Below are some new features we have implemented recently:

• We have added a new option to the yes/no criteria, now there’s a third one that allows to be more gradual:
  
  These three states have visually 3 default icons. When you embed a table on your blog or website, you can choose between 3 different designs (more or less large):
  
  
  
• We have added a new page to see recent activities of SocialCompare’s members (the latest additions, modifications, votes, notes…).
• The table design have been slightly improved, especially for editing and error and warning handling.
  
• We added direct web links on the items in the header tables, which allow you to see the aggregation of all the votes, ratings, comments associated with this sheet item (product, software, service…):
  
• We have improved the ergonomy when adding a new comparison criterion by moving the choice of criteria type (text, yes/no, image … etc.) to the right of the input field instead of underneath this data input field. So it is always visible, even when the criteria suggestions appear (which are important in order to reuse existing content and to continually improve the SocialCompare database):
  
• In the pro version, we added a button criterion that allows you to easily create an action button pointing to a web link. There is also a new geolocation criterion (not really visible yet).
  
  
• UK web site URLs that end with co.uk are now better handled showing the relevant part of the URL (since before it was truncated in the wrong place).
• And finally for votes or ratings, you can change the value that was initially chosen … it enables you to change your mind or correct the value if you made a mistake. This will change the previous value and change the comment associated with the comparison table or item sheet.

Usage may be various, either online stores that want to add a comparison engine to compare in details features or specifications of their products, or webmasters who want to quickly set up a comparison website on services or products… (including affiliate marketers), or even companies, universities .. who want for their private needs to have a highly flexible, collaborative (editable by many persons) comparison engine, so allowing them to store data associated to various comparison criteria, and easily customizable (for example to compare competitors, suppliers…).

The advantage of using the Pro solution of SocialCompare is firstly, that the solution is easy to implement, it is a turnkey comparison software, easy to use and flexible to suit various needs.
Then if the comparison engine is integrated into an existing site, it is a way to boost your Internet traffic with a SEO Friendly solution, optimized for search engines. You can quickly create content by creating different views of the same comparative data set, according to the criteria or selection of products you are comparing.

All of this content can also be easily used on other websites, including a blog: this will allow you, for example, to create a comparison table and include it in your blog (as possible on the public collaborative comparison engine SocialCompare.com). The advantage is that all such data embedded on external sites will be automatically updated when you update the data in the comparison engine (ie if you update a product price).

Data may be added manually or imported in various formats (XML, CSV, HTML).

The idea is to allow everyone to quickly set up a comparison engine on the web or for private usage.

Join the private beta list today, if you are interested, we will contact you soon, to let you test the solution.

For the moment the plugin is quite simple, there is not a lot of customization to do, but in the future we could integrate more custom fields. Meanwhile you can read the previous blog post explaining in details how to customize easily the appareance of your table.

One simple reason to use the plugin for example is that you can define once the design options of your table adapted to your blog design at one place (on the plugin page), and then embbeded different tables on you website without redefining this each time.

The different possible syntax to embed a table with this plugin are:

[socialcompare]http://socialcompare.com/en/comparison/apples-and-oranges[/socialcompare]

[sc height="960"]http://socialcompare.com/en/w/apples-and-oranges[/sc]

http://socialcompare.com/en/comparison/apples-and-oranges (URL only on a single line)

[sc width="90%" height="960"]http://socialcompare.com/en/w/apples-and-oranges#nofull;noflags[/sc]

Here is a screenshot of the current version of the plugin:

Download the WordPress Table Plugin.

Indeed we prefer that users publish their comparison table in a total public mode with the edition rights set opened to everyone, so everyone can improve the original table…. On the other side, we understand that some bloggers, webmasters for example, including a table on their website, prefer sometimes to keep their content version (to be sure to publish the table they want on their website).
There is already a system that keep history to see all the changes that occured on a table, eventually we will probably do a feature to “restore a previous content” if an user changes something that should not be.

Therefore, we thought it would be nice to save static versions of the same table (a kind of backups). For example, you can save the first version of your table when it is published and decide to include it into your blog post. So it will be a static version of the table (backup at a given time) on your website… but you could leave the table editable by everyone, and thus the comparison can be improved freely on the SocialCompare’s platform.
All backups are available on the same page.

Here’s how to proceed to manage backups, static versions of your table:

1. Click “More details” below the title of the comparison.




2. Click “Manage snapshots, backups” on the bottom right of the details area:
   
   




3. Choose a title for the backup and click on “Create a snapshot”
   
   




4. Click on “embed” button beside the name of your backup, if you want to include this static version in your website.

Now you do not need to create a comparison table to be able to compare everything: compare easily sizes of objects, animals, persons… visually.

