Bryce is a designer at CrunchGear for TechCrunch. Bryce Durbin is an illustrator and designer for print and web. He grew up in Columbus, OH and now lives in Elkader, Iowa with his wife Shannon and their son Link. His portfolio is at brycedurbin.com. ? Learn More
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Bryce is a designer at CrunchGear for TechCrunch. Bryce Durbin is an illustrator and designer for print and web. He grew up in Columbus, OH and now lives in Elkader, Iowa with his wife Shannon and their son Link. His portfolio is at brycedurbin.com. ? Learn More
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Robin Wauters currently works as a staff writer for TechCrunch and lead editor of Virtualization.com. Aside from his professional blogging activities, he’s an entrepreneur, event organizer, occasional board adviser and angel investor but most importantly an all-round startup champion. Wauters lives and works in Belgium, a tiny country in Europe. He can often be found working from his home or... ? Learn More
Microsoft appears to be readying the formal launch of a Bing-branded daily deals website powered by white-label group buying platform service provider Tippr, a well-informed source tells me. You don’t have to take my word for it: Microsoft and Tippr are testing the service right now, and the Bing-exclusive daily deals site is hiding in plain sight (see here and here, or check screenshots below).
For the record, this offering is notably different from Microsoft’s earlier launch of Bing Deals, which basically features links to aggregated deals from a number of partners, including group buying service providers like Tippr, Groupon, LivingSocial, Zozi and Gilt City but also over 2,000 merchants through Bing Shopping, including Target, Nordstrom, and Zappos.
I haven’t found any mention of, link to, official videos or screenshots of the Bing-exclusive daily deals site powered by Tippr. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure Microsoft has never made any announcements concerning the Bing.com/daily-deals website whatsoever.
As you can tell from the screenshots embedded below, Bing’s group buying destination site will be familiar to you if you’ve ever visited the likes of Groupon and LivingSocial for deals.
You can use your Facebook account or Windows Live ID to log in, browse and share current deals, past deals, and read more about how it works. The latter page notes:
Subscribe to Bing Deals and we’ll e-mail you a new deal every day from a great local business. You can also search at Bing.com or browse for deals at Bing.com/daily-deals.
Again, this site is the only one I can find on the Web that has ever made any mention of the URL / website Bing.com/daily-deals.
The website also mentions something called a ‘sweetened deal’, which is described as follows:
What is a sweetened deal? It’s a deal that gets better over time. Some of the deals that appear on Bing Deals will get a better value as more deals are purchased.
For example, a deal may start off as $10 for $20 at Some Corner Bakery. If enough people purchase the voucher, the deal hits the sweeten point and it becomes $10 for $25! No matter what, you will always pay the same amount for the deal you purchase, but what you get for your hard earned dollars goes up!
The cool thing about Sweeten Deals is that as more people buy, the value of the deal gets better for everybody who purchased and will purchase the deal. This is why it’s a great idea to share the deal you bought with your friends, so you and everybody else get the biggest bang for your buck.
As you can tell from one of the screenshots below, daily deals are / will be available in 12 markets, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Seattle.
When reached, Tippr CEO Martin Tobias declined to comment on the partnership between Microsoft and Tippr. A Microsoft spokesperson tells me he believes this is part of something they’ve talked about before, then referred to as Bing Exclusive Deals for some cities, which are deals you can only get through Bing, but that the team is still “getting it up and running and working out kinks”.
It’s also worth noting that Microsoft last week expanded its Bing Business Portal, adding the ability for local businesses to run group deals – rather than regular deals – on Bing (among other things).
Search Engine Land offers an excellent run-down of everything that’s new.
Other daily deal sites in the U.S. include Groupon, LivingSocial, Google Offers, BuyWithMe, AmazonLocal, HomeRun and Dealster, among many, many others.
Bing is a decision (search) engine from Microsoft officially announced on May 28, 2009. It combines technology from the Farecast and Powerset acquisitions, as well as new algorithms and a more colorful page design, to attempt to understand the context behind the search, which Microsoft claims gives users better results. Bing as a brand is also an attempt to eliminate the confusion caused by Microsoft’s “Windows Live” branding. Bing is now everything “search” related, whereas Windows Live encompasses the remnants...
Learn more Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is a veteran software company, best known for its Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. Starting in 1980 Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM allowing Microsoft to sell its software package with the computers IBM manufactured. Microsoft is widely used by professionals worldwide and largely dominates the American corporate market. Additionally, the company has ventured into hardware with consumer products such as the Zune and...
Learn more Tippr.com leverages collective buying power to fulfill consumers’ daily cravings for the guaranteed best deals on goods, services, and events, while supporting local businesses and communities. Tippr.com is the only collective buying site to offer our patented accelerating deals, which means the deal gets better as more buyers opt in. Tippr is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kashless Inc.
