feedback if you feel the search results are not ideal.

I think we've made a lot of progress.

Quick Hitter - Product Label Feedback

Here's a quick one - a RateItAll member is looking for some feedback for some product label designs. Can you help him?