ProBargainHunter.com

Senate passes Internet tax moratorium

Are you used to the idea of not paying sales tax on things you buy online? The fun could be over end of this month if senate and congress didn’t pass an extension to the bill that exempts Internet retailers from sales tax. Although the extension was widely expected, I can’t stop wondering what would happen if this bill didn’t get passed

The two chambers will have to reach a compromise on the length of the ban and other differences before the bill can be sent to the White House for President Bush’s signature.

Amazon redesigning the website

ReadWriteWeb reports that Amazon is in the process of redesigning their main website. You can read what changed and why they are doing it from a page Amazon set up just for this. Here is what it basically boils down to:

• More use of javascript pop-up menus. The shopping categories currently occupy entire left side bar and Amazon had to do something to make the menu more manageable.
• More stress to bargain hunting. A special popup menu is added to the top menu that will have links to Gold Box, Today’s Deals, Outlet, and the Friday Sale sections of Amazon.
• Better Wish Lists integration. Wish lists popup menu is added to the top and will have search and other links available

You may not see the new design on your computer yet because Amazon is rolling it out in stages. If you do however, check it out and let me know what you think about it in the comments.

NPR launches a mobile site

National Public Radio has just launched a very nice site optimized for use on mobile devices, your phones and PDA’s. I gave it a try over this week and I absolutely love the new functionality it offers. The best of all is the ability to listen a missed show from my phone using streaming audio. Alternatively I could call a dedicated number for each program however I prefer streaming audio because my cell minutes are limited while my internet access is not.

If anything, this makes my favorite radio station more available than ever. Use this URL to open the site from your phone: http://m.npr.org. Read this post for even more useful links to use from your smartphone or PDA.