[nickadams]

Not to be confused with SmartWater: http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/dynamic/press_center/site...

I know, I'm trolling. Sorry. But it's too similar. They should tweak it.

Moving on... for the most part it seems, big financial decisions like this are usually summed up as: "It depends." It's just hard to make reasonable recommendations since the answer is so dependent on each individual's situation.

For home buying decisions specifically, once you get beyond rent vs. buy calculations for X zip code, and into personal spending habits and discipline, work situations, family history, future plans, market trends, investment history and ability, and just general personal behavior, I can imagine it getting very tricky. (Not to mention how do you trust the information provided by the user without a personal relationship with that person or a decent history? Is it pulled from some source? Or are you just asking them?)

I'm curious to see how they handle that.

If they can give actual advice tailored to the individual based on all that supporting data, they have something. But if in the end it's just vague recommendations (essentially, "it depends") then it's just more of the same.

Not to mention the privacy challenges that would come with gathering all that data required to make solid recommendations.

Anyway, and interesting service worth keeping an eye on for sure. Tough nut to crack, but if they do it, they'll stand out.