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Web Habits Can Cause Trouble Bad web habits may not cause cancer, but they sure can get you into trouble according to a recent batch of news stories. Some of the stories are alerts and some just confirm that there are folks that don't think about what they are doing. ABC News in Web Surfing at Work? It Could Cost You Money reports that most businesses do monitor employees' use of the web. Some are imposing fines of up to one thousand bucks for inappropriate use of the web and others are just terminating access. GCN in On the rise: monitoring employees' Web habits reports that more than 20 federal, state and local agencies use software to monitor how employees use the net at work. The Scotsman in Caught up in a web of deceit reports on a situation where some Scots are obvious candidates for the Darwin Awards for stupidity. Apparently, there is a new Scottish website setup to facilitate cheating on a spouse. Visitors are spending big money on the site and posting pictures and descriptions of themselves on the site in hopes of finding fun behind their spouses' backs. Now what could be dumber than putting a picture of yourself on the web or a description of yourself and then believe your spouse isn't going to find out sooner or later. Australia's The Age in Study probes web habits of office slackers reports that "cyberslacking could be eating up as much as a quarter of the time employees spend online . . ." New Zeland's TVNZ In Cyber-slacking days may be over reports that employers are cracking down on cyber-slackers that are costing them millions in lost productivity. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/30/2006 10:30:00 PM 
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Predicting Disease Spread by Tracking Cash on Website  A few days ago I noticed that a dollar bill that I received in change had an odd red marking around the federal reserve bank seal. It said "Track This Bill" and gave the address of a website - www.wheresgeorge.com. The stamp looked a lot like the example to the left, which was provided by another blogger.Where's George and a companion Where's Willy site for Canada encourage recipients of these marked currency notes to enter the note's serial number into a database along with a zip or postal code. Visitors can also enter information about where they got the bill, its condition, or whatever they like. The data is used to track currency. At first I thought this was a bit of silly nonesense used as a draw to a website to get advertising attention. However, it turns out that the currency tracking exercise was a serious study to develop a model of human disperal that could help in the fight against flu and other contagious diseases. The Los Angeles Times in Cash-Tracking Website May Help Disease Models reports the tracking of currency has allowed researchers to create a mathematical model of the movement of people, which can be used to predict the spread of diseases. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/28/2006 11:48:00 PM
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Microsoft Makes Bid To Catch Up With Its Winows Live To catch the latest gouge on what Redmond is doing to catch up to Google in its dominance of the web, you'll have to go downunder. Australia's Computerworld is running a story titled, "Microsoft adds new features to Windows Live," summarizing what bloggers are reporting from Search Champs - an event in Redmond to solicit feedback from pundits and industry experts on Microsoft's lastest tech offerings. The story reports that Windows Live will soon have a new feature to recommend television shows, the integration of images into Live.com RSS feeds, and gadgets that can be dragged from Live.com to the Windows desktop. Aside from the story above, you may want to point your browser at the Read/WriteWeb blog's story "Microsoft Search Champs: Non-NDA Stuff" by Richard MacManus where you can see an example of Windows Live's TV recommendations in a screen shot. MacManus also has a blog story at ZDnet "Microsoft announces Live Labs - and a call to action" which is worth a read. Microsoft is trying to explore ways to grow technology to match the mirroring of the physical world on the Internet. Check out Live Labs at http://labs.live.com/. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/27/2006 12:16:00 AM
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StopBadware Coalition Targets Malicious Software Computerworld in Google, tech companies back StopBadware.org coalition - Computerworld reports that Google, Lenovo Group, and Sun Microsystems are funding a non-profit effort o fight malicious software, adware, spyware, and other garbage that gets installed on users' computers. The effort will be run by personnel at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the University of Oxford's Internet Institute, and Consumer Reports WebWatch. The stopbadware.org site has just been launched. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/25/2006 10:21:00 PM
