Post Discussion of "Shopping Happens" a Presentation/Gaming Activity

Shipka's Forum Prompt:
Presentation Response

As ever, posts must be 250 words and completed by Wednesday at 5:00pm

R. Desai's Response ·  C. Gatton's Response ·  K. Zajdel's Response ·  P.C. Paul's Response ·  S. Miller's Response ·  N. Horstman's Response

K. Bailey's Response ·  A. Campbell's Response ·  Y. Martin's Response ·  E. Jones' Response ·  N. Barsky's Response ·  E. Berman's Response

B. Bauhaus' Response ·  M.J. Bowen's Response ·  A. Reed's Response ·  E. Woodward's Response

         I like this site for several reasons:

1. Accessibility - the site is extremely easy to navigate. You can search for anything and even if you don't have all the product info. of the item that you're looking for, Amazon is great at offering helpful suggestions of similar items that you may like.
2. Variety - On www.amazon.com, you can search for books, jewelry, CDs, toys, and so much more. Whereas you can only buy certain things at certain stores, you can shop for anything and everything at this site (i.e. you can only buy music at Sam Goody or clothes at H and M.)
3. Affordability - The items I find on this site are always well-priced. Textbooks are usually much cheaper on Amazon than at Barnes & Noble or in the campus bookstore.
4. Wish list - I love the fact that Amazon allows you or your friends/family to create wish lists so that when you're wondering what to get someone, you can simply look at their wish list and get them exactly what they want.

The one other reason I don't always prefer online shopping is that it doesn't allow you to actually feel/try on whatever it is you're shopping for. If I wanted to buy a sweater, for instance, from Amazon.com or Forever21.com , I wouldn't be able to try it on before buying it. At a store, however, I could feel the sweater, examine it for tears, try it on, etc.

A response to R. Desai's "Ideal Online Shopping Site" by N. Barsky
You make a good point about the perceived lack of security in online shopping, and indeed identity theft is a big threat these days. That's a point we didn't touch upon in class. On the other hand, buying online saves a trip to the store, with all the hazards that may entail, like robberies and car accidents. I suppose it might be possible nowadays to live independently without ever leaving one's home, by ordering all your needs online.

         I also prefer to buy clothing in person. In my case, this is because I'm oddly proportioned and I usually can't go by official sizes; it's not easy for me to tell whether something fits until I try it on. This is a good example of how the web will never surpass the bricks-and-mortar places--unless, of course, they invent some kind of VR technology that allows you to fit virtual clothing for size.

         My impatience led me to quickly fail at today's online game. I gave up relatively early and decided to go to Sephora.com. I wasn't planning on finding any bargain deals there--instead, I wanted to check the availability of a product--a lip gloss for $19.00. After finding the lip gloss, my eyes wandered over to Yolanda's computer screen. She was checking out some Victoria Secret bathing suits at VictoriaSecret.com-of course, she was looking for bathing suits for under $25.00. I rushed over to the website to check out these bargain bathing suits she was finding. My eyes wandered to bathing suits that were no less than $50.00. Yolanda in so many words told me I was crazy to spend that much money and tried to help me pick out a much cheaper bathing suit, while not sacrificing fashion sense at the same time. I've decided that I should go shopping with Yolanda more often! Nichole seemed to be pretty good at bargain shopping as well--of course I saw her looking up items under Froogle.com which I honestly didn't know existed.

         I am not too much of an eBay user/consumer for the same reasons. I have no patience for the process of bidding and waiting on the product's final status. I have never logged onto eBay before--I've only watched my boyfriend bid and sell items on the website. He could spend hours looking through pages of car parts, while I would be at my wit's end after ten minutes. Whenever I ask for perfume from my grandmother on holidays, she won't usually go to the department store, but instead look up online bargain perfume vendors and buy from the cheapest vendor she can find. I find it to be too much work for me or rather, too many steps in the online buying process. I suppose it depends on how far the actual vendor is from you. For instance, my sister wanted these earrings from Swarovski for one Christmas. Because the closest location was in Tyson's Corner in Virginia, it was easier to order them online. I don't mind online shopping, but only when I know what it is that I'm looking for.

