This Next is a social shopping network, along the lines of Kaboodle (reviewed here). The site centered a lot of attention onto their “Mavens” (trend-setters) who are featured on the homepage. Content is also organized by city, to keep the local relevance aspect – always a good idea. Another section, featured on the homepage again, allows users to see “new discoveries” that are made on a daily basis by the most active users.

The site allows the most active “mavens” and bloggers of all sorts to use a ThisNext widget that automatically loads content on third-party sites.

We, as usual, see limitations in this model and in the idea of letting everyone and anyone decide what is best for others. We also are skeptical about how “mavens” are or become real trend-setters with a membership system open to all and where the meritocratic process is only based on being particularly active on the site.