Shmoop smashes away competition

Launched only a couple of weeks ago and still in a beta state, school help site Shmoop.com actually smashes away its competition in its infant stage.

Shmoop claims that it is better than long-standing sites like SparkNotes and CliffsNotes because it offers deeper analysis, more resource links, citations of where their information comes from and the ability to clip notes and have virtual sticky notes.

Shmoop’s Web 2.0 design, which stresses things like easy navigation, big fonts, rounded corners and quick loading dynamic elements gives it an edge in sleekness and coolness over other similar sites.

According to their Veteran’s Day (also Kurt Vonngeut and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s birthdays) launch press release, “The writers of Shmoop’s original content are primarily Ph.D. and Masters students from top U.S. universities, such as Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, and Princeton.”

The main difference in how this content is presented from other sites is that Shmoop breaks down information short bullets rather than long paragraphs. The information is just as good as that as say of Sparknotes, and even sprinkles in some quotes.

The feature that possibly makes Shmoop indispensable is the fact that it provides information in so many ways. There’s not just a summary, there’s the “In a nutshell” summary, the “Why I should care,” the “Brief plot overview” and the “Chapter-by-chapter summary.”

Even the analysis of the plot comes in three flavors. The characters analyses are in yet another three different formats!

Finally, the site provides terrific lists documenting the literary devices like symbols, tone, setting, etc. that are better than its competitors because of the easy comprehension level.

Finally, Shmoop has something no other site has: a “Best of the Web” area with links to photos, videos, e-books, pictures and documents related to the novels.

The only reason to have doubts about Shmoop is the small library of novels they cover. But as the site develops and new users provide them with feedback about the site, Shmoop should deliver a terrific experience when using the Internet to do your homework.

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