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Opera Mini Browser Released For people with a java-enabled cell phone, the good news is that there is a new Opera mini browser available to you. The Opera Mini website offers three ways to get the browser, one of which is a download from the web via your phone's WAP browser. Point to http://mini.opera.com. The intent is to make a browser available to low end phones. The mini browser is supported by backend servers that convert content to a stripped down version that will fit on a phone screen. The Register in Java Opera poses smartphone challenge, takes the view that this new browser may be a reason not to buy a smartphone. Opera also sells Opera Mobile for smartphones. It has more features and does not require the backend servers. This product is labeled as a beta version but has good reports as a useful browsing tool. In related news, Google was selected as the default search engine for Opera Mobile and Opera Mini. Story. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/24/2006 09:46:00 PM
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Getting The Golden Goose If the telecoms and cable companies have it their way, we are about to get the golden goose. We'll feel like we've been goosed and they'll get the gold. In an early article Protect Your Net Freedom we featured an op-ed warning about plans for a two tiered Internet with carriers charging premiums to content providers to get faster speed. The fight is still on with huge stakes. Do the carriers make out like bandits, or do we get neutral paths to all of the web's content? The proponents argue that content providers get a free ride. They say that the content providers don't own the cable, copper, fiber and networks and have been getting free use of the lines. So they want to charge to have content moved across their networks. Now this is just plain and simple greed and short-sighted at that. The carriers are already charging each subscriber for the lines and networks. They tell us in rate reviews that we are paying for all their development, maintenance, and the like. So if we as subscribers are paying for all of this, then the argument that the content provider also needs to pay is pretty hollow? It sure sounds like being paid twice for the same thing to me. Nice trick, if you can pull it off, but that is what it is -- trick logic. A little of the old smoke and mirrors and flash, presto, its money in the bank for somebody and that somebody isn't you. Let's ask why people like you and me are using their lines? Well, it isn't because we like the telecoms or cable companies. Probably most of us have a horror story or two about less than stellar service. No, it is because of the content we can access. Content is the driver -- the only driver. They provide a way for us to get content and so we pay for the access. Right now we get to choose what we like and go where we please. If they get their way, they'll pick based on who pays which sites are easy to access and which ones are slow. Like Google's search? What happens when Google doesn't bite on the business practice that seems almost as bad as extortion? Well, you'll get another search engine that offers less, but is faster. So now who is calling the shots? You or the carrier? These folks don't seem to understand that the web is about access to content - free access that is not fettered by somebody else's choices. It is about freedom to go where you want for what you want. Yet, their greed blinds them to why they have the business growth they do in the first place. They just don't see beyond the short-term gain they think that they'll obtain. Crippling the net can't be good for its growth and development. And for sure it can't be good for your wallet. Ask yourself who is really going to pay for this? The money to pay for this is not going to magically come out of content providers' coffers as a freebie without an impact on you as a consumer. It is going to mean that the content provider is going to have to recoup the costs of getting higher speed transmissions and that comes down to you guessed it - you. You'll get to pay higher costs for what you buy and what you use. So let's see if we have this right? You get to pay a subscriber fee and you get to pay for the same service again by paying higher prices for web services as the web service providers pass on costs to you. Want to download an iTune? Well pay an extra 20 cents. Or a movie maybe? Well, be prepared to pay an extra buck or two. What a deal huh? It's time to pick up your pen and write a short personal note to your elected representatives in Congress and let them know what you think of this Internet land grab that is in the end going to hurt you. Tell them you want the new Telecommunications Act to mandate neutral practices toward web content providers. Let's protect our freedom to get to anywhere on the web without a large corporation deciding for profit which sites are favored with faster speeds. Tell them you are going to watch their voting record and keep a note on your refrigerator to remind you on the next election day. And if your representative doesn't get the message and act on it, then don't vote for them next time around. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/23/2006 08:57:00 PM
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German RFID Zapper RFID Journal reports in "RFID-Zapper Shoots to Kill" that two students in Berlin have developed a gadget called the RFID-Zapper that will be able to disable RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags. They also report that the German privacy advocacy group plans to manufacture and sell such a device. Full story. The students' original article RFID-Zapper (EN) appears in the Public Wiki of the 22nd Chaos Communication Congress. The article contains several cautions including advice not to make one and take it on an airline. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/22/2006 11:37:00 PM
