"If the information is not correct and it's frivolous, no one will continue to visit the site," Gobé says. "That's going to be the basis for success."

Given the difficulty of identifying products from pictures (are those Earnest Sewn or AG jeans that Kate Hudson is wearing?), there's a potential danger of the site devolving into overconfident users posting inaccurate information.

But the site's co-founders, Aaron LaBerge and Kirsten, aren't worried.

"We see the arguing back and forth as a good thing," says LaBerge.

"We're not trying to be the reference encyclopedia for everything factual," adds Kirsten. "This is about people's best guess. Seeing things that are wrong inspire people to go change it."

Association between product and celebrity has long been recognized as a powerful driver of buying decisions. Time Inc. has had tremendous success with In Style magazine, started in 1995, which shares a principle similar to Coolspotters: to provide readers with product details for trends modeled by America's favorite celebrities.

Portfolio.com's parent company, Condé Nast, took the idea a step further with Lucky magazine, called a magologue—the product offerings of a catalogue with the editorial influence of a magazine.

Transporting the concept to the Web removes the last purchasing hurdle: At a computer, readers can become buyers with just a click.  

SeenOn.com is another example. It was created by a Web startup in partnership with most major television media companies and provides exhaustive product and purchasing information for items featured in a long roster of television shows and movies.  

Coolspotters was created by Fanzter, a company founded last summer by LaBerge, a former senior vice president of technology and product development at ESPN and Kirsten, a former vice president of business development at AT&T Broadband.

"I oversaw fantasy gaming at ESPN and saw how well that worked," said LaBerge. "It led me to think about taking that social aspect of the 'new Web' and applying it to a different space."

Fantzer raised $2 million from the venture capital firms Second Avenue Partners and Curious Office along with several others.

In terms of ultimately turning a profit, Coolspotters has tremendous potential.

The site encourages users to rate and connect themselves to profiles and spots, allowing the site to build up a deep database of your tastes and preferences and serve ads intelligently.

The e-commerce functionality will provide a second revenue stream because Coolspotters will get a cut of sales they refer to online retailers.

And while all the site is currently free, LaBerge and Kirsten see future potential for some premium, subscription-based content.