Consumerizer: 2010

Video games can make great holiday gifts for time-deficient givers

If you are looking for a great holiday gift at the last minute, try video games.

There are great games for just about anyone, and the best part of it is that they can be downloaded in an instant. You can download games for both the PC and Mac (or Linux), and the gift will arrive by email alongside a personal message from the giver. Here are a couple great sources for hot titles: Activision, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft.

Where is mobile shopping hot?

Ebay released a heat map graphic using Google Maps that shows where in the country is mobile shopping hot. Metropolitan areas, as expected, are better for mobile shopping than rural areas. San Francisco is one of the leaders in mobile e-tail. South Dakota and rural Illinois....not so much. A new website by EBay shows the activity of mobile shopping as a big green mess with pockets of empty, sad spaces. Fortunately, you can zoom into the state level to get a better picture, but the timeline graph which breaks down the past few days by category and region is quite interesting.

http://www.ebayinc.com/mobilecommerce
As the world's leading e-commerce company, eBay Inc.'s global portfolio of businesses enables hundreds of millions of people to buy, sell and pay online. Take a closer look.

Outline of a scammer: DecorMyEyes.com

The NYTimes recently wrote an article A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web, which described how Google can be used as a vehicle for helping bad businesses bring in big profits. The article tells the story of a Ms. Rodriguez who orders eye wear from DecorMyEyes.com and has a truly terrifying experience, which results in the owner of the online store stalking and harassing the customer long after their initial disagreement. The article continues to describe how the owner of DecorMyEyes.com, Vitaly Borker, who works under a number of pseudo names, actually has worked bad publicity and negative comments into his business plan for scoring high on Google.

The owner of the website is quoted as saying: “Hello, My name is Stanley with DecorMyEyes.com...I just wanted to let you guys know that the more replies you people post, the more business and the more hits and sales I get. My goal is NEGATIVE advertisement.”

This article presents a very compelling case for a change in search practices that focus on concepts of "positive" and "negative" responses to brands and websites, rather than treat all references as referrals.

The Facebook Super Log-off

More and more people are becoming concerned with Facebook privacy. The company does not seem to keep high marks in the trust category. Still, many users who don't trust the social network, still want to take part.

In comes a new privacy technique called the Facebook Super Log-off. You can hide your Facebook profile for a period of time by deactivating your account. Don't worry all your photos and messages will still be there when you reactivate it.