Thanksgiving and black Friday kicked off the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season. Customers spent $913 million online, which is up a whole 10 percent since last year. Retailers are having to be much more aggressive this year since the economy is down even more, which makes better savings and a lot of companies offering free shipping over a certain amount of money. People have spent more time looking for discounts this year and more than three million people visited coupon sites on Friday, up 17 percent from a year ago. Although it is looking good for consumers this year compared to last year, it is still hard to tell whether it is going to stick or fall like it did the year before.

I think it is too early to tell whether it's going to be a good shopping season or not. Yes it is up since last year but it could fall way down again as well. I know many Americans don't have the money to be spending on a big Christmas, but maybe with the savings and discounts so many are offering this year it won't be so bad.

PayPal is trying to start a new way for consumers to shop. You will no longer need cash, a check card, or even a wallet. PayPal is trying to get cell phone company's to invest in their new way to shop. You only need your cell phone. On your cell phone is all your account information. You can literally scan a product on your phone and it can even tell you if you can buy it cheaper online, if not, buy it there using your phone. The problem many are running into is shoppers find it just as convenient to pull out a piece of plastic and swipe it through a machine, without all the pricey gadgets a cell phone company would make you buy to use the product, although PayPal says its service makes the checkout process more convenient and secure for both shoppers and merchants.

I don't think I'll be buying into this product. It sounds like it would get very expensive and doesn't sound all that more convenient. Although it maybe safer to use this product, I'll take my chances.

Burberry is now expanding their company online. Although online shopping was considered more for bargain hunting, Burberry has decided to start using it. Sales have been down a good 8% since the recession, and this is a new way Burberry is going to deal with it. The company's best selling item is their trench coat, a 95 year old fashion icon. Ms. Ahrendts, who now runs the company bought her first trench coat at the age of twenty one, right out of college. It represented the beginning of her career with Burberry. Burberry is giving others a chance to tell their story about their first "trench coat." Giving others this chance to tell their story, they are hoping to expand a new generation of shoppers.

I think the Internet is a perfect way to reach new customers, especially those in different countries. It brings their customers together, and with an 8% decline in sales, anything is worth a shot.

Educational Video Games Mix Cool With Purpose

Although educational video games have been around for awhile, they haven’t been very popular. A number of kids now have educational video games as part of their in school curriculum as well as after school programs.
Today’s educational games are now online and social and allowing kids to interact and achieve common goals. Newest educational video games are allowing children to set up their own virtual world. They can build their character and what they wear as they solve problems as they would in the real world.
For many start up games they’re having the problem of marketing the product, especially to time pressed and resource-poor teachers. Because the main focus of teachers is making sure their students are passing these standardized tests, many games now have tests and questions that a student would find on one of these tests.
Companies are trying their best to make sure that these educational video games feel like real video games, and not homework. Hopefully kids will want to play them at home as well.

I personally would have loved to of had these games when I was in school. I don’t know if I would have actually gone home and played them but in school I would have. What kid wouldn’t like to play a video game to help study instead of pulling out a book and studying?

Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers

Companies of all sizes monitor their customers to see what they like and dislike. This is how Twitter has come up with most of their features. Although there is a lot of people who aren't on Twitter, many would know that they call their posts "tweets". This is the consumers idea, not the company's. Many times when users get together, you never know what they are going to come up with. These ideas usually generate from users while the companies wait on the sidelines to see if the ideas have any mass appeal. Twitter maybe one of the biggest companies to rely on consumer generated features.
Many times a company is started for one thing but leads into another. Flickr was started as a feature on an online game site, before long the game site was shut down and Flickr became the new site. Evan Williams, Twitter’s chief executive stated “You get a bunch of users interacting and it’s hard to predict what they’re going to do,” he said. “We say, ‘Why are people using this and how could we make that better?’ ”

I thought this article was really interesting. I had always thought that companies came up with all these different kind of features and ideas. I was really surprised to find out that the consumers were the ones usually coming up with them. It makes sense though. Wouldn't the consumers who use the product almost every day know the product best. Also, they would know what would be popular and what other users like too. It's smart on the company's part.

Face-to-Face Socializing Starts With a Mobile Post

Foursquare, a new socializing network that lets friends see where their other friends are hanging out at, just might be the next Facebook/ Twitter. Foursquare users get notifications on their phones about where their friends are. That way you can drop by and say hello if you are nearby. Foursquare is also somewhat of a gaming site. It gives away titles or badges to those who visit certain bars, restaurants, and coffee shops a lot. Like the person who goes to Pete's bar the most becomes the mayor of that bar, and may get a special deal. Also, someone who visits Starbucks everyday four to five straight days might get their 6th day coffee free. All kinds of deals and offers are made through this site. It gives small business owners a chance to get their name out there to the locals. Right now Foursquare has about 60,000 users, which doesn't compare to Twitter and Facebook, who have millions, but is growing very fast. Who knows, it might just be the next big thing.

I think Foursquare sounds pretty cool. I'm still not quite sure exactly how it works yet, but might have to become a member to actually really figure it out. Foursquare isn't offered in every state, but I do have a feeling that it will soon. I think it's a cool idea to be able to see where your friends are so you could drop in and say hey, but you also have to think... wouldn't they have called you if they wanted you to come? Also, I wouldn't think that many people would want random friends joining them on their date or family outing etc. I'm sure there is a way to be able to turn it off or make it to where others can't find you, but then what would be the point of being on that thing? I don't know about the whole thing, but do have a feeling people will start to catch on.

When the Icing on the Cake Spells Disaster

Ms. Yates, a 31 year old woman who runs a specialty painting company with her husband in Orlando, Fl has become some what famous for her blog where she posts and talks about pictures of "baking train wrecks." Ms. Yates receives about 50 to 60 cake wreck pictures a day but chooses one to post every morning. By last fall Ms. Yates had received over 100,000 viewers a day. The blog consists of pictures of cakes that were supposed to be one thing and turned out horribly wrong, as well as silly misspelled words. One cake had "Happy 3th Birthday, Evan" written across it, while another stated “Contralulation’s Ronan.” Other times things just get miss communicated over the phone, such as this one:
Best Wishes Suzanne
Under Neat that
We will Miss you
Ms. Yates had stated that she gets quite a bit of hate mail from viewers that have found their cakes posted on her blog. She said that she's not out to get anyone but just to make light out of silly situations that happen in everyday life.

I thought this article was so funny. The things people mess up on in every day life are over looked but when you put it on a cake, it becomes much more obvious. The article gives so many more mix ups and funny stories that I didn't post about, but her blog sounds hilarious. I have seen some really ugly cakes before and I too always think to myself what were they thinking? Ms. Yates has also been able to make her story into books, and has very much made a name for herself. It's funny how something so silly such as this can make someone so much money and get people so interested.