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Sci Fi Style Book Reader Comes to Life A starship crew member in a bunk was reading a book on a small electric screen in an old Sci Fi movie some years back. Wow what an awesome idea. But, we all knew it was just a bogus prop because things like that didn't exist, but it was fun to image. Now things are about to change. What was a nifty idea for Sci Fi is shortly going to be available to the consumer market as a Sony Reader. Check out the Sony Reader Flash demo. This reader is pretty awesome because the print on the screen looks more like real print on paper than text on a screen. Sony advertises that the battery life is 7500 page turns, which should give you a chance to mow through most of Stephen King's Dark Tower series on a single charge. Wired recenty ran a story on Sony Reader at Wired News: Screening the Latest Bestseller Wired reports that the device will be available this Spring at a price between $300 and $400 and that publishers will have some 6000 titles ready for use on the device. It will be interesting to see whether consumers trust Sony with this new device after its recent debacle over DRM software on its CDs that deployed what many characterized as a root kit. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/21/2006 07:14:00 PM
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A Different View on Search Engines What impact have search engines had on the web economy? A quick read of the book, The Google Story will tell you that search related ads have propelled the value of Google into the billions of dollars. Does that have a cost on the rest of the web? There are certainly differing views on this. In one camp you are apt to find the view that the ability to find information has benefited everyone and increased the overall value of the web. In a much different camp, you'll find the view that perhaps search engines are depleting the value of websites. A couple of weeks ago Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox featured an article entitled "Search Engines as Leeches on the Web" that is a must read for webmasters. The article takes the view that search engines are draining the value of websites to the benefit of the search engines. He suggests that search ads eat into the gains of site improvement and harm profit margins. Though the view is grim, the article has some good ideas, that are time-tested, for keeping value in a website -- value that sticks with the website owner. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/20/2006 11:07:00 PM
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New Search Engine Attempts to Capitalize on Human Touch Two days ago a new start-up search engine opened up for business on the web with the philosophy that humans are better at information gathering than computers. The search engine, PreFound.com carries the tagline "search what people have already found about your topic!" UPI carried the story "New search engine uses human touch' on January 18 and reports that searches are based on uploaded links generated by users. Users download a tool known as PF Finder that collect information and tags website links that are then uploaded. Apparently the number of results uploaded which now numbers over a million is still not enough to always produce a result. When I tested for a few of my favorite topics, I did not get any results and instead got a link to Google. While the initial look did not help me get information that I wanted today, the search service has the potential for adding another valuable tool to your search kit. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/19/2006 08:23:00 PM
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Resources for Seniors on the Web The web is full of resources for the asking. Sometimes you just need to know where to look. For senior citizens the number of websites offering helpful information is on the rise. Here are a few sites worth noting: American Association of Retired Persons: AARP.org offers member discounts, services, information on elections, learning, health information, legal information, financial information, travel ideas, and fun activities. National Council on Aging: NCOA.org provides helpful publications, job listings, events news, advocacy, research, worker advice, political information, and news targeting seniors. FirstGov Seniors: FirstGove for Seniors is the U.S. federal government's site for senior citizens and is chock full of links to information on consumer protection, education, health, retirement and money, taxes, travel, leisure, and much more. This is also where you'll find links to things like 80+ birthday greetings from the President and help for grandparents raising grandchildren. Medline Plus National Institute of Health website provides a treasure trove of information tailored to seniors on health issues. You could easily spend an entire day just reading the linked issues that are interesting. Seniors-Site: Seniors-site.com provides information on senior living. "Seniors-site is for senior citizens and their caregivers. We provide a forum, articles, . . . a directory of nursing homes . . ." Seniors Resource Guide: SeniorsResourceGuide.com has a listing of useful products tailored to seniors like the 911 guardian phone, Life Alert, Link to Life, Sure Alert Alarm, Scooter store, and more. Seniors Go Travel: SeniorsGoTravel.com provides travel information targeting seniors in the U.S. and Canada. The site has information on tours, travel destinations, and more. Senior Everything: SeniorEverything.com provides a search service for housing, activities, and resources. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/17/2006 10:14:00 PM
