It is time to draw a line under 2008 and reflect on all the good things it brought us.

For bidorbuy, it was a fabulous year. No need to pile figures and percentages on you. Suffice it to say that all the relevant indicators are up. The number of registered users. The number of visitors. The number of listings. And, most importantly, both the number and the value of deals concluded on the site are up, resulting in an impressive growth of turnover.

Then there were the upgrades and re-vamps, all in the name of better user experience. The aim is to achieve that lofty ideal: a feature-rich site that is easy to use. Some may call it a contradiction in terms. However, we think that feature-rich simplicity is achievable – though it does not come easily. Sometimes, the best intention turn into their opposite.

For example, consider the failed marriage of Art and Crafts.

With the aim of making the navigation faster and simpler, bidorbuy decided to reduce the number of main categories, the ones that appear on the left-hand side of the home page, making the list more manageable. Each main category was then branched out on the second level in (sometimes painstaking) detail, allowing the users to easily find what they were looking for.

In the first, trimming part of the mission, several main categories got bundled up. Thus, Sports & Leisure replaced two separate categories, Sports and Outdoors & Camping. Everything went without bigger problems – until the decision was taken to put Art and Crafts categories together. The Crafts part of the bidorbuy community got rather upset, claiming that the new partner was thwarting its potential. A hasty – and amicable – divorce was arranged, to everyone’s satisfaction.

The changes and the improvements on bidorbuy will go on. If you feel that any of them hurt you – do not hesitate to pour your heart out on the forum. While it may not be possible to keep all the bidorbuy users happy all the time, the objective is to make most of them happy most of the time.