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Nov29
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The concept of deep discounts, especially this time of year, works more magic than mistletoe. As online shopping for choice brands spikes in December, watch for the emergence of a new trio that will make The Three Tenors pale in popularity (even factoring in their Christmas album): Frucall.com, Freecycle.org, and Keycode.com. These sites identify free deep discounts on products for online shoppers. 'Tis the Season, after all. Brick-and-mortar retailers without an aggressive and large online presence are becoming more irrelevant each year. Are they even still around? By aggressive I mean price. By large, I mean a web site that compels people to come in, stay, shop, tell friends, and come in again. Shopping is as much a social act as it is an economic one, and I don’t mean chit-chatting with friends as you amble through the mall. The socializing as it relates to buying means that people find out about products – and the best deals – by talking to each other. Yet another reason for web sites to accommodate dialogue with their visitors. If the customer is always right -- and is online hunting discounts -- what does that tell you?
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Nov27
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Exactly what we needed this Christmas buying season: more chances to give our plastic more workouts! Oh by gosh, by golly, it’s time for credit cards and holly. Sorry, shoppers, but swiping the old plastic more often doesn’t put handsome...
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Nov26
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I love it when a major-league players like Jack and Suzy Welch weigh-in with realistic takes on marketing. In their column in the Dec. 03 Business Week, entitled How to Really Shake Things Up, (second item) they add resonance to...
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Nov20
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The promise of the San Francisco Forty-Niner football “brand” is broken. Unfortunately for fans, there is no quick fix.The brand promise: Exciting, winning football. A hot ticket. A franchise second to none when it came to doing things the right...
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Nov19
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Give thanks for Thanksgiving Day. Specifically, that it’s already official. Because if it wasn’t already on the calendar, it would never make it today. It would not pass muster in our age of hyper political-correctness. Not even close. It would...
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Nov16
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I go back and forth on the issue of what Yahoo and Google, et. al., need to be and need to do in countries where the government don't share the same sensibilities about free expression, privacy and censorship. Still, Google's...
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Nov14
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Just in time for the holidays, ToySafety.org, a prominent website that reports on dangerous toys, has released its annual "worst toys" list.Folks, not to minimize the danger of hazardous products, but we live in the blogospheric era of 24/7 news...
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Nov13
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Besides names that begin with the same letter, there’s something much more significant held in common by Cisco, Curves, Club One Fitness and Craigslist. What is it? Each one has a web site that ranks high in our benchmark rating. ...
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Nov12
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The classic New Yorker cartoon, showing the dog at his computer saying to another dog that on the computer no one can tell you’re a dog, is now as dated as floppy disks. In one of the more sordid tales...
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Nov 6
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Which will end first in China -- the Beijing Great Wheel or that inconveniently oppressive communist regime that has Jerry Yang and Yahoo bent into pretzels trying to duck allegations of complicity with it?Bet on the wheel. But, hey, I...
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If your company web site contains a blog http://dwave.wordpress.com/-- wherein the key players hold forth informally on your products, technology, applications and news – please accept my congrats for putting yourself on the leading edge of customer mindedness and for...
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Nov 5
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So Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) dives good-intentions-first into the soup of cellphones with a free cellphone software package that is reportedly Linux-based. They’ll work with four cell phone makers who’ve agreed to bundle Google’s programs into their handsets. Just don’t forget:What buyers...
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Nov 2
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Now it’s General Mills' (NYSE:GIS) turn in the barrel: it just announced a voluntary recall of five million frozen pepperoni pizzas sold under the Totino’s pizza and Jeno’s pizza brands. That's a lot of dough. Reason: possible E. coli contamination...
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Nov 1
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Hey, it had to happen:Albert, Texas – all 13 acres of it – is 50 miles north of San Antonio. It's also up for sale by owner, Bobby Cave, on eBay ! Cave reportedly won’t take anything less than $2.5...
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