         Currently at work, I'm being forced by my supervisor to do some research on credit card machinery and has asked me to research the process of purchasing one or more, the installation process and cost and product costs of this type of equipment. She has requested that I do my research online, and this I'm not at all interested in doing. I started the task but quit after about 5 minutes and haven't forced myself to finish the task just yet. This is how much I hate researching for items online-especially when looking for a certain bargain item.

         Generally when I need to do an online search, I always start with Yahoo!. Google.com is my back-up. I tend to rely on Yahoo for most all my online searches. Why? I suppose it's just by habit now. My email account is with Yahoo so it seems easier to stay on the same page when I need to use the search engine to get directions, read restaurant reviews, make reservations, etc.

         My favorite shopping sites to use are Amazon and eBay. I like these sites because you can buy nearly anything, but you have one account that is very secure. eBay has the best prices and the best variety, but quality is never one hundred percent guaranteed and there is always an element of chance when bidding on something. You can not be 100% positive that you are going to get what you think you paid for, or that you are going to get your item at all. The feedback system helps with this, but once again, there are no guarantees. Amazon has a huge array of products, fairly low prices, and usually offers different deals for returning customers. For instance, I buy a lot of electronics on Amazon and they recently sent me an offer for $5 off a subscription for Wired magazine. In the past, they've sent me discounts on other products, like digital cameras and hard drives; because they know I'm a good customer. For the most part, I really like their recommendation system. Most of their recommendations for me are usually very good, and oftentimes they recommend things I already have or have wanted to buy. The one thing that bothers me is that I buy my textbooks on Amazon, so my book recommendations are usually not that great. For instance, I bought a Shakespeare anthology two years ago for a class and I still get recommendations for books about Shakespeare or Elizabethan literature.

         I would say that I am a very habitual online shopper; I usually buy something online once a week or once every two weeks, depending on my funds. I'd much rather buy a DVD, CD, or any electronic gadget online than in the store. I also buy shoes, purses, and accessories online. I don't really like to interact with other people when I shop, and I find most salespeople annoying, so online shopping is hassle free and convenient for me. The only thing I really have to buy in the store is clothing, and that is just to make sure it fits me. For me, online shopping is a great innovation and has greatly improved the shopping process.

A response to K. Zajdel's "Shopping Online" by C. Gatton
I definitely agree about your point with sales people--the downside of shopping nowadays. I am a very introverted shopper--in other words, I like to be left alone when browsing at the mall. Shopping is not only a time for me to shop, but to organize my thoughts and plans for the next week or so. It's very therapeutic for me at times and I hate to be interrupted by sales reps. all the time!

         I used to be a sales rep. for J. Crew two years ago and I hated it. My supervisors would push me to sell, sell, sell and to basically be up people's asses all the time in order to meet my sales quotas. I absolutely hated bothering people when I myself hate to be bothered when shopping. I eventually quit for this reason!

A response to K. Zajdel's "Shopping Online" by N. Horstman
I worked at Abercrombie & Fitch for about 2 months... following customers around and refolding clothes that they pick up made me want to kill myself and everyone that came into the store. I love shopping, but retail has to be the worst job in the world.

         I would have to reflect on when I did have money as Megan said, "I’m a college student and I don’t even make $10,000 a year" so I’m lucky if I can buy a can of baked beans. When I did have money I liked to use sites like Amazon.com for books, CDNow.com for hard to get music (who was bought out by Amazon), eBay for used crap and ancient artifacts. I know, I know no eBay but I used eBay sometimes for a bargain items say a box of 100 shag (practice) golf balls for a couple of bucks, a set of used golf clubs, or an old army jacket for work purposes (working in an Auto Parts store) peculiar items like wooden darts with feathers (ancient artifact), a art deco cigarette holder (ancient artifact) re-purposed for a chalk box, collectible artifacts like anything with Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (CCCP) on it just so I could point to it and say, "I bet you don’t have one of those?" "No you’re right, I don’t have one of those and you know, I don’t want one either."

