shop

I discovered Hotspotr at SF Beta this past week. It's a neat little service that mashes up Google maps with a local Wi-Fi hotspot finder. The real pull of the service is you can rate and comment on hotspots as you would with restaurant reviews on a review site like Yelp. It's the perfect service for the casual Wi-Fi traveler to benefit from road warriors who are willing to take the time to review a wireless access point.

The ratings aren't just things such as the overall quality of the wireless signal either; you also can rate … Read more

Ever wanted to score some hot Michael Kors boots, but didn't want to book the trip to Rodeo Drive? FashMatch.com is bringing that fancy shopping strip (and your local mall) to your computer.

Technically speaking, Fashmatch.com is a consumer social-networking site where visitors can put together outfits from various designers and swap fashion tips and advice. Last week, CNET News.com reporter Caroline McCarthy blogged about ShopStyle.com, another online shopping site. FashMatch and ShopStyle point to clothes shopping 2.0 as an up-and-coming trend.

With FashMatch, fashionistas are three steps away from having their dream outfit … Read more

Hey, style freaks: here's another reason to spend more time on the Internet. ShopStyle is a search engine that will paw through the inventories of all kinds of online clothing sites to find exactly what you're searching for. I'm not much of an online shopper since I like to try things on before buying them, but I can see ShopStyle being a very valuable search tool for people who dig the bargains that can be found on clothing sites.

We're not talking a simple Froogle-style interface here. ShopStyle is very Ajax-y. Search results scroll sideways, … Read more

This is either an ingenious invention or a sad testament to the hopeless laziness of modern society--or, in our opinion, both. The "SmartShopper" is a voice-activated shopping list designed to put an end to the illegible Post-its you leave all over the kitchen.

Just tell the device what items you need as you think of them and print out the list before leaving for the grocery. Gadgetell says it even has 2,500 items already programmed in its memory.

The downside: You no longer have any excuses for not picking up any embarrassing hygiene items requested by other … Read more

This isn't exactly at gadget you'd want to purchase for your home (we hope), but trust us--you'll want to know when it's available. The University of Buffalo is leading research into dental work that can be done without drilling or anesthesia, based on a device that uses ozone to repair cavities.

The bacteria-killing ozone machine, which is being used in Europe, "fits over a tooth and forms an airtight seal in arresting tooth decay," according to Medgadget. Researchers say the technology is being tested now in the United States and, if approved, could be … Read more

Price Protectr is a service that monitors online stores and alerts you to any changes in price within 30 days of buying a product. If it sounds simple it is, and frankly that's the way it should be.

Nobody likes finding out they could have saved money if they had paid attention to price drops, but it's easier said than done. Price Protectr does the work for you. All you have to do is give them the URL of the product you bought and your e-mail, and it will keep an eye on it for 30 days. If … Read more

Come to think about it, it's surprising that the current wave of Web trends hasn't moved more into the realm of the nonprofit. You'd think that the focus on "people power," citizen media, and user-generated content would have sparked the imagination of some Bono acolytes with Web development skills. And indeed, there are a few sites out there--Care2 comes to mind--but most of them actually existed well before anyone was talking about "Web 2.0."

But that all could change with Changing the Present, which was one of the presentations at last … Read more

USuggest, which launched today, lets you make money when you mention products in your blog, e-mails, or forum posts. It's not the first "affiliate marketing" product out there, and in its current alpha test stage it's not quite robust enough to use regularly, but it's got some interesting tweaks on the concept.

Nearly every retailer out there has a program to cut you in on profits if you drive sales to its online store. What USuggest does is aggregate all these deals together so you don't have to pick one store to do your … Read more

Media sites are watching how we consumers spend our money this holiday season. And it looks like a double victory for the tech world.

First, online sales are up more than 25 percent from last year. Consumers are apparently comfortable now with last minute online buys.

Second, HD flat screens and Nintendo's Wii were both big sellers this season. This week tech gadgets will have to compete with even more heavly discounted general merchandise.

I'm hearing some analysts on CNBC today saying brick and mortar discounters were not even making a profit on the flat screens they sold. … Read more