The Remix Challenge

Flat-Panel TV Finder Featured in the Weekly Ad

bestbuyjoe — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:23:01 +0000

Awesome news! Last week and this week the Flat-Panel TV Finder that was constructed with the help of the TopCoder community is featured in the Best Buy Weekly Ad. I took a picture with my phone, so sorry if the quality stinks:

This is great news for the community and shows off the awesome work you’ve all done. Hopefully we see more examples like this in the near future!

Great Results Of All The Hard Work!

bestbuyjoe — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:01:09 +0000

As you know we started this journey between Best Buy and TopCoder earlier this year. We’ve run contests for multiple things, and two of them have been recently testing on BestBuy.com with great results!

The Best Selling Laptop Carousel and the Mobile Phones Accessory Finder have shown very promising early results in improving the site experience for our customers. The accessory finder can be found here. The carousel was in a test on BestBuy.com and we are examining complete results. I’ll post a link to it when it’s fully implemented.

Everyone involved should be extremely proud of what we’ve done so far. I think it’s a great representation of what can be accomplished with TopCoder.

I’m especially looking forward to our upcoming Best Selling Widget. This will allow us to get the power of Remix into the hands of people who may not be able to develop their own solution!

I’ll be posting links to active results as we continue to implement solutions from by the Remix Challenge.

Best Selling Widget Development Powered by Remix!

bestbuyjoe — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:12:22 +0000

We are working to develop a widget using our best selling information by category with TopCoder!

Currently, the widget is in the storyboard stage of development; check out the details here.

Our goal is to make the powerful data of Remix available in an easy to use format that people can put on various sites (blog, Facebook, etc). The widget is being developed on the yourminis platform to do just that.

If you feel like you can help us design how the widget looks and works, enter the contest! We look forward to the results!

Interesting Remix Queries!

bestbuyjoe — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:33:40 +0000

Over on the Remix Blog I’ve put up a story about interesting Remix queries. We’ve started to periodically put out a Remix API query for people to check out the power of Remix, how you can manipulate the information, and what it looks like out of the API.

Have your own interesting query idea? Let us know!

API Updates and Remix Portal Round Two

bestbuyjoe — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:39:20 +0000

Greetings TopCoder and Remix Challenge competitors! We’ve performed some updates to the Remix API that we’d like to make sure you know about for potential use in Remix Challenge contests. Most notable is data on products frequently purchased with other products.

Check it out on the Remix Blog.

Also we are now in round two of the Remix Developer Portal Redesign contest! Congrats to the following round one winners:

revoblue
ali_raza_shaik
basuki
grandee
puchki

Round two will run until Tuesday, September 29th.

The Remix Portal

bestbuyjoe — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:31:04 +0000

As you may or may not have noticed on the TopCoder Studio site, we have started a contest to remake the Remix Developer Portal. We’ve realized that we need much more out of our current site than we are getting and would like to see what others can come up with!

We’re excited to see what experiences you all come up with.

Check out the contest details here.

If you have questions about the contest in general visit the contest forums, I’ll answer any and all questions I can!

A Remix Challenge Milestone!

bestbuyjoe — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:15:12 +0000

One of our first TopCoder contests involved design and development of a solution for laptop accessories. Well as of the 19th of August we will begin testing of our new Laptop Accessory Finder on BestBuy.com.

When you go to a specific laptop product page, there will be a new tab there instead of the previous accessories tab.

If you do not see it, try to go to a different product page or clear your browser’s cookies and try again.

We are excited to see the reaction and use of the finder and to show off our results with the TopCoder community.

If you have any questions about the Remix API or our work with TopCoder please let us know on our Forums (http://remix.bestbuy.com/forum) or email remix AT bestbuy DOT com.

Challenge Updates

bestbuyjoe — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:33:58 +0000

The Remix Challenge is going strong! All details on current challenge work is updated on the left side of the page under “Challenges”. We are in assembly phase of our Computer Experience/Laptop Accessories contest and hope to see some working results soon. We are extremely excited to see the live results!

Here are some upcoming contests to get the ideas flowing early:

Digital SLR Lens Finder – We are exploring ideas on helping customers find the right lens for their DSLR camera. There are many different ways you can take this idea, do we ask what kind of pictures the customer takes most often? Skill level?

Blu-Ray Movies – Best Buy is looking to ‘refresh’ or update the blu-ray experience currently on BestBuy.com. Think about what would make the experience better for our customers, does it need to be flashy? More functional? You tell us.

Look for updates here as these contests get closer to launch. As always if you have questions about any contests relating to Remix Challenge or the Best Buy Remix API. Post in the TopCoder Forums or the Best Buy Remix Forums at http://remix.bestbuy.com/forum.

Musical Instruments

bestbuyjoe — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:20:25 +0000

Best Buy now has a full-on Musical Instruments Store set up inside select Best Buy locations. We’re not talking about a few guitars and some keyboards-but also top of the line guitars, drums, keyboards and DJ gear. A selection for everyone from beginners to professionals, making the Best Buy Musical Instrument Store a major retailer of rock gear in the country. What make us different? Non-commissioned help from experienced musicians, top brands, private demo rooms and even guitar lessons.

And when you shop with us, you’re not just shopping with our ever-growing Musical Instruments Store, you’re connecting with everything you know Best Buy has to offer.

Phase One: Idea Generation – Complete

Phase Two: Wireframe/Storyboard – On Hold

Contest Updates

bestbuyjoe — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:12:08 +0000

Here are some updates on finished Remix Challenges, others going on right now, and some upcoming challenges:

Flat Panel Televisions

We selected the following ideas from the Idea Generation contest:

m.soumyadeep
JacobZuma
dhbellol
amiune
red.dragon

Congratulations to our Idea Contest winners! To view the submissions, you must be a registered member of TopCoder. We will be launching a Storyboard Tournament on Thursday (5/21).

Musical Instruments

We just completed our Idea Generation contest for this, we are looking through the submissions now. Winners will be announced Friday (5/22) and a Storyboard Tournament will be launched that day so look for it!

Computer Accessories

We have completed round one of our Storyboard Tournament and round two is running right now. See the Contest Details for more information.

Ink and Toner

The Idea Generation phase of this challenge is still running until the 25th of May. Get your submissions in and let us know if you have any questions!