Jiang Wu's Home Page


Information Retrieval for Consumer Electronics


I am currently working at Retrevo Inc. You may contact me at jwu@retrevo.com.


Retrevo is a consumer product information site that let you search product information such as user manuals, product reviews, forums, blogs, stores, daily deals, etc. We use specialized algorithms to parse structured and unstructured data, producing a value judgement about consumer electronics products. With more than 40,000 consumer electronics introduced to the market every year, finding,

buying, and using these products has become increasingly miserable, confusing, and frustrating. 


General search engines pile unorganized data on shoppers. Publishers test labs are only able to test a limited product sample. Shopping sites compare prices, but dont help consumers find the best fit and retailers are limited to selections from their manufacturers. Retrevo compiles research for shoppers quickly, providing objective and impartial answers about the consumer electronics that effect their lives.


Some examples of highly effective value assessments at Retrevo can be seen in the following examples:  When looking for reviews, one can find best values for the value brand – vizio, using Vizio TV Reviews.  For reviews of all LCD TVs, look at LCD TV Reviews. To find all HDTVs sold by Toshiba, look at Toshiba TV. Looking for TVs of a certain size, say 42” LCD TV, 47” LCD TV, or 50” Plasma TV. When buying a monitor, look at top LCD Monitors sold by Dell, Viewsonic, etc. HD Camcorders are also becoming good values.


Retrevo Also Provides User Guides and Manuals

Another cool thing Retrevo is doing is to collect hard to find user guides and manuals for past and current products. Retrevo also provides free downloads to more than 100,000 user manuals for consumer electronics. Popularly look at manuals on our site include Nikon Manuals, Sony Manuals, and Philips Universal Remote Codes.


Accessory Classification

It has been very challenging to classify consumer electronics accessories. The reasons are due to a huge inventory of third party products, lack of structured information, and the rate of changes. Leveraging a series of techniques and data built throughout the years, we are able to make a successful classification of accessories. You can see a few results at the newly launched Retrevo Marketplace. Additional examples can be found at Cell Phone Accessories, Printer Accessories, and Camera Cases and Bags.




Before Retrevo, I worked at Extreme Networks – a pioneer in Ethernet Switching. Even before Extreme, I worked in the FileMaker group at Claris Corporation, which was a part of Apple.