Do Small Indepndent e-commerce Stores Have a Chance?

reading "Are Online Reputations Portable?" from business week not only got me thinking about how powerful reputations are on eBay, but it made me go off track and think about the reputations of small independent e-commerce retailers...once in a while everybody goes on to google and types in an item they're looking to buy and one of the first links is one of these independent e-tailers...for example, if i want to buy a laptop battery for my computer i typed "buy laptop battery" into google and one of the first links that came up was www.batteryvalues.com here's my issue: you go to the site and it looks like it was made in 1999 for starters...then if I weren't so bias I might go ahead and look at the site but i'm just not sure if i trust it.

when i buy things on eBay the good news is I do have the ratings...but that eBay scale of reputation really doesn't go beyond eBay itself. unfortunately on batteryvalues.com doesn't have an area on their page where there are thousands of customer reviews and if they did, i'm not so sure they'd include the negatives! IM SORRY! I just need the reassurance of "A++++++ SELLER, FAST SHIPPING + GREAT PRODUCT!!!!". Sad, but I don't think i'm alone when I like that reassurance.

going back to the battervalues.com example, for multiple reasons I don't think that i'm highly likely to go on a website i've never heard of before and enter my credit card information. i'm not a big fan of website where i think i'm going to pay and pray that it comes within the next month. this said, i feel as if all of the small independent e-tailers that had been prevalent on the web landscape for years and soon going to diminish. just like on land where Wal-Marts and Super-Duper-Everything-Stores begin to dot the landscape and in turn Joe Bob's Mom & Pop Grocery Shop begin to turn into a Wal-Mart, or maybe one aisle within....as huge e-stores such as Amazon, OverStock, even Wal-Mart begin to gain support (as they already have) don't you think stores like batteryvalues.com and other sites like buy rite electronics have an end in sight? though one can argue that its easier to compete online without a storefront because of less overhead costs that it must still be heard to earn a good living competing against fortune 500 companies traded on the NYSE or NASDAQ?

Do you think that the trend of mom and pop shops being closed by Wal-Marts opening on main street will continue on e-street?

Let me know what you think?

i digg it...

before reading the article I was already extremely familiar with Digg. not only is it a great news source but it was an idea that somebody thought of which costs next to nothing to create, and as the economist states--its now worth about 200 million. pretty crazy.

as i'm already particularly familiar with digg.com i think i'm going to venture off topic and talk about the future. smart mobs brings up the future and how within two minutes somebody who was walking in NYC got a message on their cell phone that the first sept. 11 plane had hit. is this the future? NOT ANYMORE!

so these days we vote on the news everybody reads (pretty democratic), many of us carry our lives in our pockets with our PDAs and Blackberrys....email, telephone, web browsing, chatting, instant messaging, phone book, you name it...possibilities with technology are endless. so this brings me to my question-what's next? Sure there's going to be better websites which start popping out of your computer screen, and make food for you, but as far as computer technology, what will we be able to do with out computers in 20 years?

So far in this class we have already shown how these days you can:
- Vote on the news
-Control your life with your PDA
-Reach millions of people with a blog
-Market a product with a blog
-Find user reviews and best prices on products (with a blog too!)

while i was thinking about what capabilities we now have just as a result of blogs I went online and looked to find an article about the future of blogging. Though the article is entitled "The Future of the Blog" it doesn't directly answer that question. However, after reading this article from Business Week it is interesting to hear about the beginning of blogging as well as the challenges blog hosts face, the myths of blogging, their design issues, and most importantly, how bloggs effect societal views. If you have a minute check it out.

As I conclude, please provide me with how YOU THINK blogs of the future will differ from...this very blog or those viewed today?
....to get you thinking maybe the ability for a user to upload songs and movie clips using this simplistic blogger?

PLEASE COMMENT and let me know what you think!

Blogs: Good or Bad for Corporate Giants?

some of the posted readings for tomorrow's class were based upon the way large corporations could benefit or be at a disadvantage as a result of the blogosphere we live in today. the article along with the other article on the Business Week website highlights how users utilize bloggs and other forms of social networks to gang up and discuss issues they have regarding products, services, or the quality of a company. the internet and in blogs specifically are the first place where customers or people who own the same products from all over the country and the world can get together and openly discuss something. the beauty of it is that chances are that one of the people who is having the issue might be a specialist in that certain field of technology....this possibility often provides solutions to a common problem people seem to have with the same product or service. For example, the article in the Financial Times posted as a link in the syllabus speaks of a Verizon Motorola V710 cell phone. It talks about how VZW decided to ban bluetooth file transfer between the users' PC and their Motorola device. Users complained to the company and blogged about the issue online. Soon enough, a computer or cell phone genius in this case came up with a way to connect the phone to the computer using loopholes in the block. prior to the advent and high use of bloggs and online open forums no solution or group lawsuit could be filed. I was one of these users, whom found this blog using google and was again able to connect my phone to the computer to transfer files via bluetooth. Companies can be hurt by negative press which flows on bloggs between users...however, if users love products then blogs could really enhance the image of the product and give raving reviews on products that are not widely known. After reading this post, please vote by clicking the link below and if you care to-- explain your answer as a comment. Thanks!

http://snappoll.com/poll/169988.php

its not all about the microchips and web standards...

i usually start my posts with a quote, though it might cliche i feel as if it sets the tone and subject of the discussion early on in the game....

"The personal computer and the Internet would not exist as they do today without extraordinary collaborative enterprises in which acts of cooperation were as essential as microprocessors." (Rheingold 47).

keeping this blog entry short and sweet i feel as if sometime we tend to overlook the fact that its not the technological innovations and software advance which has brought the Internet to where it is today...its you....its me...its nearly every computer user throughout the world. Whether we look at the commerce that online community has bread through online retailers like Amazon, auction websites like eBay, and community commerce such as CraigsList...or we just look at news, blog, and other community supported web developments. What I have gained from reading this passage in the Mobs book...is that everything, including the blog for this class has only become what it has because of the users whom interact and make the internet what it is today. Without social networks and niches within the blogging community and virtually anywhere on the net....the internet and the accessibility given to its users would not exist today and would certainly not have brought the full value which it does to our lives on a daily basis. whether I'm searching for a product on eBay or amazon....or looking for the latest car information...the information i request or seek would not be available to me today if it weren't for the users throughout the world. though microprocessors and broadband connection does speed the process up, without social networks and e-communities, the internet would not be as successful and vibrant as it is today.

after watching the optional panel videos from the university of santa clara...i truly believe in this final statement:

"The foundations of the Internet were created by the community of creators as a gift to the community of users (Rheingold, 48)."