         The purpose of the golf clubs was to practice my game but I hate golf. What? You buy golf clubs to play golf but you hate golf maybe it’s me but something doesn’t make sense here. The purpose of playing golf is secondary. The reason for playing golf was to smooze with the corporate big wigs in order to have conversations with people in business higher up. The Japanese love golf for this purpose. They conduct business while playing a game of golf but so do American corporate types. It is difficult to get through all the low-level sensors or gatekeepers in big companies or even little companies with just a resume. When you can actually meet big wigs in person and begin to talk with these people one runs a better chance of being recognized because conversations always turn to business. If you have good ideas you get recognized and the big wig toss you a business card and say, "Call me, I need somebody like you." It’s a way in.

         Golf is a way to meet women too. More women are playing the game to meet men because its easier to socialize during an activity so now more men are playing Golf to meet women. It becomes a vicious cycle. Honestly speaking I haven’t played in years since I was corporate but this was and is how it goes.

         As far as other online shopping as a computer person I needed to buy a great deal of computer stuff to upgrade my own computer and other people’s computers so I would shop at places like CDW and Dirtcheapdrives.com for some of the hard core stuff not sold in stores. Most times I know exactly what I want or I am looking for so I love shopping online because I don’t have to run all over the place to find things. I just let my fingers float through the stores and everything is just a few mouse clicks away. The only time I use Brick-n-Mortar stores is either for standard provisions: food, office supplies, school supplies, greeting cards, etc and then if I could get it in BJ's Wholesale Club or Sam's Club I would buy in bulk.What influences me to buy from a particular online store is ease of use (useability) and download speeds. Any site that appears to be well thought out and plays nicely without any unexpected tricks I’ll buy from. If I had the troubles McCarthy had in the article I would have ran. At that point I would have paid a few dollars more in a site that functioned better because I would feel more confident in my purchase that I would receive problem resolution if something went wrong with my order.

         Instead of talking about favorite online stores, I’d rather focus on search engines as a researcher. I used to work as a grunt in Information Systems programming in SAS at The Hilltop Institute here at UMBC conducting research on the web for the PhD’s there so I did a great deal of combing for information in MedlinePlus within theNational Library of Medicine, Grateful Med, and AARP. Much of what I do now is combing the UMBC library database and Amazon.com for Shipka topic type books (writing Pedagogy, writing studies, electronic communications, among others) and heavy usage of the electronic journals database.

         As far as larger search engines I’ll use Yahoo for cheap and easy stuff but Google more so now because most of you guys are Googlers. Many times I find myself switching to less traditional search engines like Askjeeves, now simply called "Ask", Dogpile, About, and others. I looked at my bookmarks and I currently have 27 different search engines. Some with a wide base like Google and some more specific like CNET, and ZDNet for computer related stuff, SearchEngineWatch looks interesting but I think you have to subscribe to this. I have a lot of specialized search engines because the big ones usually display an overwhelming amount of stuff that is not related to the task at hand. I have too much to do at any one moment in time and I really just want to focus my time and efforts on what I need to do. I’m sure Shipka has this problem that your time becomes your most valuable resource and you hate to waste it having to sift through useless information. I bookmark most of my stuff when I find a sites that are useful and I am well over 3000 sites now. If I wanted I could probably write one of those Web Search Directory thingies. I hope this was helpful for someone and if anyone has any questions I’ll try to post answers about finding specific stuff. I have found since last semester talking to others about their searching methods can prove to be fruitful.