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Protecting Your Computer - Avoiding Online Threats with SiteAdvisor SiteAdvisor offers a free downloadable Internet Explorer plug-in that helps protect consumers from "Web-based security threats and nuisances including spyware, adware, spam, viruses, browser-based attacks, phishing, online fraud and identity theft." Once installed the plug-in gives ratings on websites and warnings of dangerous downloads, links to dangerous sites, sites that deliver spam after registration, and more. Site advisor also works nicely with Google search results displayinging an icon for each search result that for which it has data. Clicking on the icon gives you a small report on the site, helping you to avoid troublesome sites that try to install software when you visit or which have other annoyances. Take a look at the Preview and FAQ before downloading. Aside from offering an interesting security plug-in, SiteAdvisor has a blog with a lot of useful information on web download disasters, threats, and security issues. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/16/2006 12:50:00 PM
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Wireless Smartcards and Labels in the Future! Some pretty amazing LCD displays combined with wireless capabilities are being touted by Aveso at it's website. See, Aveso Displays for Smart Labels and Aveso Displays for Smart Cards. Smart labels include product authentication, sensor labels that tell when a product is out of date, textile mounted smart labels, and a very intriguing wireless receiving device that is credit card sized and capable of displaying a host of information useful in daily life. Smart cards include authentication cards, contractless payment cards that display balances and loyalty pooints, stored value gift cards that display funds available, and health care cards that display critical health information. Aveso has created not only an intriguing line of products, but a very good collection of flash product demonstrations allowing a visitor to see how each label or card works and how it can be used. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/16/2006 12:42:00 PM
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Cell Phone Telemarketing Confusion Emails are circulating that claim that within 30 days (or by a specific date) a new national database of cell phone numbers will be released to telemarketers, exhorting people to sign up with the National Do-Not-Call Registry. These emails tend not to be verifiable and the National Do-Not-Call Registry site doesn't carry any such warning. See, https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx. Mainline news media outlets have added to the confusion by publishing a variety of accounts either parroting the emails or by disputing them. Some news writers have not checked into the story. The best source of information on the issue seems to be Snopes.com. Snopes reports that there will be a Wireless 411 database, but that it is an opt-in database and not a published directory. Registering in the National Do-Not-Call Registry won't keep a cell phone number out of the Wireless 411 database, but will cause a cell number to be off-limits to most telemarketers. Finally, there are no deadlines. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/15/2006 07:36:00 AM
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A Web Thank You To WWII Veterans Sometimes a we only learn of a particular website by word-of-mouth or email. Today's email bag contained the following in a message: Before You Go The elderly parking lot attendant wasn't in a good mood. Neither was Sam Bierstock. It was around 1 a.m., and Bierstock, a Delray Beach , Fla, eye doctor, business consultant, corporate speaker and musician, was bone tired after appearing at an event. He pulled up in his car, and the parking attendant began to speak. "I took two bullets for this country and look what I'm doing," he said bitterly. At first, Bierstock didn't know what to say to the World War II veteran. But he rolled down his window and told the man, "Really, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you." Then the old soldier began to cry. "That really got to me," Bierstock says. Cut to today. Bierstock, 58, and John Melnick, 54, of Pompano Beach - a member of Bierstock's band, Dr Sam and the Managed Care Band - have written a song inspired by that old soldier in the airport parking lot. The mournful "Before You Go" does more than salute those who fought in WWII. It encourages people to go out of their way to thank the aging warriors before they die. "If we had lost that particular war, our whole way of life would have been shot," says Bierstock, who plays harmonica. "Every ethnic minority would be dead. And the soldiers are now dying at the rate of about 2,000 every day. I thought we needed to thank them." The song is striking a chord. Within four days of Bierstock placing it on the Web (http://www.beforeyougo.us/), the song and accompanying photo essay have bounced around nine countries, producing tears and heartfelt thanks from