Over the next few years, others followed, lots of others. Hotwire, Expedia, Orbitz ,Travelocity and  Cheaptickets came out of the woodwork. Soon, planning a trip meant sitting for hours with legal pad in hand, jockeying for the best price-schedule arrangement. Then came the Meta Search Engine.

These function like the ones we know and love. (Nextag, Pricegrabber etc..) Similarly, they aggregate results of several travel searches at once. Now you can let the site do some of that work for you. You will likely need to refine your search, but for a broad search they come in handy. They are especially useful when you want to check prices for trips to multiple destinations.

Recent round-trip searches on Kayak.com yielded these results:

Colombia: $309
Nicaragua: $298
Ecuador: $490
Ukraine: $570
Slovenia: $822
South Korea: $900
Argentina: $800
Chile: $1,000
Tanzania: $1,300
Ethiopia: $1,360
Australia: $1,400
Vietnam (Hanoi): $1,400
Nepal: $1,470
Brazil: $800
Myanmar: $1,600
What’s out there? There are a handful of major players. Kayak.com seems to be in the lead and is affiliated with at least two of the others. Wego.com, formally Bezurk, is a company based in Singapore. I’ve never used it but it looks promising.

Kayak.com

http://www.kayak.com
http://www.sidestep.com (Kayak)
http://www.pinpointtravel.com (Kayak)
http://www.bookingbuddy.com
http://www.cheapflights.com
http://www.itasoftware.com
http://www.sidestep.com
http://www.mobissimo.com
http://www.pricegrabber.com
http://qixo.com/
http://www.travelzoo.com
http://farechase.yahoo.com

As with anything else, you need to exercise some caution and common sense. The flaws are mostly with the referenced websites themselves. You’ll get to know these well. Sometimes taxes/fees are included and sometimes they are not. Some sites display the lowest prices initially, then are sold out when you finally get to the order page. These instances can be frustrating but at the end of the day, I give the MetaSearch concept thumbs up.

Mike Collins

“Gaming commissions in Nevada are informing casinos that a new card counting program has made its way to the Apple iPhone, called Hi Lo. This program can be used in the Stealth Mode. When the program is used in the Stealth Mode the screen of the phone will remain shut off, and as long as the user knows where the keys are located the program can be run effortlessly without detection. Randall Sayre, of the Nevada Gaming Commission says ‘Use of this type of program or possession of a device with this type of program on it (with the intent to use it), in a licensed gaming establishment, is a violation of NRS 465.075.’”

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/17/1547233

Your favorite shows and movies are now on the internet, but where to find them(LEGALLY).

There are a lot of options for watching TV and movies on the internet.

Today I am going to talk about Netflix. With basic subscription you can watch certain movies and TV shows on demand.

Right now I know of 3 options with a fourth one coming

1. You can watch videos streamed to your PC.

   This is nice options if you have you like sitting at the PC to watch movies. You can also run a video out cable to your TV and watch the shows off your TV if you know how to set it up. It is not difficult, you just need to make your PC and TV have compatible hookups.

2. Netflix also sells a TV top box http://www.netflix.com/NetflixReadyDevices This box when hooked up to the TV and internet can stream videos from your instant que direct to the PC.

3. If have an XBOX 360, Netflix subscription and a XBOX gold live account, you can do the same as number 2 through your XBOX 360

4. The latest is coming from LG and Netflix, where you can buy a Netflix ready TV that will work similar to the TV top box that Netflix sell

   http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/05/technology/netflix_lg_electronics/index.htm?postversion=2009010509

Right now I am using the XBOX 360 version on one TV and the PC version on another TV. I love watching what I want when I want to on my own schedule.

This is a good example of using your cross sell effectivly.

http://www.target.com/Duos-Pilsner-Glasses-Set-4/dp/B000NV2YNW/sr=1-2/qid=1229472688/ref=sr_1_2/181-7683332-1148424?ie=UTF8&rh=k%3Acold-glassware&page=1

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/16/gotcha.boxes.onion/index.html

http://store.theonion.com/

1) An Outlook account for work.
2) A Yahoo! account that I use for social emailing and forwarding pictures of inebriated, passed out people with magic marker all over their face, tied up with duct tape.
3) An MSN account that I use to collect spam but also look through ocassionally.
4) And finally a Gmail account that I have just to have (although I want to start using it more often because of the new themes available http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/spice-up-your-inbox-with-colors-and.html)

How many email accounts do you use?

When you are talking to a customer on the other end, a simple smile while talking can be picked up on. A smile can create a really positive experience for you and the customer.

In fact the type of smile you use can even be picked up on. Check out the article below on smiling and SMILE AWAY.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080111224745.htm

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/11/propelled-by-in.html

While this was good advice as far as maximizing the use of the feature, it’s probably not the best advice I could have given as far as effectively using the idea behind the feature.  After digging into the psychology of the buying process a little deeper, I have some even better advice about using randomly displayed testimonials.

It all starts with buying anxiety.  Think of it this way:  You’re in a retail store and you have $20 in your pocket.  You see an item for $30 that you REALLY like, and want to buy.  You know you have a credit card in your pocket, and you could just buy it, but for that one second, you automatically stop and think: “should I actually do this now, or put it down and get it another time”?   Shopping online is no different…  In fact, it’s the same thing, just in a much quicker fashion.  Everything about being online is about grabbing someone’s attention quickly and at just the right time.  Every time a buyer hovers over your add to cart button, they have that same reaction, whether it’s conscious or not.  In many cases, the best place to show a testimonial is right in that product info table, directly below that add to cart button (we wouldn’t want a long testimonial pushing that button below the fold).  This helps alleviate any anxiety a customer may feel about clicking it.

Using that same psychology, another great place to display testimonials is right inside the shopping cart (are you starting to think the best place would be right next to the continue button like I am)?  The anxiety a customer feels increases as the steps to completing the order get closer and closer.  We take steps to make sure a checkout is a dead simple process to get through.  3 steps and your product is on the way to being delivered.  However, placing testimonials near the buttons that a customer is going to feel the most anxiety about clicking is something to think about.  It might just stop a few customers from clicking the close window button instead of the place order button.

The other thing to think about regarding testimonials is that most new customers that are going to feel any kind of buying anxiety from you are probably using google or a comparison shopping engine to search for a product, not necessarily your store.  So your item page is really their first impression of your store.  Having a great tesimonial close to that add to cart button could be the difference between a new customer clicking add to cart, or them hitting the back button to go back to google and on to the next merchant in the list selling the same product.