Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on January 12, 2007 by CyberNet.

We’ve written about the Pligg software before which allows you to create a Digg-like site in no time at all. I am really amazed at how many sites have popped-up using that software and weeks later they begin wondering why they aren’t receiving the same traffic as Digg. Sure they have the same features, but maybe the exact look is what they need? The template provided with the Pligg doesn’t actually give your site the visual appearance that is close to Digg’s, and if you want that you’ll have to look somewhere else…

One developer decided to take things a bit further and make the closest Digg clone that I have ever seen, complete with movie thumbnails. It is called SuperGu and it is so similar that when I saw TechCrunch reporting on it yesterday I had a hunch that the site wouldn’t be up much longer. Once the Digg crowd found out about it someone hacked their homepage [pic] but luckily I snapped a screenshot of their demo before the doors were closed. The one below is of their “Digg Spy” clone that monitors recent “Diggs”, submissions, buries, etc… all on one page:

Their forum still seems to be alive and kicking, but the rest of the site isn’t very functional. I have mirrored the download on my MediaFire account for anyone looking to give it a shot. I recommend that you go for something a little more unique if you really want to be successful, but the choice is ultimately yours. Sites like Dealspl.us have only become popular because they introduce the Digg concept with a unique look and cover a topic that is beyond the focus of Digg.

I think it is pretty safe to say that any new startups who branch off of the Digg concept probably won’t be successful. Just look at Netscape, while they do seem to be getting some involvement from the community I find that the remarkable growth Digg has experienced will not rub off on them. 

I actually see this being the same problem that Microsoft has. They take the time and invest in research to see what interface works best for Windows/Office just to have other companies go and clone them in virtually no time at all. Before Microsoft opened up the Office 2007 UI for use in other applications, there were already competing products that offered amazing duplicates, such as SandRibbon. This video demonstration of their product is almost sickening how close it is to Office 2007, but at the time Microsoft had not decided whether the interface should be available to everyone. SandRibbon was developed in hopes of capitalizing off of Microsoft’s time and research which is essentially the same goal for these Digg clones. Will this ever stop? I doubt it, and as products/websites grow more and more popular you are only going to see more and more people try to duplicate their work to make a profit.

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This article was written on January 22, 2007 by CyberNet.

We wrote about Farecast back in August. They offer a service that helps you find the lowest price for many airlines flying from several US airports. Using algorithms, they’re able to make predictions based upon patterns. From these patterns, they are then able to suggest that you either wait to purchase your tickets because the price could potentially drop, or buy now because the price is great and could potentially go up.

Some of their biggest limitations are that they only cover select US cities, and not all airlines. Despite their limitations, they have plenty going for them.  Most recently is their Fare Guard price guarantee that has moved out of beta. Summed up, Fare Guard will guarantee your price within seven days of the prediction. During those seven days, you can book your flight.  If your airfare was higher than the guarded price that you started with, you’ll be able to receive a redemption. This Fare Guard is only offered when they predict that your airfare will either stay the same or drop. 

Typically, this service is $9.95, however for a limited time they are offering it for $3.00.  If you’d like more details on this service, visit their blog! I’m impressed that they would offer such a price guarantee, and this tells me that they’re pretty confident with the service that they currently offer. With airfare constantly jumping around in prices, this may not be a bad investment to make the next time you fly, assuming they cover your airport.

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This article was written on August 01, 2007 by CyberNet.

About two-weeks ago a simple site called Jjot launched as an easy way for you to aggregate all of your notes into one simple location. It’s a fast, lightweight, and simple service that doesn’t cost a dime. It’s not packed with a lot of features like the Google Notebook, but did I say it is fast?

I’ve been using it for a few days to jot down some things that I don’t want to forget, and it’s actually quite nice. Here are some things that I’ve noticed you can do:

• Maximize a note so that you can easily view the contents.
• Increase/decrease the size of all the notes on the page.
• Organize your notes into Noteboards.
• Email or print an individual note, or an entire Noteboard.
• Deleting a note puts it in an archive so that it isn’t permanently lost.
• Notes are searchable.

The only thing that is close to this in terms of features is Webnote. The two services are pretty similar, except that Webnote lets you place notes anywhere on the page. Jjot keeps everything nicely aligned to a grid, which is actually what my preference is.

One thing that I would like to see added to the service is a bookmarklet. That way I can create a note on any page that I’m currently visiting, but Jjot loads fast enough that I don’t see it being too much of a problem.

Jjot Homepage – you can play around without needing to sign-up.

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This article was written on May 13, 2008 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

I don’t know about you, but I’ve gotten some really tremendous deals on eBay before. The general consensus that I’ve found when talking with people, however, is that they normally make impulse purchases before they take the time to see if they are getting a real bargain. Today we’re going to walk you through a 5 step process that can save you a lot of money in the end.

Ashley and myself ran an eBay business for over a year, and it was quite an interesting experience. From it we found ourselves knowing more about eBay than we ever wanted to, and now our friends always poke and prod us for tips on how they can get the most out of the online marketplace.

1. Search eBay

The first thing that you’ll obviously want to do is search eBay to see what kind of prices they have. Don’t get sucked into the low-priced auctions… no, you’re not going to get a $1,500 laptop for $25. Many people wait until the last minute to bid (a.k.a. sniping), and we’re going to show you the best way to do that as well.

