From: Gleanings
To: Trusting Fools
Subject: Gleanings: lies lies lies
OPENING THANG
Got my canon s100 digital elph today. I had originally gone to mysimon.com and researched a ton of the stores. I chose one that had a high service rating and a low price– xtremeshopper.com. Ten days later, no camera having arrived, I called them up.
They explained that they didn’t have it in stock, but if I wanted to upgrade to a combo pack including an ac adapter, they could ship it to me. It would still take about 7-10 days, unless, of course, I wanted to pay for overnight shipping. I went to the website as the sales man made his spiel. The elph was labeled “available” not out of stock, or available in 2-5 days. I told the sales man that. He then explained to me their stocking system involving a serious of primary and secondary warehouse each with their own set of rules about what can be shipped. I said:
“I don’t care”
I said
“If your website says you have it, and you don’t have it, you are lying to me.”
I said
“If I call and you say you don’t have what I want, but I can spend more to get something else, I call that bait-and-switch. I call that fraud.”
I said
“Cancel my order.”
Then I went to outpost.com, and ordered the elph, spending about a hundred bucks more. However there was no cost for overnight shipping and no tax… I ordered at four p.m. and the airexpress guy came at ten a.m. the next morning.
Who do you think I love? Where do you think I’ll shop next time?
**How Many Lies Can You Find In One Direct Mail Piece?
http://joel.editthispage.com/stories/storyReader$313
DESIGN MATTERS
**Design for Buyers (webword.com)
“In e-commerce, usability is important, but it isn’t always enough to convert users to buyers. Why? Because even if a user can easily buy something on your Web site, it doesn’t mean that they will buy. Users don’t go to your Web site to be sold. They go there to buy. Your site needs to give them guidance and information so that they can be confident enough to buy a product. ”
http://builder.cnet.com/webbuilding/0-3885-8-5137320-1.html
USABILITY MATTERS
**’Polite, Personable’ Error Messages
“In The Media Equation, Byron Reeves and Clifford Nass suggest that even text-only interfaces are experienced by humans as having some “personality”. The author reports on how she tried to apply this research in editing error messages for two different software products. Her goal was to tune product personality in ways that helped users and their perception of the software, while reducing possible negative effects. ”
http://www.stc.org/pics/usability/newsletter/9801-errormessages.html
MARKETING MATTERS
**Beyond the BANNER
“Web sites to bombard surfers with more sophisticated and intrusive ads”
Verne Kopytoff, Chronicle Staff Writer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/03/26/BU108222.DTL
**Slow Adoption of New Ad Sizes
“Web publishers in no hurry to adopt Internet Advertising Bureau standards. ”
http://www.business2.com/content/channels/marketing/2001/03/26/29020
NEWS & COMMENTARY
**A New Face (and Heart) for the Mac
“The result is almost everything Mac fans could wish for: a gorgeous, easy-to-navigate and virtually crashproof operating system that makes previous consumer systems, like Mac OS 9 and Windows Me, look like hand-cranked antiques.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/29/technology/29STAT.html
High Court Mulls Copyright Case
“In New York Times Co. vs. Tasini, publishers squared off against writers on the issue of digital rights – and at least 2 justices seemed to side with the writers. ”
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,23199,00.html
**Bettors Find Online Gambling Hard to Resist
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/29/technology/29GAMB.html
APROPOS OF NOTHING
**Fun! A flowchart showing the history of the Unix flavors.
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/levenez/unix/history.html
**Media Nugget featured this– thing. Call it an example of flash in the wrong hands, call it a cure for the worst cute-aholic, call it a sign that we are entering the times at the end of the world. But chose the flash movie, and don’t skip the film.
http://www.mrwinkle.com/
**love coffee? contribute. (davezilla.com)
http://www.javalosophy.com/