veterans, their sons and daughters and grandchildren. "It made me cry," wrote one veteran's son. Another sent an e-mail saying that only after his father consumed several glasses of wine would he discuss "the unspeakable horrors" he and other soldiers had witnessed in places such as Anzio, Iwo Jima, Bataan and Omaha Beach. "I can never thank them enough," the son wrote. "Thank you for thinking about them." Bierstock and Melnick thought about shipping it off to a professional singer, maybe a Lee Greenwood type, but because time was running out for so many veterans, they decided it was best to release it quickly, for free, on the Web. They've sent the song to Sen. John McCain and others in Washington. Already they have been invited to perform it in Houston for a Veterans Day tribute - this after just a few days on the Web. They hope every veteran in America gets a chance to hear it. Turn up your volume and please visit Before You Go by Dr. Sam & The Frivolous Action Blues Band. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/14/2006 11:31:00 PM
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Stress from IT Worse Than We Thought? In the UK, a charity known as Developing Patient Partnerships conducted a study of some 1000 men and women to learn about stress. 30% reported that one of the top causes of stress was Information Technology problems like crashing computers. The BBC in IT stresses 'driving UK to drink' points out that more than a third of people have a drink to cope with stress and about a quarter of the people have a smoke. If you are having computer trouble, have a long commute, and are experiencing a change in financial status, you'd better take a course in stress management, think about activities to reduce stress, and perhaps change habits and diet. And if you are too stressed to back away from your computer and go for a jog, at least do a search on stress management and read up on stress management techniques. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/13/2006 12:19:00 AM
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IDOT Website Gets It! Not all government agencies have been quick to understand the need to provide relevant citizen services via the web. However, the Illinois Department of Transportation is a shining start in providing citizen services that matter to folks. Moving away from the traditional state agency site with pictures of local politicos and policy mumbling, the State of Illinois launched a site Getting Around Illinois that is a synthesis of government services to citizens. CBS2 of Chicago reports in New State Web Site Combines Traffic/Travel that the site uses Internet based maps to allow users to view road conditions, construction information, and get average daily traffic counts. Users will also be able to map travel destinations. Many states need to follow this example of providing information to consumers. There is little wonder that the site received more than a million hits in 24 hours during a winter storm. This is a big step in the right direction. Hopefully, the next big step will be integration of map and traffic information services like this with mobile GPS units allowing individual motorists to get on the spot information of higher reliability than what is currently available by those GPS units that support FM traffic radio feeds. Imagine a GPS unit where you can tap an intersection and get a camera view of traffic as you decide which route to plot. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/12/2006 12:06:00 AM
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Yahoo, Google Expand Mobile Web Offerings Yahoo! has teamed with AT&T and Cingular in the U.S. and with Nokia and Motorola internationally to launch a new service called Yahoo! Go Mobile. This mobile application will run on certain Nokia phones and offer Yahoo! Messenger, Mail, Search, Photos, Address Book, and some content offerings via mobile devices. Yahoo! says that the service will also allow synching with email, messaging, address books, and calendars. Yahoo! has an introduction to the new service at http://go.yahoo.com. Google already has mobile search, image search, mobile web search, local search, sms, gmail mobile, and mappings. However, they have a new deal with Motorola whereby some new Motorola phones will ship with a Google icon pre-installed allowing users to access Google from their phones immediately. Information on Google's mobile offerings can be found a http://mobile.google.com. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/10/2006 12:34:00 AM
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Classics of TV Now on Web Old TV classics like The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, Dragnet, Dick Tracy, Roy Rogers, and the Lone Ranger are now available on the web at the new video-on-demand web services site, iwatchnow.com. The film formats are compatible with Windows, MacIntosh, and Linux operating systems. Content is also Video iPod accessible at www.iwatchipodnow.com. Films can be viewed free of commercials for $.99 or free with ads inserted. There is also an option to pay a $3.99 fee to watch six programs commercial free. In addition to the TV series, the service will also provide hundreds of full-length feature films. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/09/2006 11:16:00 PM