         Financially, it appeared to me that on-line shopping would be the wisest out of the shopping possibilities because you are offered so many options from discount to used goods. The aesthetic value of the websites only affected me when it had a photo of the object I was in search of; I like to see what I buy. Navigation is of most importance because time is valuable to consumes in this fast passed and busy world. People don’t want to “figure something out” when a service is supposed to be working for them. The more complicated an activity is, the more frustrating and less appealing it becomes for the user to return to it. I also found myself highly distracted from other items displayed along the margins of the page. Impulse buying never became so accessible! And dangerous! Sometimes it derailed my attention completely and I forgot what I was searching for in the first place. Once click leads to another click and then within seconds I found myself lost. The connection was slow and this caused my agitation to rise and want to leave the machine. Again, this is a result of the user getting upset if they think that their time is being stolen or badly used. There are only so many bars you can sit in front of to be incrementally filled.

         As for my ideal shopping on-line store, I am yet to figure it out because I need more experience. I have used e-bay and that proved quite effective. I could find so many things at a wide variety of prices. I bought a Sylvia Plath tee-shirt that I believe I would be hard pressed to come across anywhere else. I looked as I was typing this paper and e-bay even has a Hunter S. Thompson shirt shown on the left: How great! I like this sight because you can find basically anything! You can type in subject matter or category. For the above shirts mentioned, I typed in name and then selected “Clothing” If I was looking for their actual work then I would have looked under “Books”. I find this as a “hardly user” very hardly user accessible!

A response to S. Miller's "Shopping! On-line!" by P.C. Paul
Miller said,"I thought that the competitive forum was very appropriate for the shopping experience because not only are consumers competing for products but companies, in turn are competing for those consumer customers. Even though it was technically only an on-line class activity you could tell that people had their game faces on. From the start, students were complaining or attacking others for potential unethical shopping practices such as using the froogle.com website to find the lowest price possible."

         In reference to the competitiveness, Naphtali did say it was "Every man and woman for him or herself" and some of the searches were left wide open to interpretation like the "oven." We never did say what kind of an oven so anything that had some semblance to being an oven. What if someone brought up a Ford Pinto? The ongoing joke after the mishap with that vehicle was it was "an oven that seats four" because the fuel tanks would ignite on a rear end impact. Sick but still fair game after all Shipka found a Suzie Homemaker oven. The Pinto thing really isn’t funny though because as a pedestrian one night I had to pull a person out of one of those cars in an accident before something horrific happened.

         Miller continued, "I email a great deal but trying to purchase items on-line was new to me. I like to hold the object and I also like the immediate gratification of possessing the item directly after purchase instead of waiting for its delayed delivery. I must add, that it is easier to compare prices and see a wide variety of forms one item can take, such an oven. It would be hard to physically see all the merchandise available that would fall under one topic. I could run around town all day burning up gas and I would still only be able to see a small fraction of what would be offered to me on-line."

         Many people use the Internet shopping sites for a research tool and I know I gave up trying to find hard to find music in small mom and pop stores once the Internet virtual stores came along.

         In reference to eBay, I find shopping on there like shopping in NY. If you can’t find it in NY it doesn’t exist on this planet.

         I would say that I shop online only in extremely rare cases, like to buy cheap DVD’s of whole seasons of shows I like on eBay from Tokyo or Beijing (illegal, I’m sure, but I’m a broke college student and an entire seasons costs me $20 at most of eBay). Even then, though, I don’t use my own account but have my dad sign on and bid on the items I want to buy and then I pay him back later. I’m not one for the high stakes, competitive world of online bidding; it makes me too nervous. My sisters orders books online that are out of print or not carried in Barnes and Noble, and my mom has a habit of ordering clothes online when stores don’t carry what she wants in her size, which is often. Or when Abercrombie runs out of the clothes I want, which is also often unfortunately.

         The one thing that I do buy online and not in stores is Greek clothing, or those shirts you see sororities and fraternities wearing that have double stitch Greek letters on them. The Greek store in Maryland at College Park doesn’t have a good selection of my sorority, since there isn’t a chapter at College Park, and the easiest way to get clothing is just to order it off a site like Greek101.com or Greekgear.com. These sites would be completely foreign to someone not in a Greek organization, though.

