As mentioned in an earlier post, I think that having some sort of personal inventory application would be the bee’s knees. One way to make such software more applicable to “real life” would be to introduce information feedback from offline purchases. Virtual receipts for real products.
This would be relevant any for purchase where your identity is checked and the store has internet access. Your member number at a Co-op. Your “club card” at a big chain store. Your credit card. The store probably knows at very least how to get in touch with you, so why not associate that identity with an online collection point (i.e. an email account, a server for some other application, a website?
Any time you make a purchase with identification, the store could send a properly-verified digital copy of the receipt to the online collection point, where you keep a database of receipts. This would be a boon for people who always lose paper receipts, and if the system is secure enough, it could eventually help with taxes, or just figuring out where the heck all your money is going.
