Gadgettes, the blog

I am a big and vocal fan of Zappos.com for all things shoe. Huge selection, decent (if not bargain) prices, and free shipping. Returns are dead simple, and my love for Zappos has, at times, bordered on actual zealotry.

So, when the Gap Empire introduced Piperlime, I wasn't buying. It seemed like a Zappos rip-off with a more yuppie-friendly design scheme, and even though I'm a Banana Republic card holder and Gap Empire devotee, something about Piperlime just didn't work for me. Plus, they gave me the Web site hard sell--a constant barrage of coupons and insinuations that my BR outfit just wouldn't be complete without some Piperlime pumps. Feh.

But this weekend, I had a little bit of a Piperlime revelation, thanks to, well, my child. See, he won't wear shoes. In fact, if you put anything but Robeez on his delicate little tootsies, he shrieks and growls and moonwalks until you remove them and set his soles free. So, a friend told me about See Kai Run shoes, which have a more flexible sole than the standard Old Navy fare, and might be more palatable to Mr. Picky Toes. When I googled them, Piperlime had them for less than Zappos, with the same free shipping. Plus, checkout was super easy, since I could use my Gap Empire log-in and get all my saved info, just like I do at Zappos. I got to wondering...could Piperlime be better!? I decided a super-scientific evaluation was the only way to go. Let's begin.

Price
I found the See Kai Run shoes at Piperlime on sale for $25, down from $38. Zappos had a much bigger collection of See Kai Run shoes, but they were all $42, with nothing on sale at all. These Naturalizer Memento wedges are $59 at Zappos and $55 at Piperlime. A quick scan seems to suggest higher prices at Zappos across the board, and Piperlime has a much more price-conscious presentation--"great finds under $75," or "Fantastic finds under $100" under handbags.

Plus, according to recent reports, Zappos no longer matches prices from other retailers and has stopped offering free overnight shipping. Now, both Piperlime and Zappos offer the same free four- to five-day shipping, although Zappos will often "upgrade" you to two-day shipping. However, the price discussion leads directly to...

Selection
Zappos may be more expensive, but it's also the source for all kinds of designer brands that Piperlime simply can't match. Piperlime doesn't carry Badgley Mischka, Cole Haan, Marc by Marc Jacobs, or Marc Jacobs, for that matter. There's no Baby Phat, no Michael Kors, no Stuart Weitzman, and absolutely no D&G Junior. Then again, that keeps Piperlime's ratio of $500 shoes versus $50 shoes on a much more realistic plane than Zappos.

Even where there is brand crossover, though, Zappos has many more options. There were 27 choices in the aforementioned See Kai Run brand at Zappos and just 8 at Piperlime. And while Piperlime also offers handbags, Zappos has taken its shoes-and-bags formula and branched out into accessories, electronics, sunglasses, kids' clothing, and even watches. Mission creep? Maybe, but Amazon hasn't gone wrong with its one-stop shopping approach.

Ease of use
Zappos has been on a bit of a marketing spree lately, announcing its rollout of the new categories mentioned above, along with plans for a redesign that will make the site substantially easier to use. They haven't given a date for that redesign, though, so for now: my GOD is Zappos a pain to navigate. They know it, so I don't want to go on too much, but it's just a weird, kludgy, crowded little site that feels a bit like a tiny little boutique crammed with an entire Macy's worth of goods. You strongly sense that you might stumble upon something fabulous, but you've got to be willing to spend a whole Saturday there.

Piperlime, on the other hand, has the clean design of all Gap Empire sites, and once you get past its standard useless splash screen, makes excellent use of the left-hand nav to promote within appealing categories. Choose from "The weekend shoe," "Fabulous flats," "Designer favorites," "Fantastic finds under $75," or by category or brand. Here, the lack of selection feels more like something you can wrap your head around, and you have the sense that you'll find what you're looking for.