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Web & Tech Trends Impacting Education The Philadelphia Inquirer in tech.life@school | The top 10 technology trends affecting education in 2005 reports on 10 significant trends in IT/Web that are likely to enrich education. From my perspective most of the top 10 items show a trend away from passive use of the web toward intenstive user participation and interaction through a variety of methods. This set of trends is probably not confined to Education. Interactive websites are going to dominate in all areas. This is particularly true in the news arena where blogs, portals, news aggregators and other informal distribution methods are taking an increasing share of readership. There is a wonderful article at Global Surf News "Print/TV news media loose out on web, need to adapt" It makes the point that in younger age groups more people look at news online than read newspapers extensively. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/08/2006 11:59:00 PM
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Your Mobile Phone Call Records For Sale? The Chicago Sun-Times reports in Your phone records are for sale that anyone willing to pay a hefty price can get a record of the cell phone numbers you have called. Apparently the FBI tested one online broker and was able to get records for an FBI agent's cell phone within hours for $160.00. Apparently federal law does not specifically address this issue and anyone willing to pay can get a record of your calls, if they know your cell phone number. While this might be a boon for a private detective, a spouse wanting to check on a suspected cheating spouse, or a business competitor trying to see who sales reps are contacting, it raises some ethical questions about how the numbers were obtained and what cell phone provider services are doing or not doing to protect your information. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/06/2006 01:50:00 PM
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Demographics of the Web Many news papers are reporting that Women under 65 now use the Internet more than men do citing a study released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. See for example, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Women under 65 now use Internet more than men do. This sounded interesting and so I decided to look at the report found at the Pew Internet & American Life Project website under Reports:Demographics. The lead paragraph of the report summary was a surprise: How Women and Men Use the Internet: Women are catching up to men in most measures of online life. . The summary of the report presented there does not make the same statement as the traditional news media are reporting. In fact the report states "The percentage of women using the internet still lags slightly behind the percentage of men. Women under 30 and black women outpace their male peers. However, older women trail dramatically behind older men." In this case the traditional media just plain got it wrong. A bit of careful reading of the report would have revealed that the age 59 dividing line is important because after that age the number of women using the Internet falls far behind men. With the gap in genders closing on Internet use, the report is interesting becaused it details how differently men and women use the Internet. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/05/2006 03:58:00 PM
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The Net - The Law - McAfee Settlement The San Diego Union reports in McAfee to pay $50 million to settle SEC charges, that the world's second largest security software venodor has entered into a settlement with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) for $50 million. The settlement stems from charges that McAfee overstated revenue and earnings by hundreds of millions. The settlement is not final until approved by the Court. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/05/2006 03:51:00 PM
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The Net - The Law - Spammer Whacked The Register reports in "Florida spammer fined $11bn" that a small Iowa Internet Service Provider (ISP) has been awarded a judgment of $11 billion dollars against spammer James McCalla based on claims that he sent over 280 million spam messages with fraudulent return addresses pointing to the ISP. McCalla is also barred from using the Internet for three years. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/05/2006 03:45:00 PM
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News - Truth Stranger than Fiction Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction and the last week's news confirms it. WFTV.com in How Weird Is Florida? Enough to Fill Book After Book After Book seems to confirm this thought. Apparently Palm Beach Post reporter Eliot Kleinbert found enough odd stuff to write Weird Florida  in 1998. In 2005, Charlie Carlson published another book by the same name, Weird Florida, documenting unusual sites around Florida. And now Eliot Kleinbert is working on another book, Weird Florida II, which should release this month. Aside from announcing these delightful books with their forrays into the unusual things that happen in Florida, the article also has a number of samples that make it a fun read. Lest we think that only Florida has weird news, WFTV.com also reports on an unusual Texas divorce. See, In Middle of Divorce, Wife Runs Against Politician Husband. It turns out that there is a series of books on weird stuff for a number of states.
