pleasefixtheiphone.com is Web 2.0 at its best

By Andrew Lim on 21 October 2008, 12:09pm

This was going to be a post about the site pleasefixtheiphone.com, describing how it achieves user-generated content nirvana by combining a Digg-like voting system with a subject people are passionate about -- things people want fixed on the iPhone. Unfortunately, it seems to have been pulled, or at least the homepage isn't working for us.

So in the absence of being able to visit the site, let us tell you why pleasefixtheiphone.com is so great. The phone industry, or any business for that matter, struggles to communicate with its customers and often uses unrepresentative surveys to poll user satisfaction. Enter the full power of the Internet.

By taking the concept of 'digging' and allowing users to easily submit issues they have with the iPhone and then vote them up or down, the pleasefixtheiphone team may have stumbled on the best customer survey/development aid ever created. You could imagine an entire site based on this model covering thousands of products.

Up until now, punters have had to call up annoying phone lines or post disgruntled messages on obscure forums, but a centralised 'pleasefix' Web site would change all of that. A centralised site that dealt with product issues might just make the manufacturers stand up and listen, which could be why pleasefixyouriphone isn't live anymore. Fingers crossed it goes live again soon, so you can see what we're talking about. -Andrew Lim