shop

A new start-up called mShopper has just introduced an application that lets people shop from their cell phones.

The company on Thursday launched its new service that allows mobile-phone subscribers to search and compare prices for more than 7 million items from over 100 merchants. Once they've found an item, people can buy it with just a few clicks on their phones.

It works like this: you enter the first two letters of a brand name or product model. The application finds the item you're looking for and lists prices from a variety of Web retailers. Users can … Read more

Shopify, which serves up do-it-yourself sales pages to sell your all sorts of items (including your junk, as Rafe experimented with in his hands-on) launched an interesting new feature this week called Marketplace. It links up people's Shopify stores to a central index that can be searched, sorted, and browsed by anyone and everyone. Owners of each Shopify store must opt-in to the program to be included, in the hopes of selling an item, or being discovered through the centralized directory. Shopify is also releasing an API in the coming weeks that will let developers tap into the new … Read more

Although I prefer my shiny credit card to virtual money, my shopping bill at the end of the month always reminds that I should find a new hobby.

Shop.com's game Cart Me Away is nodding its head furiously in agreement. The theory behind the online game--which originally launched in May, but because of its popularity, Shop.com says, will soon add a few new twists--is that people can have fun shopping online without spending any money.

A total gimmick to get people to spend more time on Shop.com and thus lay down real bucks? Yes. But is … Read more

Just because you can't see a sales clerk doesn't mean you can't get help from one--or from a fellow shopper, even one in a distant aisle.

That's the premise behind the DIY Shopper project under development at IBM's research facility in a stately Georgian manse in southern England. The concept retail Web site, developed with retail group Kingfisher, uses Web 2.0 concepts--not just blogs, but also buddy lists of in-store advisers and people doing similar projects. While store employees would use tablet PCs to access DIY Shopper and communicate with customers, the shoppers themselves … Read more

Late on Tuesday night, the news broke on the Wall Street Journal's Web site that publishing empire Hearst Corp. has made plans to acquire Kaboodle, a social shopping site that launched last year and now draws in over two million unique visitors per month. Like rivals ThisNext and StyleHive, Kaboodle lets members recommend and learn about new products through compiling lists; it also connects users who have similar shopping tastes.

Hearst and Kaboodle issued a joint press release on Wednesday morning announcing the acquisition deal. "With its impressive technology, tools and audience, Kaboodle is a natural overlap for … Read more

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Baynote wants to eliminate the power of the blowhard on the Internet.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has come up with software that allows shopping sites or media outlets to better determine what their customers want by how people interact with their site.

If customers click on the specifications on a road bike offered on a sports site more than the specs of competing bikes, that extra bit of attention is an indication that the bike in question might be a bigger seller, Baynote says. The next time a customer comes to that site, that bike might … Read more

Etsy, the two-year-old "eBay gone indie," has sold its millionth item, according to Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, one of the New York City start-up's investors. The company now stands at 42 employees and 300,000 registered users (both buyers, sellers, and those who dabble in both),

Click here for our video tour of Etsy Labs, the real-world space that the company opened in February.

As a side note, I'm going to give myself a pat on the back, because I guess that octopus-shaped necklace I bought from Etsy last week helped push 'em over … Read more

You might've thought the World of Warcraft credit card was pushing it, but really, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Upon encountering the Hello Kitty Platinum Plus Visa on ThisNext, I initially thought it had to be a joke. But, no, a quick amount of Googling revealed that it's legitimate. Sanrio really does offer a Hello Kitty credit card, so that you can hop around the world in search of all things pink and shiny. Now, not only will the ubiquitous cat be telling you that you're fat or making you toast, but she'll also be … Read more

Want to get the best price for a particular book? Simply enter the ISBN number in this simple iPhone app to get a list of the lowest available prices from several sites around the Web. Though the interface for Booksearch.app is nothing to write home about, the functionality (and saved money) might help you overlook the...look.

iPhone link: http://iphone.campusbooks4less.com/

Web site link: http://campusbooks4less.com/