It has all the makings of an unhealthy relationship. You know TV isn’t good for you. You know your pay TV provider is a bad partner, never asking what you what you want and forcing you to do all sorts of things you’d rather not—such as paying for well over 100 channels when you only watch something like 17. And you know that your pay …
Internet
Personalized Deals Coming to Groupon
Group-buying discount site Groupon is getting personal. Instead of offering one and only one daily deal to members in a given city, the site will select from a handful of deals and send you one you’re most likely to actually want.
Group-Buying Deals: When to Sign Up and When to Say No
There’s a big USA Today story that covers the online group-buying trend, which is undoubtedly a trend and not just something we journalists are pumping up in “next great” whatever fashion.
Rage Against the eBay-PayPal Machine
After the SF Chronicle published a very brief Q&A with PayPal president Scott Thompson, readers unleashed a slew of angry comments about eBay and its sister company, “Greedpal,” err, Paypal. Comments like: “Dishonest and insufficiently secure: the wave of the future!” and “Ebay + PayPal = Greed.” And: “ebay is now a giant flea-market of …
What’s Wrong with Online Shopping
Online shopping has plenty of pluses going for it: Compared to the in-store experience, the consumer can browse more quickly than strolling down the aisles, and can do so 24 hours a day, without ever having to head to the mall. But the experience is far from perfect, and I’m not talking about the obvious downsides, like that you can’t …
Anybody Want to Fight?
Tips for battling it out with debt collectors, TV-Internet-phone providers, the IRS, and more.
Is the Internet an Information Service or a Telecom Service?
And why should you care either way?
Enjoy Hulu for Free While You Still Can
The days of free TV shows on Hulu may be numbered. The online service is seriously looking into charging viewers a subscription fee of $9.95 a month if they want to continue having access to the most comprehensive range of programming, and the changes could occur as soon as next month.
Whine Time: 31 Annoying Fees, Ways Your Money Is Wasted, and Other Reasons to Gripe
Read up and pay attention or you’ll have good reason to complain too.
Group-Buying Sites for Beginners
“Here’s how sites like Groupon and LivingSocial work: They ask retailers in a city to offer steep discounts ranging from around 50% to 90% off on things that would appeal to locals. Examples include 79% off spa services, 54% off at paintball, 57% off at a restaurant with Malaysian cuisine and half off for doggie day care. The site …
Why Cable TV Bills Are More Annoying Than Ever
“Cable TV was always a bad model for the consumer because, in a sense, you’re paying twice. When you watch The Daily Show, for example, you pay the cable company to bring Comedy Central’s programming into your home. But you also contribute to Comedy Central’s bottom line by watching its ads. However, the Internet allows you to connect …
Advertisers Are About to Know Even More About You. And It’s Sorta Scary
Consumers: Thanks to the web, and the long string of digital data one produces with each click, market researchers know more about your behavior than ever before. And they will soon be able to get inside your brain and get even better at predicting your buying habits.
