At this time of year every web site and its dog is offering pages and pages of “for her” or “for him” gift guides, but for the seriously challenged shopper you want the ability to input data and get a neat list of suggestions tailored exactly to who you need to buy for. After all, where have we got to in 2009 if we can’t expect the Internet to do the hard work for us?  While we’d hope most of you will be fairly sorted in terms of buying the perfect something for your nearest and dearest, it’s those once-a-year gifts for in-laws and more distant family members that can be a struggle. With this in mind, we’ve compiled a list of 10 of best sites and mobile apps that offer gift suggestion generators, so you can click, tick or input, and then put your feet up, sitting pretty with the knowledge a difficult decision has been made for you by a clever algorithm.  Far and away the most fun gift finder visually, Gifts.com offers a clickable family line-up and differentiates between babies, children, teens, and college age kids, while grown-ups are categorized as young adults, 35-plus, or seniors. Those that appreciate attention to detail will be happy to note the family graphic changes as you make your selection.  After that stage the site offers around six sets of two different options, such as getting you to state whether a female recipient would prefer jewelry from a well-known designer, or a talented local artisan, to build up a profile of the person. At the end of the process the site does throw up a huge list of potential presents that you have to trawl through, but they are at least highly relevant, thanks to the clever profiling process.  The gift of a good book is always welcome and Barnes & Noble has made it easy with its “Gift Suggestions” widget. One of the more simple options out there, it none-the-less returns decent results, meaning you could be a few clicks and a flash of the plastic away from sorting out Uncle Herbert’s present. The widget lets you select “kid” or “adult,” with the kid option then giving you a choice of age range, whilst hitting adult will let you select by price. There’s then a list of interests to choose from. Adult options are the usual, and kid interests encompass things like, “cars, trains, planes,” “animal and dinosaurs,” and “dolls and plush,” and returns toy, game, and DVD results in addition to books.  “Be very wary when buying lingerie for your girlfriend,” is accepted wisdom in the Western world. That’s all about to change though with the launch of Knickers’ quiz that helps hapless bra buyers with simple online questions that narrows down just what kind of undies your lovely lady would like.  Getting the thong question out of the way first, the quiz offers images that help the quiz taker determine what type of bits she already has. Ten questions and a cheeky peek in her knicker drawer for sizing insight and before you know it there’ll be a classy gift box under the tree, ready to open when the children/parents are out of the room…  Not wicked in the call-child-services-sense but wicked in the cool sense – this particular Internet uncle may well help you out of a present jam. It’s a UK site, so a few of the branded toy suggestions may have cultural irrelevance for users elsewhere, but for gift idea generation highly specific to age, it’s a cracker. UK users can take up the life-saving options to gift wrap, get a hand-written Christmas card, and have the present sent direct, while all users can create an account on the site to send you email reminders – not that you’ll need them for the Holidays (we’d hope), but useful to avoid missing little Jimmy’s birthday in May.  GiftGen a great gift finding service offering the rare “either gender” and even more rare “couple” category, so you’re not forced to choose to go one way or the other in terms of gender if you are buying for two. There’s also the nice option to spend “nothing” which generates ideas and links along the lines of; get a library book; visit a gallery; make a meal; issue a novelty voucher; create a mask, etc, depending on your input data. As well as a web site, GiftGen offers an embeddable widget and iPhone and BlackBerry apps.  Macy’s online Fragrance Finder is the next best thing to trawling to the cosmetics counters at your local department store. No wait, it’s better because you don’t have to actually trawl the cosmetics counters at your local department store. Armed with a little bit of knowledge about your giftee (as you have to put yourself in their shoes to answer the quiz) there’s a few simple questions to field before you’re presented with a handful of fragrances to suit. Help someone out of a fragrance rut this Holiday season by selecting a new scent based on their personality and preferences.  Unless you know someone really well, music is a hard gift to get right, but when you do it’s kudos all the way. If you want to try and impress a certain someone, be it a audiophile colleague, teenage nephew, or difficult dad, then the MusicPlasma site can help. Simply enter in the name of a band or artist you know the person does like and the site will bring up a visual bubble map of similar or related artists. From there you’re a few clicks away from snapping up a CD or download, and hopefully impressing giftee with your eerily accurate understanding of their complex music taste.  Frankly the best advice we could give on buying gifts for tykes is talk to the parents to make sure said spoiled kid does not already have the gift — oh, and don’t assume because they loved Dora the Explorer last Christmas that they still do. Kids are faddy and grow up fast, something that can catch an unwary uncle/aunt off guard.  But Toys R Us can help, with a gift suggestion guide that separates girls from boys, then by age, then interests, with categories such as techie, smarty pants, as well as creative, before showing a list of hot toys that you can be sure will cause November’s salary to rapidly vanish.  RandomGifts offers another fairly simple user interface with drop down boxes getting you to narrow down its frightening 1,000-plus product list to a more manageable size. We like it because the recipient list has a bit of thought about it, with “colleague,” “male/female friend,” and even “pet” as options. Occasion is next, then personality options, which are light-hearted including “miserable,” “bling,” and “has it all.” Suggestions range from clothes to furniture to food and drink presents.  Finally, we have an iPhone app for you, ideal for those “I’m standing in the middle of a mall and I’ve just realized I don’t have a clue what to buy” moments. For $1.99, “A Perfect Gift, Christmas 09 Edition” offers help with finding that perfect gift using your relationship with the person (12 options), your spend budget, and the interests of the person you’re shopping for (25 options). The app offers around 200 gift ideas in total, so it’s not as comprehensive as some of the sites we’ve mentioned here, but for some quick on-the-go inspiration it might well sort you out.  What other gift suggestion guides out there would you recommend to hapless Holiday shoppers? Let us know in the comments.  Image courtesy of iStockphotoiStockphoto, Acik
Don't know what to get for that special someone? Even more stumped on gift ideas for that not-so-special someone? Here are 10 of best gift suggestion generators.