Best Of - ReadWriteWeb

25 Online Resources to Prepare You for Black Friday

Lidija Davis — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 12:54:05 -0800

Black Friday has traditionally been one of the busiest shopping days of the year, but with the current state of the economy, many people are wondering whether 2008 will be a comparative disappointment.

Last year, online spending was recorded at $272 million on Thanksgiving, and $531 million on Black Friday; this year holiday shopping is expected to be more challenging with one in five shoppers saying they simply have less money to spend. With that in mind, we've created a Black Friday resource list to help you navigate your way to a bargain.

]]> Sponsor

]]> If you're not familiar with Black Friday, it is the day following Thanksgiving (always on a Thursday), and typically signifies the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Retailers slash prices and open stores in the wee hours, and customers are known to line up hours before the store is expected to open in an attempt to grab some bargains.

According to Shopzilla's Helen Malani, shoppers are turning to the Web, not only for shopping, but for gift ideas and product research. "Whether they make those holiday purchases online or in stores, the Internet will have a tremendous influence on holiday sales this year," she said.

So if you're willing to do a bit of research on the Web, there is a strong chance you'll find some of the best deals available.

Where to find information about Black Friday online

In the lead up to Black Friday, retailers oftentimes leak special offers, and there are plenty of sites that offer up that information. Problem is, how do you know where to look? Here are four sites that you might want to bookmark. All offer RSS and e-mail subscriptions to keep you up-to-date.

Black Friday 2008

Black Friday Info

Cheap Stingy Bargains

Note: Cheap Stingy Bargains offers coupons and coupon codes all year round
as well as Twitter updates

Black Friday at Gotta Deal

Comparison Shopping Search Engines

According to a recent study by Shop.org, 78 percent of retailers plan to offer free shipping at some point during the holiday season. This is great news for the budget conscious among us, but where do you find the best deals online? You start with price comparison search sites.

If you do decide to go and face the crowds, don't forget to plan your strategy by visiting ShopLocal to find the best deals in your area.

Finally, if you're willing to rise before dawn and wait in line in the cold there's a good chance you can find a bargain on Black Friday; if you miss out, don't worry too much, you can always find a great deal online come Cyber Monday.

If you know of any other great sites, please share them with us.

]]> Discuss

Screen Casts Rock - Here's Who's Rocking Them Now

Marshall Kirkpatrick — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:00:37 -0800

Screen cast videos are one of the most powerful ways to show off anything on the web. They are also quite difficult to do well. That sounds like a pretty sweet spot for specialization and sure enough, a new class of freelancers is emerging to fill the demand.

In this post we look at the work of four of our favorite screen casting freelancers. We think you'll enjoy their work and we hope that you can point us to some still undiscovered people making this kind of magic.

]]> Sponsor

]]> The Pioneers

Jon Udel, who used to work at Infoworld and is now at Microsoft, is widely considered the granddaddy of the screen cast. Another strong old schooler is Don from Screencasts Online, a site that has free and subscription tutorials about how to use a Mac. Don uses ScreenFlow, a wonderful Mac app you can buy for $100. We've been using Screenflow lately to make some screencasts ourselves.

The first freelance screencaster available for hire that we discovered was Molly McDonald, whose work at DemoGirl has made her the go-to screen caster for hire for many startup companies of late.

Here's a sample of her work, a screencast demo of mixtape site 8tracks.

The Up and Comer

Colin Sproule at InternetJogging has been making a number of great screencasts lately, most of them about using the Mac single app browser Fluid. We discovered his work when he made a great video about Muxtape in Fluid.

Here's another one he made about using Fluid and Threadless together.

You Just Missed Him

Michael Pick was one of the inspirations for this post, but now that we take a look we find that he's no longer available for freelance work! Pick's been hired full time by Automattic, the makers of WordPress. While we are happy for him, we are dissapointed that we won't be able to see his work around the web about apps in general. His departure from freelancing leaves a big hole in the market.

The Champs

The reigning champs of freelance screen casting have to be Common Craft. This Seattle consultancy found a hit formula in stop-motion line drawn illustrations telling stories about web apps. Their first, RSS in Plain English, is still the best way to explain RSS that we've seen yet. The production value is downright quaint compared to the more professional work they are doing now.

Common Craft's charming storytelling skills have lead to jobs from a list of companies, including Google and Twitter.

Here's Our Best Effort So Far

We just bought ScreenFlow ourselves and it's so much fun to use! Here's one video we made for a post this week. We're just starting to learn how to do this, but ScreenFlow makes it really easy.

There's Huge Demand

Proficient screen cast producers should be cleaning up right now. There is so much untapped demand for this kind of service. Who else do you know that offers this kind of service?

Want to be that person? Check out Beth Kanter's fantastic screen cast tutorial wiki. (See this awesome screen cast of Beth's, in fact.) The future of screen casting is wide open, but we sure are glad there's some great examples already for all of us to take inspiration from.