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Bryce is a designer at CrunchGear for TechCrunch. Bryce Durbin is an illustrator and designer for print and web. He grew up in Columbus, OH and now lives in Elkader, Iowa with his wife Shannon and their son Link. His portfolio is at brycedurbin.com. ? Learn More
Here are some of yesterday’s posts on TechCrunch Gadgets:
German Artist Creates 4000-Watt Sound Tank
RED Founder Teases Laser-Based 4K Projector
Build-A-Bear Releases Kinect-Capable Teddies
Review: NeatDesk Scanner For Mac
Kickstarter: Stick Your iPhone To Your Bike With The Action Case
View the original article here
Daily deals services such as Groupon and LivingSocial are proliferating, with more than 650 providers serving 26 million customers so far. The market is growing so quickly, it’s hard to get a handle on who’s using these products and what they’re using them for.
That’s where this infographic can help. It’ll show you the major players, the types of deals offered and who’s buying these deals. Beyond that, you’ll find fascinating facts about the quickly developing secondary deal marketplace.
Just in time for the last week of National Coupon Month (who knew?), here’s a comprehensive set of graphical data gathered from the users of CityPockets, a secondary daily deals marketplace whose digital wallet helps you consolidate all those vouchers and daily deals. Keep in mind that CityPockets admits its survey respondents tend to be slightly heavier daily deals users.
Take a look at this infographic, and let us know in the comments how you’re using daily deals.
View the original article here
Bryce is a designer at CrunchGear for TechCrunch. Bryce Durbin is an illustrator and designer for print and web. He grew up in Columbus, OH and now lives in Elkader, Iowa with his wife Shannon and their son Link. His portfolio is at brycedurbin.com. ? Learn More
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Chris Velazco is a mobile enthusiast and writer who studied English and Marketing at Rutgers University. Once upon a time, he was the news intern for MobileCrunch, and in between posts, he worked in wireless sales at Best Buy. After graduating, he returned to the new TechCrunch to as a full-time mobile writer. He counts advertising, running, musical theater,... ? Learn More
It may have started with a quiet rollout, but a recent announcement shows that it’s AmazonLocal‘s time to get loud. According to Amazon, their Groupon-esque deals service will start displaying bargains on their Special Offer-oriented Kindles when a new software update goes live in coming weeks.
AmazonLocal, which came about due to Amazon’s partnership with LivingSocial, is currently live in 44 markets across 15 states — not bad for a service that’s only been live for a few months. Kindle owners will be able to take advantage of offers in New York City, Seattle, Philadelphia, and Chicago, just to name a few.
The Special Offers Kindle will be able to detect the user’s location, and display any nearby deals for that day. Users will be able to purchase those available deals directly from the Kindle without having to whip out their credit card, as the payment will be likely be processed from whatever card Amazon already has on file. Once all that is taken care of, users can mosey on up to the counter, flash their Kindle, and enjoy their savings.
It’s a logical move by Amazon, but it’s brilliant nonetheless. By releasing the Kindle with Special Offers, Amazon has already managed to target a presumably well-read audience who have made it known that they enjoy a bargain. In shoehorning AmazonLocal onto those Kindles, Amazon can get deals out to people who may be more likely to bite the bullet than others.
View the original article here
Bryce is a designer at CrunchGear for TechCrunch. Bryce Durbin is an illustrator and designer for print and web. He grew up in Columbus, OH and now lives in Elkader, Iowa with his wife Shannon and their son Link. His portfolio is at brycedurbin.com. ? Learn More
View the original article here
Bryce is a designer at CrunchGear for TechCrunch. Bryce Durbin is an illustrator and designer for print and web. He grew up in Columbus, OH and now lives in Elkader, Iowa with his wife Shannon and their son Link. His portfolio is at brycedurbin.com. ? Learn More
View the original article here
Bryce is a designer at CrunchGear for TechCrunch. Bryce Durbin is an illustrator and designer for print and web. He grew up in Columbus, OH and now lives in Elkader, Iowa with his wife Shannon and their son Link. His portfolio is at brycedurbin.com. ? Learn More
View the original article here
Bryce is a designer at CrunchGear for TechCrunch. Bryce Durbin is an illustrator and designer for print and web. He grew up in Columbus, OH and now lives in Elkader, Iowa with his wife Shannon and their son Link. His portfolio is at brycedurbin.com. ? Learn More
Here are some of yesterday’s posts on TechCrunch Gadgets:
TomTom Discovers Apps, Puts Twitter, Yelp And More In The Go Live 1535 M PND
Windows 8's New Explorer: This One Goes To 11
Review: Fujifilm X100
New Zelda And Golden Wiimote To Arrive November 20th
Video: New Atomic Clock Reaches A 100 Quadrillionth Of A Second Accuracy
View the original article here
Rip Empson is a writer at TechCrunch. He’s not here to make friends, he’s here to WIN, and don’t you forget it. You can reach him at rip[at]techcrunch[dot]com ? Learn More
Where do you get your news (besides TechCrunch, of course)? Some of you may like that familiar tactile experience of newsprint, ink on the fingers, but chances are that your news consumption takes place mostly online — or on a mobile device. But thanks to the content fire hose that is the Internet, there’s a lot of irrelevant junk floating around out there, and, thus, the focus of digital readers and content distributors has turned to improving the filters, aggregators, and readers that channel the noise into signal.
