As the Christmas shopping rush approaches, eBay Ireland has introduced the Present Picker at www.eBay-christmas.ie, a handy tool that throws out some gift suggestions based on the age, sex and personality information the user inputs.
The descriptor scale runs from such traits as hype to chilled and arty to practical, as well as extravagant to no frills, which roughly determines the price range.
Results are displayed graphically in general categories such as MP3 players, shoes etc.
The only problem is it seems to generate roughly the same choices once you have picked the age, sex and relation, so it kept insisting that my twenty-something sister might like perfume, which had already occurred to me anyway — not very helpful.
Same when I got Present Picker to brainstorm for my dad: golf clubs, wallet, gloves — typical ‘standard’ dad presents.
I think Present Picker would be more useful for finding presents for someone you don’t know very well, or perhaps for grandparents struggling to get something relevant for their grandkids or vice versa.
By Marie Boran