]]> Discuss

Best of RWW: Making Facebook Useful

Richard MacManus — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 12:46:44 -0800

The weekend is a good chance to play around with web apps and social networks. With that in mind, on a rainy Sunday I found myself checking out Sarah Perez's classic post from May: How to Make Facebook Useful Again. You may also want to read the comments for other useful suggestions. But if you just want the highlights and then do some experimenting within Facebook on a lazy Saturday or Sunday, then here they are:

]]> Sponsor

]]> Note: All of the content below was written by Sarah Perez, with some of the suggestions coming from Susan Beebe. I did some light editing at the start, for this post.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part I - Use Facebook's Features

Use Facebook Email: Here's an answer that speaks profoundly to the generation gap. For some, Facebook email isn't useful at all, while for others, it's one of the most important features.

For true Facebook'ers, real email is for business only. Using Facebook (and MySpace) is how you talk to your friends.

"If I'm talking to any friends it's through a social network," said Asheem Badshah, a teenaged president of Scriptovia.com. "For me even IM died, and was replaced by text messaging. Facebook will replace e-mail for communicating with certain people." (excerpted from CNet)

Use Facebook Events: You don't need an online calendar to plan your schedule - Facebook has an Events app built-in. Here you can manage your events, see your friends' events, and even see when people's birthdays are. Your use of this feature is another telltale sign of which generation of Facebook users you fit into.

Block App Spam: Facebook finally added the "Block Application" option. Whew!

Go Mobile: With this application, you can use Facebook when you're on the go. You can upload photos and notes from your camera phone (mobile@facebook.com) straight to Facebook. You can also receive and reply to Facebook messages, pokes and Wall posts using text messages, or use your phone’s mobile browser at m.facebook.com. To actually use the app, activate your phone here. Don't forget to also add Facebook Video so you can also send in your mobile videos to video@facebook.com, too.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part II - Get Things Done

If you're really going to take advantage of all Facebook can do for you, then you have to find a way to do everything you need to do right in Facebook. Some of these tools (below) can help:

Check eBay: A great example of how the info you need flows into Facebook, the eBay app lets you check on your eBay auctions...and, in true social spirit, those of your friends as well. You can even just comment on auctions without even needing an eBay account.

Use Paypal: Just bought something on eBay? Might as well add Paypal too.

Upload Your Resume: Use an app like Professional Profile to post your resume on Facebook. It also lets you sync your LinkedIn profile and recommendations. There are also other apps for LinkedIn: LinkedIn Contacts and My Linked Profile, too.

Create a Business Card: The business cards app helps you create a custom business card that can be attached to your Facebook messages. (It's email signatures 2.0!)

Use Zoho: Access all your Zoho Office files in Facebook for free. (An unofficial app exists for Google Docs).

Share Files: Who needs Pownce when you can share files in Facebook? Add an app like Box.net or DivShare to do so.

Use Blackboard: Ugh. We know you don't want to, but you kind of have to, so you may as well add Blackboard Sync to Facebook. (Online assignment system for college students).

Make a To-Do List: Some people just love lists. Task Manager can help you GTD.

Use a Calendar: Need a more traditional calendar app? Try this one from 30Boxes, or one of these unofficial Google Calendar apps. Or you could just sync Facebook with any other calendar, both online and off, with fbCal.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part III - Bring Web 2.0/Social Tools Into Facebook:

No need to leave the comfort of Facebook's walls to use the social web - you can just pull the social web into Facebook. Some of the most popular Web 2.0 applications are available as Facebook apps.

Use FriendFeed: No need to go without your daily fix of lifestreaming. The early adopter crowd loves this one.

Use Flickr: Take your pick from 100 applications for using flickr on Facebook...or just use this one.

Use Twitter: Post to Twitter and make your latest tweet your Facebook status.

Use Upcoming: Plan your events via Upcoming and see events taking place in your area, too.

Get Movie Recommendations: Get movies reviews via Flixster so you know whether to rent that flick or see it in the theaters...or not.

Get Restaurant Recommendations: Use Bizzlr to get recommendations for where to eat. (our coverage)

Share Books/Book Reviews: Depending on personal preference, you may like Shelfari, Visual Bookshelf, Goodreads, or Bookshare.

Find People: Use Spock's people search app to find anyone, anywhere.

Link to Other Profiles: With As Seen On, you can link your Facebook profile to other social media profiles.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part IV - Bonus Content!

Here are few other great apps worth an honorable mention, at the very least.

Make Firefox Better: You can find great add-ons for Firefox with Rock Your Firefox.

Search the Web & Share: Think Microsoft should put Live Search in Facebook? They just did.

Reading the Daily News Facebook-Style: No need to go off-site to get the latest news - customize your own morning paper with Zine.

And More!: Check out our series from last July to get ideas for other Facebook apps for Work, Utilities, and Media.

]]> Discuss