But design alone isn't enough, and Zappos has a killer feature that Piperlime can't touch: the user reviews. At Piperlime, I can sort by Featured, Price (low to high or high to low), or What's New. At Zappos, I can start out by determining shoe type, heel height, size, width, and color, or just hit "Sandals," where I can then drill down by all the previous categories, plus "new," "name," "low price," "high price," and the Holy Grail: "popularity." That one click gives me the most highly rated shoes in the category, and they're rated by the people who actually bought and wore the shoes. BOOM.

I can't tell you how valuable this one thing has proven to be, over and over, when it comes to ordering shoes online. I've ordered shoes half a size too big, thanks to Zappos, and had them fit perfectly. I've rejected adorable flats when five people in a row said they were miserably uncomfortable. Anyone who orders shoes or clothes online knows that fit is the ultimate crapshoot, and Zappos' user reviews take so much guesswork out of the ordering that I'd bet it contributes to a much lower instance of returns overall.

Customer service
Piperlime has matched Zappos on free shipping and free returns, but Zappos has bought the love of women everywhere with the free overnight shipping...that it no longer offers. It's definitely a blow to the brand to discover that some of its most customer-friendly features, like free overnight shipping and price matching, are gone. Still, I ordered running shoes from Zappos last week, and they were here within two days. I can't say much about Piperlime in that respect, as I just placed my first order today. I did, however, get an e-mail that said the shoes should arrive within seven business days. I'll tell you one thing: if it really takes seven days for those shoes to get here, Piperlime won't be beating out Zappos anytime soon.

But as I said, Zappos' best feature is not just its customer service. It's its actual customers--the ones who take the time to review shoes and offer tips as to sizing, fit, and comfort so you can actually buy with confidence. It'd take a lot of mistakes and mishandling of orders to undue the value of that community.

The verdict
So, winner? Well, I only have four categories in my little head-to-head, and I seem to have ended in a tie. From a purely emotional standpoint, I'm still a Zappos fan, because I think the idea of customer reviews for shoes is sheer, unparalleled genius. But check back with me in a week or so to see how it goes with the kid-shoe adventure. Piperlime is coming up fast from behind.

I wish I could say that Diet.com's new Nutrition on the Go service only appeals to obsessive health nuts. But if that's true, then I am one. I was pretty excited about the possibilities...until I tried it.

The concept is pretty simple: You text the name of a restaurant and the menu item you're interested in to DIET1, or 34381. In theory, the site returns the nutritional information for the food you entered, including calories, fat, carbohydrates, and protein. If you're doing Weight Watchers, you can add "Points" or even "pts" to your query and get the Weight Watchers rating, as well.

Nutrition on the Go is a great idea--who hasn't wondered just how bad that burrito (you know, the one the size of a newborn baby?) could possibly be. This is the kind of service that can actually head off that horrible mistake before it happens. That's why it's such a bummer that the database seems, at least right now, pretty limited. Worse, it's limited to restaurants that are patently bad for you! Nutrition To Go works like a charm if you're only looking for nutritional information for McDonald's, Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A, or Burger King. Now, you tell me: How often are the patrons of McDonald's, Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A and Burger King looking for precise nutritional data before they order? The service does have Starbucks, which is a coup, and which you should know can be really, really bad for you. Consider their press release example:

Starbuck's White Hot Chocolate - No Whip (nonfat Milk) Grande Cals: 480, Fat: 18g, Carb: 63g, Prt: 17g

Ouch. But I searched for a Chipotle burrito, and even though Chipotle is owned by McDonald's, I got nothing. I searched for "Applebees buffalo wings" and also got no results. I wasn't trying to trick the service, I can understand why it might, for example, only have information on chain restaurants, but I thought those two were pretty common.

Now, to be fair, when Nutrition on the Go works, it works, but it's best to be precise. I queried "Taco Bell taco" and got back: Taco Bell Taco Salad with Salsa and Shell (Calories 790; Fat 42g; Carb 73g; Protein 31g). When I sent "Taco Bell soft taco," I got back the complete specs for a beef soft taco (210 calories, 10 grams of fat, 21 grams of carbohydrates, and 10 grams of protein).