For example you could compare products such as iPad vs Galaxy Tab vs Iphone4, or Nokia N8 vs iPhone 4 :

or Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs iPad vs Galaxy Tab vs iPhone4:

or countries such as USA vs France :

or persons such as Obama vs Sarkozy :

or animals/persons such as Diplodocus vs Woman :

or Triceratops vs Obama :

Either comparisons use predefined shapes (rectangles..) or vectorial images (SVG) in advanced mode or normal images (PNG..).
You need to know that vectorial images are not supported in some cases (i.e: Internet Explorer without SVG plugin).

Here is a quick video introducing the tool:

Of course these visual comparisons can be saved to be shared on social networks or embed directly on blog post or website.

If you like this new innovative tool, please spread the word on twitter, facebook…

We use it in SocialCompare to automatically convert all US units into standard units, and then display both units, as explained in this previous post.

Now, this unit converter tool is also available as an independant tool (if you want to convert units for other purposes) in our new page dedicated to tools, plugins and gadgets.

If you see any issue or have some feedbacks to provide, please do not hesitate!

Indeed, regularly you have dimensions (width, height, depth) criteria in comparison tables because it is usually interesting to compare sizes between objects. So we have developed a visual tool that automatically generates the differents objects (in rectangles shapes) using different colors and with the adequate sizes proportions. Then you can drag and drop the visual rectangle to compare the dimensions of each object (animal, person…).

For example, it could be useful to compare latest smartphones, ereaders or also compare tablets. But it is not necessary for high-tech products only… just try with all the objects you want to compare sizes.

A new “Graph icon” appears on the top left corner of each table containing width,height,depth criteria :

You just need to click on the “graph icon” , to visualize the different sizes :

You just need to click on the “table icon” on the top left corner to go back to the table data.

If you have any feedback to send us, please do not hesitate!

Now both units systems can be available into tables, you just need to set your favorite one into the “Preferences” window.

Then a comparison table, not using your favorite units sytem, will be automatically converted and will display both units (original units used by the creator of the table and the conversion for you as a reader).

Here is an example :

Indeed, I have compiled a list of blogs or directories that review startups, web applications, web 2.0 tools…

If you know other interesting ressource, please feel free to complete the list and add it… thanks.

Now there is an easy solution: create a table on SocialCompare, click on the “embed” button and copy and paste the code into your blog post.

Here is an example in images, step by step :

1. Click on “create a table” in SocialCompare:
   

   Choose the name of your table, a category/theme and click on “Add” (except if you already have the table as a spreadsheet, then you can click on “Import”):

   

2. Add columns headers (items to compare) :
   

   You need to know that the table can be rotated at any moment later (it is already possible now by clicking on “Rotate” link), so do not worry if you want your items in lines and criteria in columns, and vice and versa…

   

3. Add lines headers (comparison criteria) :
   

   You need to choose the criteria type that you want to add, such as text, list, image, video, unit, vote… in our example, it is a criteria type: “rating on 5 stars” named “Ergonomy”. These various and advanced criteria enable you to create original and advanced tables. (see the complete list of criteria types here).

   

4. Add existing content (i.e: existing criteria) :
   

   When starting to write a word, suggestions of existing content are made, it is recommanded to use them, by selecting the adequate data, in order to reuse the same data from one table to another one. It make data maintenance easier (updates of an item are propagated to all tables using it) and it enables comparison of different items coming from different tables.

   

   Now that we have added all the headers of our table using the green Add button, we can validate by clicking on “Ok”. We now have the structure of our table, we can start to fill in the values.

   

5. Fill in, edit the content of our table :
   

   You have to click on the cell you want to edit, on the “pencil” icon to start to fill the table. You can use the “Tab” key to go through the cell fields. When it is finished, you have to click on the green “Save” button or on the “Save” disk icon on the top left corner of the table, next to the + button (that enables you to add more lines and columns).

   

6. Publish your table :
   

   Click on the green “Publish” button, located on the right of “Save”. Publishing the table makes it visible to SocialCompare’s community, that will be able to update the data (if you enable modifications by everyone) or be able to suggest changes/updates of your data (if you have blocked the modifications rights).

   

7. Copy the code to embed to your blog post:
   

   Finally to embed the table into your post, you need to click on the “embed” button and to choose the table dimensions depending of your blog size and choose the table style (look and feel: defaut, compact…). You can change completely the colors, design of your table if you want…, following the guidelines and tutorial made in this previous blog post. Then you copy the code displayed in this window, and paste it into your blogging platform.

   

8. Paste the code into your blog post:
   

   Use the “HTML” part of you blog editor to paste the code. For example in Blogger, you get this:

   

9. Publish your blog post:
   

   Publish your blog post as you do usually and see the result:

   

If you have any feedback or suggestion to improve our service, please do not hesitate to post your ideas on our dedicated discussions topics on our Facebook page, as explained in this previous post.

If you do not have a facebook account, do not hesitate to use the comments part of this post or use our contact form.