Published July 31st, 2007
in Interesting / Other.
Spamming Google search is old news. How about spamming Amazon? I was recently doing some Amazon shopping and decided to check how bargain hunter friendly the website is. So I entered a few terms that popped up in my mind not really expecting much (why would Amazon want to promote discounted products? ;-)) but what I discovered totally threw me out of track. Take a look for example at these results to the search term “coupon”:
The first positions are dominated by Body Stocking products from Leg Avenue, Body Wrappers, and Nyteez. I checked a few related keywords and these same items persistently take the lead.
I don’t have a clear explanation to this phenomena right now. One thing I know is that last summer Amazon introduced new feature called “Search Suggestions” which makes it possible for customers to influence search results (here is the press release).
Have search results been really spammed or is it some sort of software bug?
Update 8/1: Just found an interesting side effect. These products don’t only show in Amazon search results. You can see them on amazon widgets embedded on other sites. Take a look for example at the widget I embedded below for a test. By design it is supposed to be context sensitive. Can you see the same long legged girls? I would assume there are thousands of these widgets out there making nice profits to whoever sells these products.
Published July 31st, 2007
in Money Saving Tips.
Maybe this image hasn’t turned out very sharp (I was using my cellphone camera) but it won’t stop me from posting it here because this is a letter I received today from Discover Card. In it there are 7 Sharper Image gift cards $80 each — the cash back bonus I accumulated over the past 2 years.
I use my Discover Card exclusively at gas stations because it pays a flat 5% back on each gas purchase. Now, the most inquisitive readers will quickly calculate that 7 by $80 is $560 which would mean I have spent over $10,000 on gas over the 2 years. This is not so. In fact I spent just around $5,000, roughly $200 a month.
What is the trick? The trick is that with Discover you can use your cash back bonus to buy gift cards at some places for half the face value and Sharper Image store happens to be one of them.
I picked Sharper Image because I am a geeky kind and I love all the cool stuff they sell however you don’t have to. Here is the complete list of their partners. From these, here are those that sell their gift certificates at half the price:
- Big City Chefs
- Carnival Cruise Lines
- Celebrity Cruises
- Crabtree & Evelyn
- Enterprise Rent-A-Car
- FTD.COM
- Great American Days
- Holland America
- Hollywood Video
- Hyatt Hotels & Resorts
- Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet™ Grills
- Lenovo
|
- Lobster Gram
- MobileCraze
- Mrs. Fields
- Norwegian Cruise Line
- PGA TOUR Ticket-to-Golf!
- Princess Cruises
- Royal Caribbean International
- Samsonite
- Sharper Image
- Sprint
- Ultra Diamond Outlet
|
I will spend some of my cash back to buy this digital camera (to replace the one my daughter broke during our trip to Ukraine) and will probably sell the rest using one of these gift card selling services. After all the math is applied, my cash back essentially comes to a flat 10%. What do your cards pay you? Please share in your comments!
For more information on what other cards I have and how I use them, please read my earlier post: Have a credit card — will save.
Published July 30th, 2007
in Shopping Coupons.
Update: The link times out on me right now however someone at SlickDeals has made a copy of coupon that still works
Oh well, my kids are a little bit out of this age but I still might use this coupon for buying gifts to many of my friends who’s kids are still in diapers.
To redeem, click on the image below, print that page, and take it to your local BabiesRUs store. Can only be printed once unless you clean browser cookies. Not valid online. Read description on the coupon for other limitations.
This offer expires August 19, 2007.
Source: discussion at FatWallet forums (via WiredDeals)
Published July 29th, 2007
in Money Saving Tools.
Valpak, the coupons site which rank keeps falling in my monthly list, is all ready for an upgrade scheduled for August 5. The new look features improved navigation (some using AJAX) and integrated Google maps displaying merchants offering coupons in your area. The coupons in the list are sorted by distance to your location and you can browse them all or filter by category using tabs at the top.
As of today, Valpak.com still links to the old website but you can preview the new one using this link. I have given it a test drive today. There are certainly some bugs to work around, for example directions link didn’t always work and when it did it didn’t show starting location correctly. Overall however the new look is certainly an improvement.
One question I have to the Valpak people is why hide the merchant phone number behind a click? Is this some sort of spam protection? Also, a suggestion. It would be nice to add a progress bar when the list of merchants is updated after I click on the category tab. Without any indication of what is happening, it is very easy to decide that the tabs are broken.
Old design
New design
Published July 27th, 2007
in Shopping Bargains.
This is another update from BankDeals — my favorite banking blog. FNBO Direct keeps the leading position in savings accounts. I wonder how the rate changes on 9/28 when this deal expires.
On banking deals, the Banking Guy has just published this list of places to go when you need to find the best banking deal. There are some interesting sources there. Check it out!
Checking/Savings/Money Market Accounts:
3-Month Certificates of Deposit:
6-Month Certificates of Deposit:
9-Month Certificates of Deposit:
12-Month Certificates of Deposit:
18-Month Certificates of Deposit:
24-Month Certificates of Deposit:
36-Month Certificate of Deposit:
48-Month Certificate of Deposit:
60-Month Certificate of Deposit:
Source: Bank Deals Weekly Summary for July 21, 2007 at BankDeals