Overall, I can see loving Nutrition on the Go if the database is filled out a bit more. Currently, the site says it offers "over [sic] 36,000 foods from 1,700 restaurants in North America." If that's the case, I suggest an alphabetical or even regional list of the restaurants, just so I could scan it for the ones I go to often. That would save me both frustration and pounds. After all, I know that a Chipotle carnitas burrito isn't the best choice I could make this week, but I don't know know. Save me from myself, Diet.com!

BOSTON--Is a fashion and tech industry partnership the equivalent of mixing plaids with stripes, or is this a case of black and white being the perfect match?

After all, there are not many tech events where you need an Italian translator on hand.

John Lester, director of business development and academic programs at Linden Labs, shows Second Life's ''Second Style' fashion magazine.

(Credit: Candace Lombardi/CNET Networks)

Members from both groups eagerly met Tuesday to discuss their mating potential at a place they could both feel comfortable--the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston. The event was hosted by Moda e Technologia, an Italian nonprofit organization that promotes fashion and tech exchange. Big names present included Linden Labs, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dolce & Gabbana, Max Mara, and Italian filmmaker Giacomo Faenza who showed his online short Gadget Men.

A fashion-technology partnership is an obvious benefit for both industries. Venues like Second Life or My Virtual Model could serve as a place for the fashion industry to promote brands and virtually develop the worlds they attempt to create through their clothing lines. Fashion jumping into the world of Web 2.0, virtual worlds, and tech-related products could in turn draw in mainstream shoppers who might not have otherwise bothered before with that kind of tech.

But the event itself revealed fundamental differences, with one crowd easily slipping into presentations with their laptops and the others needing a little tech support when their turn came.

Dolce & Gabbana is known for having already jumped headfirst into technology with digital media promotions, cell phones, ring tones, and wallpaper. They are one of the fashion companies that do seem to get that they can use the Internet and its new tools to both enhance brand image and create new streams of revenue. But even their own digital marketing guy said it could be hard to convince companies to understand the importance of creating things like a virtual presence and products for avatars. Dennis Valle, director of media interaction at Dolce & Gabbana, said that the move to digital is a big jump that will require teaching a whole industry a new vocabulary and explanation of context.

People in the fashion industry normally do their advertising through their fabric and their market research by talking to people out in the world when they travel, he said.

"Advergame, edutainment, advertorial, and docudrama are new terms that will become part of companies' everyday use...Sensorial marketing, a way to understand consumers' actions, thoughts, and intentions, could translate into a new way to meet their needs," Valle said.

After giving a forthright and informative presentation on My Virtual Model, an avatar creation site that incorporates brand name clothes, Louise Guay, the company's president and founder, was met with a question that showed not everyone in her audience had started with her from the same place.

Marina Garzoni, founder of Moda e Technologia, a Milan-based non-profit organization that seeks to bring tech and fashion together.

(Credit: Candace Lombardi/CNET Networks)

So how much do people pay to use this avatar person, asked one audience member? She raised her eyebrows in delightful surprise once Guay explained that it was not the user who paid, but the company promoting the brand.

John Lester, director of business development and academic programs at Linden Labs, explained Second Life's business model by comparing its in-world users to people browsing the Internet for free and its islands or presences as hosted Web sites.

Lester, on the other hand, was not as savvy when it came to fashion. He proudly explained the user-friendly way in which people can incorporate clothing and body parts into their Second Life avatars with a runway worthy slide show and real-time presentation of fashion forward avatars in Second Life. But when he pointed out that friends can even duplicate outfits so they can wear the same thing, he was met with a few snickers and giggles from the audience.

He did, however, manage to hit the important points.

"Whatever you do in Second Life you retain all of the intellectual property rights...Our community is more gender-balanced...our user base has a median age of 35, and it's very international with 70 percent of users outside the U.S.," he said.

What's more, Second Life already has a thriving fashion scene including lighting effects, night clubs, dancing, and even its own Vogue equivalent. He showed Second Style, a virtual magazine whose publisher makes money by selling ad space to retailers of not just avatar clothes, but body parts like noses, lips, and hair. During one phenomenon, Second Life avatars even carried around chickens as an accessory.

Now that's something you don't see on the runway.