901am

New Media News Every Morning

Buy an Entire Village Online

By Leave a Comment

Hillary Clinton believes it takes a village. How would you like to OWN the village? Thanks in part to an online auction, White’s City, New Mexico can be yours.

Imagine it: two motels, an RV park, 25 campsites, your own post office, grocery store, restaurants and more – sitting on your land.

The auction takes place on July 14 at 11am. Online bidding starts the very next day. Bid here.

No pressure, though. The town has been operating for over 80 years under the ownership of the White family. Looks like they’ve had enough and are packing it in.

The tourist town sits outside of Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

I love how far online bidding has come. I might be interested. Do you think they’ll accept Paypal?

Originally posted on June 17, 2008 @ 4:05 pm

Kriyari launches iStorez.com

By

Kriyari Inc. announced the launch of iStorez, a unique consumer shopping site that collects and organizes shopping newsletters from hundreds of stores and brands and presents them as ‘on demand’, visual and searchable storefronts. iStorez combines a ‘patent pending’ storefront creation engine with Web 2.0 technologies to deliver continually fresh, relevant and unique content for shoppers. iStorez empowers consumers to enjoy a personalized shopping experience by allowing them to create a shopper profile and select their favorite stores. As consumers keep returning to the site, they will always find the latest products and discover the best deals at their favorite stores. To get started, iStorez comes with pre-selected shopper profiles so visitors can select a profile that matches their shopping style.

iStorez is very different from a shopping comparison or a social shopping site. First, consumers can browse the latest trends in fashion and technology as they view various storefronts. It is like walking down a ‘virtual Fifth Avenue’. Second, when a consumer searches for an item, the best matching storefronts are presented in order of relevance. It is as though a custom mall has been created ‘on demand’ based on the consumer’s interest. This works very well for ‘soft good’ items such as apparel, jewelry, gifts, furniture, etc., where a consumer has to see what’s there before
they can decide what to buy. Third, consumers can discover special sales, discounts and limited items that would otherwise be buried deep in their Inboxes, and that is only if they have previously subscribed to that particular newsletter.

Originally posted on January 30, 2008 @ 5:18 am

QVC expands online community to full social networking site

By

QVC.com has expanded its popular online community into a full social network platform powered by LiveWorld.

QVC’s expanded social network is based on LiveWorld’s latest Community Center platform including LiveWorld’s moderation tools and data warehouse reporting. QVC is utilizing LiveWorld’s API & Portlets technology to directly integrate community content throughout the main QVC site.

qvc.png

Originally posted on January 15, 2008 @ 10:27 am

Sears plagued with controversies

By

sears.gifThe PR firm of retail store Sears is having a really tough time these days defending its image against the tirades of consumers and privacy groups over its two separate online policies.

According to The Chicago Sun Times, privacy advocates are accusing Sears of adding spyware on the computers of some customers so it can track the online activities of those users for market research purposes. But Sears is quick to refute these allegations, saying that those consumers gave their consent and the terms were clearly explained to them. Moreover, the information gathered from customers is not shared to other parties.

Another major setback is reminiscent of Facebook’s Beacon. Apparently, Sears has displayed publicly some confidential information in one of its website, ManageMyHome.com. Exposing data such as purchase history is like opening your door to muggers. A lawsuit is already filed by a customer for this very insensitive act.

Although Sears defended that this purchase history function is very helpful to the customers, it decided to temporarily shut down this service until a validation process is implemented.

Originally posted on January 9, 2008 @ 9:56 am

Shopit wants to buy the ugliest gift you received

By

shopit.pngShopit.com, the social shopping community on the web, is spending $10,000.00 on two of the crappiest gifts received this holiday season.

Members simply add their crappy gifts to their Shopit stores in one of two categories; Ugliest Apparel Item, and Most Useless Item. The Shopit community will then vote on which item they think is the crappiest and the winner of each category will receive $5,000.

Contestants’ gifts will appear everywhere their Shopit store appears, including Shopit’s Flash Store Widgets. Members can also have friends vote for their gifts through their Facebook profiles by adding the Shopit Facebook Application.

The portability of Shopit’s stores allows for maximum visibility of a store’s items, a useful feature for members competing for the most votes from their peers in the Crappy Gift Contest. Anyone is welcome to participate by adding a gift or voting. They simply join the free Shopit community and begin adding items, the crappier the better. Contest ends January 31.

Originally posted on January 8, 2008 @ 11:02 am