Posted by WEBnME @ 1/03/2006 11:44:00 AM
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Yes, There Is A Santa Claus Although the lights of Christmas have been taken down in most places and Christmas trees have been hauled away, a bit of the Christmas spirit lingers. And before we get caught up again in the daily grind, there is a Christmas story that is worth sharing because it shows that there are still generous people and that sometimes some very special things can happen around Christmas. The story initially ran on the Philly.com website and has since been passed by word of mouth and email. Read Ronnie Polaneczky's Here's a Yule story that ought to be a movie, which details a selfless bit of generosity that culminated in early December 2005 with a special luxury train trip for injured American troops at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda Naval Hospital. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/02/2006 01:02:00 AM
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New Years Resolutions We'd Like To See After the days of shopping in anticipation of the holidays, some shopper experiences have prompted these New Years resolution suggestions for merchants: 1. Responsible Advertising We resolve that we will use socially responsible advertising and avoid encouraging bad behavior. We understand that ads that suggest that an item like a camera phone is cool because it can be used to take embarassing pictures and get promotions looks a lot like endorsement of extortion and that we need to take responsibility for helping to improve society instead of undermining it. 2. Websites Should Be Easy To Use We resolve that we will make it easy to use our websites to buy merchandise. We'll get rid of flashy gimmicks and stick to the basics of easy to use websites. We understand that when you add an item to your shopping cart, you may want to go back to the same page to order something else and will seek to avoid sending you off to start your search all over again. We know that we should use accurate photographs of items, describe the technical specifications, clearly spell out shipping costs, and make sure to remove items that are sold-out. 3. Assure Quality Goods We resolve that we will do some quality assurance work before putting an item up for sale. We know that it is really frustrating to our customers to buy stuff that turns out to be crap and which breaks almost immediately. We understand that selling things like Christmas lights with broken bulbs, nicked wires, and dubious UL labels is not likely to make a consumer want to trust us again. We understand that toys that break within a day, items that look different that portrayed on the web, and things with missing parts are not really acceptable. 4. Make Packaging Easy To Open We resolve that we will use packaging that is easy to open; doesn't damage the item; and doesn't require the customer to use a knife, saw, pliers, and a blow torch to open. We understand that some of the protective heat moulded plastic packaging can't be opened by people with carpal tunnel, motor problems, and other physical problems. We also understand that this plastic ends up as an expensive landfill problem later. 5. Refunds Should Be Easy We resolve that we will stand by our merchandise and offer expeditious ways to obtain a refund or exchange for any item that is defective, damaged, or sub-standard. We understand that our customers do not appreciate being treated like criminals or con artists when the item has obvious problems that any reasonable person could see. We know that customers have long memories and may not come back as repeat buyers when we give them the shaft for short-term gain. 6. Customers Are People Not Herds We resolve that we will see and treat our customers as individual people and not as animals that need to be herded. We understand that each person should be given respect and courtesy even if they are having a bad hair day. 7. Gift Cards Should Last We resolve that we will give full value for money paid for gift cards and not try to gradually reduce the value of gift cards. We are making money on the interest already and don't need to try to pinch away parts of a gift somebody gave. We understand that people are not going to buy cards again when they find that their relatives and friends got stiffed for not using the cards immediately. We'll also make an effort to clearly label the epiry date of any gift card in bold and readable print on the card so that the buy and recipient both know how long it can be used. Posted by WEBnME @ 1/01/2006 01:28:00 AM
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