         I think my main problem is that I love to shop way too much. And not just because I like buying things, I love going to malls with my friends and trying things on that I know I could never afford, just because it’s fun. I like the noise and the food court smells and helping other people pick things out, and I can’t get those things online. It’s a way too relieve stress, and when I sit at my computer all I can think about is the school work I’m not doing while I surf the Internet. I also have the unfortunate need to try things on before I buy them, which is a luxury you don’t have in online stores. Besides, once you pay shipping and handling, it’s cheaper to just drive to a store and buy what you want off the shelf, and then you don’t have to wait 10-12 business days and hope that it’s not broken when you finally get it. I also hate paying with a credit card because then I have to remember to pay the bill. Cash is easier.

         I suppose I would prefer online shopping stores with a good return policy that offer good, clear pictures of what it is you’re buying so you know exactly what you’re getting. I know colors aren’t always how they look on a computer screen. Of course, the site would still have to load fast even with the graphics, because I have no patience for slow downloading. I kind of wish the sites I order my sorority letters off of would have a function that lets me see a picture of the color combination I’m ordering, so I know whether or not the colors look good before I pay for them, but alas, I have yet to find such a site.

         I also do not have a lot of extra time to surf the net for pleasure. If I shopped online, it would take me awhile to find something that I like and buy it. It's much easier for me to just run five minutes up to the mall and find what I want. If there is something that I want and no store around me that has it, I may go online and try to find it. Very rarely do I buy it though.

         I am also not a fan of shipping charges. Some places are able to give you free shipping, but not many. I don't like to pay an extra five to ten dollars for something when I do not have to. I was unfortunately not able to make it to class for the presentation on all of this, but I was filled in on what happened. I am interested to go to the froogle.com website. Everybody likes a good deal, and if it's made simple I would not mind checking it out.

Response to K. Bailey's "Not a Big Fan!" by N. Campbell
I agree Kelly. I would much rather try something on in the store before I buy it.

         But actually, sometimes if the store doesn't have my size I will order it from online just because it makes things easier!

Response to K. Bailey's "Not a Big Fan!" by P.C. Paul
This is interesting because when I worked as a computer commission sales person a customer argued that we would be out of business in five years (all brick and mortar) due to virtual shopping. I said that bricks-n-mortar will ALWAYS have a place because 70% of people are visual learners and 10% are kinesthetic learners and that we must see and feel products, touch them play with them inspect them in order to make intelligent (and not so intelligent decisions) to purchase. That was 1996. I wonder who won the argument? : - )

Response to P.C. Paul's post by N. Barsky
It's interesting that you bring up kinesthetic vs. visual learning. I've generally seen myself as more of a kinesthetic type. Or, at least, a "hands on" type. It's why I hate most museums. I don't have the patience to stand there and look at an exhibit unless it gives me something to do with my hands. But due to my introversion and my computer skills, I am more comfortable working with computers than with people.

         Of course, what that customer said about the company being out of business in five years due to the boom of technology is the standard thing people say whenever a new form of technology arrives. But this assumption isn't really true--companies can almost always avoid going out of business, if they take advantage of the new technology. And for the most part, computer technology has rarely usurped any human activity in its entirety. For example, libraries still need information desks, even though library computers have made it possible for customers to find stuff on their own.

Response to N. Barsky's post by P.C. Paul
“It's interesting that you bring up kinesthetic vs. visual learning. I've generally seen myself as more of a kinesthetic type. Or, at least, a "hands on" type. It's why I hate most museums. I don't have the patience to stand there and look at an exhibit unless it gives me something to do with my hands. But due to my introversion and my computer skills, I am more comfortable working with computers than with people,” said Barsky.

         Yes, well apparently we are “peas in a pod.” I have always been “good with my hands” artist to mechanic to hands on engineer to scientist. What should have done is Chiropractics but I have problems with the “touchy feely” stuff. I refuse to discuss this further because the conversation will degrade quickly.

         Barsky also said, “Of course, what that customer said about the company being out of business in five years due to the boom of technology is the standard thing people say whenever a new form of technology arrives.”