Whether your go-to resources for realtime news happen to be Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, or the TechMemes of the world, we’re all looking for an easy, curated, and social, way to consume content from the sites we trust — as well as those we like but don’t visit as often.
XYDO, a startup that launched in May and raised $1.25 from EPIC Ventures and a host of angels in June, has hopped into the social news space by offering a user experience that combines the best parts of sites like Digg and Hacker News in an effort to serve you with relevant, curated, and social news from top content houses.
XYDO has met with early success (over 750,000 unique visitors in August alone) because of that very idea: It wants to be a newsfeed that effectively prioritizes the content that actually matters to you. For starters, it does this via its web platform. But what if we don’t want to click over to XYDO.com every time we want to get the latest headlines?
To expand on its news personalization mission and to try to hit users with a virtual version of a rolled up newspaper right at home, the startup is today announcing the launch of XYDO Brief, which aims to deliver personalized and relevant news based on a user’s social interactions, networks, and footprints — all via email, the place they’re likely to be at least once a day.
News via email? Well that’s nothing new, you might say. And you wouldn’t be wrong. But XYDO is hoping to offer a value proposition and an occasion to rethink this stance by combing the Web and your social networks to provide a really simple, realtime method to get news via the inbox. XYDO Brief takes advantage of the same social sourcing mixed with actual human curation technique that it is used by its flagship product.
Every piece of content that enters its system (from over 100,000 content sources) is scored based on the recommendations of the startup’s 2 million+ contributors and curators. Using its secret sauce of social network aggregation and prioritization mixed with crowdsourced curation, XYDO serves its users with between 10 to 12 personalized headlines in every email — that have passed these socially-tested benchmarks to ensure the news you’re receiving in your inbox is the news you want to see.
The default setting on XYDO Brief is one email a day, but users can go in and select different categories of blasts (be it “tech” or “politics”) that they’d like to receive, as well as how many of these briefs they’d like to receive — and at what time of day. For those who live on wire services, this seems very similar; it’s the broadly available email version.
So, for those of us who spend all day in our inboxes anyway, being able to tinker with a simple service that’s fairly customizable, in an effort to provide an easy way to read the news without having to go search our social networks and favorite content sources — is huge.
Also of note: XYDO is providing TechCrunch readers with 500 exclusive (and free) invites to check out their new product. To test the service for yourself, click here. Then come on back and let us know what you think.
View the original article here
MG Siegler has been writing for TechCrunch since 2009. He covers the web, mobile, social, big companies, small companies, essentially everything. And Apple. A lot. Prior to TechCrunch, he covered various technology beats for VentureBeat. Originally from Ohio, MG attended the University of Michigan. He’s previously lived in Los Angeles where he worked in Hollywood and in San Diego where... ? Learn More
After quietly announcing they were killing off their nascent Deals product this afternoon, Facebook caused some confusion. You see, with the decision to kill off Facebook Places earlier in the week, everyone wondered what it meant for the location-based deals they launched alongside it? Those would remain alive, Facebook said at the time. But does today’s execution change anything?
No, says Facebook. Daily Deals are separate from Check-in Deals. The Check-in Deals will work a bit different with the end of Places, but the company will continue to support and enhance that product. Daily Deals are dead — and my email account thanks them for that.
Facebook’s statement on the matter:
After testing Deals for four months, we’ve decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks. We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses. We remain committed to building products to help local businesses connect with people, like Ads, Pages, Sponsored Stories, and Check-in Deals. We’ve learned a lot from our test and we’ll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses.
In more violent terms that may be easier to understand: they’re killing off their Groupon-killer, but keeping half of their Foursquare-killer while killing off the other half of their Foursquare-killer.
Below, a reminder of what the still-alive Check-in Deals will look like on the Facebook iPhone app:
Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 500 million users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It...
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Bryce is a designer at CrunchGear for TechCrunch. Bryce Durbin is an illustrator and designer for print and web. He grew up in Columbus, OH and now lives in Elkader, Iowa with his wife Shannon and their son Link. His portfolio is at brycedurbin.com. ? Learn More
View the original article here
Bryce is a designer at CrunchGear for TechCrunch. Bryce Durbin is an illustrator and designer for print and web. He grew up in Columbus, OH and now lives in Elkader, Iowa with his wife Shannon and their son Link. His portfolio is at brycedurbin.com. ? Learn More
Here are some of yesterday’s stories on TechCrunch Gadgets:
LaCie Adds Some Polish To Its NAS Units With “NAS OS”
AliveCor Turns Mobile Devices Into Low-Cost Heart Monitors, Raises $3 Million
kandenchi: Designer Mouse That Looks Like A Battery
CineSkates: Roller Skates For Your Camera
Failbook Phone: AT&T Already Looking To Ditch The HTC Status, Says Source
View the original article here
Bryce is a designer at CrunchGear for TechCrunch. Bryce Durbin is an illustrator and designer for print and web. He grew up in Columbus, OH and now lives in Elkader, Iowa with his wife Shannon and their son Link. His portfolio is at brycedurbin.com. ? Learn More
View the original article here