What may prove to be helpful is to checkout the completed listings. On the search page you’ll notice the “Completed listings only” checkbox which will show only those listings that have already ended. If the item you’re looking for is rather common then there should be a fair amount of listings that have already completed, and with those you should be able to get a rough idea of what future listings will realistically sell for.

When sifting through the completed listings be sure to also watch for people who are constantly relisting the same item… especially if it never sells. That’s normally an indication that they really want to get rid of it or they have a bunch that they need to unload. In situations like those you might be able to bargain with them even if all you may get is the shipping fee waived.

Believe it or not eBay actually has their own Deal Finder search engine. When you perform a search on there it will only show items that have zero bids, less than 4 hours left, no reserve price, and free/fixed price shipping. So it is actually different than the regular eBay search engine, and can be beneficial for finding those gems that no one else has come across.

2. Search for Misspellings

Ahhh, we’ve all been criticized at one point or another for not proofreading the things that we write. Well, here’s where you can really benefit from the mistakes that others make. Maybe it’s poor typing skills, a genuine mistake, or maybe they are just in a rush to get a listing done. Whatever it is there are quite a few people out there who like to misspell words in their listings.

So how can you capitalize on the mistakes of others? It’s rather simple actually. There are all kinds of sites, such as Fat Fingers, that will help you search eBay for misspellings of any word you specify. A really good example of this in action would be searching for Oakley sunglasses. You’ll quickly find quite a few different ways that people spell it, including Oakly and Oakely.

3. Shop Around

I definitely don’t see this happening enough with people who buy things on eBay. They naturally assume that if an item is on eBay that it’s gotta be a steal, but that’s surprisingly not the case for most items. Be patient and shop around at some other stores for goodness sake. You have to remember that eBay sellers have to pay rather excessive fees for every item that sells, and they will definitely make sure that those fees are recouped.

When it comes to shopping around I normally do a quick run through on Amazon, PriceGrabber, and Google Product Search to see if any of them point to a better deal. More often than not I can find an item brand new for nearly the same price as some used/refurbished items on eBay… so it’s definitely worth doing your homework.

4. Subscribe to Feeds

When Ashley and I were selling items on eBay for a full-time job one thing that we always tried to do was turnover the merchandise quickly. Ideally we wanted to get the things out as fast as we got them in, and to do that we had to slap low Buy it Now prices on them. What this meant is that the people who took the time to find the Buy it Now listings that still have several days remaining are normally the ones who get the best deals. Most people never look beyond the first page of search results, but that’s normally where you’ll find the most reasonable prices.

If you don’t need the item right away it will likely serve you well to hold out for the low Buy it Now listings. If you use RSS feeds I highly recommend subscribing to a feed for any particular search that you perform. That way you’ll be one of the first people to know when there is a new item listed. To do this just look for the orange RSS button at the bottom of any search results page:

5. Snipe the Auction

The art of sniping is becoming more and more popular on eBay. It’s where someone swoops in at the last second to place a bid, and often doesn’t leave enough time for you to counteract their offer. It’s sneaky, pisses a lot of people off, and sellers hate it. But you can do it with little to no effort thanks to JBidWatcher (available for Windows, Mac, and Linux).

We’ve already assembled a more detailed tutorial on how to use JBidWatcher, and it’s been getting some welcomed updates lately. It’s pretty much an automated sniping system that you can easily setup. With it you can even target multiple auctions for the same item, and it will continue to bid on them all within seconds of them ending. What’s nice is that once you win an auction at the price you specify it will not bid on any of the others! This can save a lot of hassle for people who have to work during the day, and don’t have an opportunity to check on their eBay auctions.

It is possible to snipe an auction without using any software, but I’ve ran into some problems when trying to do that before. When doing it manually I try to leave about 15 seconds left on the auction before submitting my offer, but one time I went to do this and eBay unexpectedly made me login before submitting my offer. Needless to say I wasn’t ready for that and ended up not getting my bid in on time. So software like JBidWatcher is definitely nice to have.

–Overview–

These are the five steps that I feel most people should follow when purchasing from eBay, and hopefully they will help you save some money. Be sure to share your eBay money saving tips in the comments below!

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This article was written on November 13, 2006 by CyberNet.

A few people have sent me emails saying that the Live.com email address trick no longer works. I guess it is safe to say Microsoft has finally closed that loop hole which was letting people create @live.com email addresses using a single line of JavaScript code. Hopefully the 6,000+ of you that read the article here were able to get the email address that you wanted. I’m sure that you don’t have to worry about Microsoft closing the account because I still have the one that I created back over the summer when the first loop hole was discovered.

I am impressed that Microsoft fixed the problem so promptly because they aren’t exactly known for patching things up right away but maybe they are a little better at it when an unreleased product/service is involved.

One thing that you should note if you did create an account is that they do expire after a short period of inactivity and I believe with MSN/Hotmail it is a month. Make sure you login to the account once in awhile to keep it active and you shouldn’t have any problems.

Out of curiosity did anyone sign-up for some accounts to sell on eBay? I noticed that there are some currently listed and it even looks like someone was trying to make $100 off of selling this trick. I’m assuming the seller was using the trick because the listing now says “The seller ended this listing early because the item is no longer available for sale.” Shucks, I was just about to bid.

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