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Ask HN: tools to create feature-level comparison matrices?

4 points| felciano | 15 years ago

We've been using Excel to create feature matrices to compare different tech components, listing both technical features as well as fit to our needs (e.g. using 1-5 stars to indicate how it fits our requirements). We've done this for storage devices, cell phones, and are now considering switching from PC to Mac and are trying to compare across the two. Creating these sheets is time-consuming and brain-deadening, and made me wonder whether there aren't some web-based tools that do this for you (e.g. scrape feature listings for a Dell and a Mac PC to let you compare / contrast). Any ideas?

3 comments

antichaos|15 years ago

Try Google Squared http://www.google.com/squared/search?q=laptop

felciano|15 years ago

Nice! I always wondered what Squared might be good for pragmatically. I've played around with it a bit since yesterday and the parsing is pretty raw, esp for spec sheets from the Dell site (which surprised me). But you can save it to Google Spreadsheets and go from there, so it looks like a nice way to get started. Thanks!

ScottWhigham|15 years ago

Wow! What a crazy neat tool. Thanks!