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Online megaretailer Amazon.com has established an internet wedding registry, just in time to take advantage of Valentine’s Day engagements. Brides- and grooms-elect will be able to register for all types of gadgets from the housewares and electronics sections of the site. The company claims that it decided to set up the registry because many engaged couples are in the market for goods that are more contemporary and practical than china and silver. Married couples-to-be will be able to choose goods from Amazon partners such as Target. Amazon’s electronics unit has yet to prove a profit, and there’s no indication that a wedding section will necessarily help it along, but that isn’t stopping Amazon from trying. Many other e-commerce sites allow people to establish online wedding registries, among them Williams-Sonoma and Macy’s.
Marriage proposed and accepted on Slashdot
Who says romance is for the birds? As this most recent Valentine’s Day proved, it’s actually for the nerds. Rob Malda, the co-founder of technology news/community web site Slashdot, proposed to his longtime girlfriend online in a posting on Slashdot.org yesterday morning. “Kathleen, I wanted to do this in the most potentially embarrassing way possible,” he wrote, “in front of a quarter of a million strangers.” She accepted his proposal within 15 minutes, writing, “Yes. Dork. You made me cry. :)” The betrothal generated a lot of buzz in the Slashdot community, with some 1,200 responses from the peanut gallery popping up in the five hours following the exchange. Love was in evidence all over the web yesterday, with most free greeting-card sites rendered inaccessible at some point due to heavy traffic.
Free online cards trump fee-based greetings
As the old saw goes, the best things in life are free, and that’s how web surfers feel about greeting-card web sites, according to a study from Jupiter Media Metrix. When the leading greeting-card sites began charging, their popularity declined markedly. The American Greetings e-card network, which includes AmericanGreetings.com, BlueMountain.com and Egreetings.com, saw its volume of unique visitors decline 10 percent between November 2001 and December 2001, to 22.9 million from 25.5 million. That decline parallels the fact that in December, AmericanGreetings began charging $11.95 a year for the privilege of perusing and sending most of its electronic greeting cards. At the same time, traffic to free online greeting card sites increased. Yahoo Greetings received 70 percent more traffic in December than it did in November, going from 5.4 million to 9.1 million. Hallmark.com posted a 74 percent jump in traffic then, too, going from 4.7 million to 8.2 million unique visitors.
NextCard shutdown squeezes web sites
Last week, the feds shut down internet bank NextBank, best known for plastering the internet with ads for the NextCard Visa–which means no more NextCard ads. NextBank was shut down because regulators determined it “was operating in an unsafe and unsound manner.” People won’t be able to apply for the low-interest NextCards any longer. The shutdown also spells big trouble for ad-supported web sites. NextCard’s shutdown means that it can no longer shell out for the banners, buttons and pop-ups that were the lifeblood of many smaller web site publishers. Big web sites like Yahoo ran the ads too. According to CNET News, the bank spent some $50 million a year on internet advertising, with online publishers sending the credit-card company many leads.
Freedom in Afghanistan brings-what else-porno!
With the ouster of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban from Afghanistan, a nation has begun rebuilding roads, clearing mines, and, um, catching up on porno. Satellite dishes are popping up all over the country, drawn to the hundreds of foreign channels available, including a few featuring lurid material. One, entitled "100 percent hardcore," in actuality offers nothing of the kind, but then gyrating topless women might mean more to men unaccustomed to the sight of a naked ankle. Guesthouses in Kandahar have recently been crowded with enthralled Afghan men, who frenetically try to change the channel when a female Western aid worker passes by. Even with crushing poverty, many have scraped together the cash to purchase six-foot dishes for about $100 and eight-foot dishes with a digital receiver for about $250. Much of the equipment is brought in from Pakistan. "I've been in business a month, and I have sold nearly 400 dishes," said satellite television shop owner Abdul Wasi, according to Reuters. "My shop is always busy. Everybody wants to watch satellite television."
February 15, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
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