         Agreed, remember Edwardianism and people shouting out of their carriages at disabled automobilists “Get a Horse!”

         Barsky continued, “But this assumption isn't really true--companies can almost always avoid going out of business, if they take advantage of the new technology.”

         Agreed, the business savvy always figure out how to apply new technology to their advantage. They have to otherwise they are dinosaurs watching other companies evolve into birds.

         “And for the most part, computer technology has rarely usurped any human activity in its entirety. For example, libraries still need information desks, even though library computers have made it possible for customers to find stuff on their own,” said Barsky.

         Also agreed. An extended enhancement but not a replacement.

         I definitely prefer to try on clothing at the actual store because I hate when I buy something that doesn't fit... it just ruins the excitement of buying something!

         But I must say I am a victim of online shopping in the sense that I will spend hours and hours looking at all my favorite stores online ( Banana Republic, Nordstrom, American Eagle, etc) and I will just browse through the websites looking for things I like. Each time I find an item that I like, I bookmark it on Firefox. Now, here's where it gets bad...I will print off a copy of every single item I bookmarked, and then spend the entire day going out shopping for those items. Literally, I will do everything in my power to get every item I saw online. I would have to say it's not buying stuff online that is my weakness; my downfall is online window shopping :-)

         As for what I liked and disliked about certain websites...I would have no say nothing in particular. I did not just go onto Froogle or Yahoo! Shopping and type in the item. I went onto Google.com and just typed in the item they specified and went off of whatever came up. Unfortunately, my technique was no very successful because I did not win a single round (except the first one that Emily and I found but didn't get points far, haha!)

         Getting back to the class presentation, that goes to show that technology has a mind of its own like the weather for example, you try to see what the weather is going to be and they bam it rains on you and it said sunny skies. The computer systems always tend to have their own way of acting out and that class is a reminder. Lucky though were we able to discuss the thought on the websites and when we were able to use them it flowed very well towards the end.

         www.froogle.com is a better site to me than www.google.com and I have used it frequently since the class among other sites that I learned along the way. This will only improve my online window shopping extravaganza. Thanks guys for helping my husband spend even more money on me since I am a struggling college student with no job! I have even more websites now.

         [During] Thursday['s] presentation, I learned two new things about online shopping. I learned about Froogle. I thought Froogle was some type of silly name for Google. I don’t know!!! I never would have guessed it searches for the best prices of things. I thought the information was very useful since I do spend a considerable amount of time online shopping. I also gained information about using quotations with searches. I believe that it searches for the exact phases oppose to just the searching for sites with matching words (hopefully I am correct). I wish I would have learned that a long time ago because it could have been useful for my research projects and papers.

         Thursday['s] presentation helped shed light to the idea that schools do not offer helpful information about the internet when they require students to conduct research projects. Having a conversation with Erika during class, we were talking about the first time we had to use the library programs on campus. It was terrible!!! If you had no prior knowledge about conducting searches, then you would be at a lost until you figured it out. There is no explanation whatsoever on how to run proper searches. I think Steven was talking about maybe having an introductory course that could teach students the effective way to go about internet searches. Even with some of my classes, it seems expected that students should be familiar with certain programs and searches but unfortunately everyone is not computer literate. Personally, if this school offered a class that could increase my knowledge about the internet, I would definitely take it.

         Back to shopping online, the sites where I purchase items, I try to make sure that I read all the details about returns, handling, and security and so on. I frequently by books/CD’s from Amazon. Rarely do I purchase clothes online, but I do love to purchases purses and shoes from online.

         Determining in advance how well the class would be at searching was one of the challenges of the assignment, because I'm pretty computer-savvy myself. Before I had high-speed service, I frequently used a local text-based service to avoid the graphics that slowed down loading time. This service was not user-friendly, but I had an easy time adjusting to it, while I know that many other users would not.

         Thus, I tend to care more about whether a site loads quickly than whether it's easy to use. While preparing for the project, I noticed that many of the Google sponsor sites took a long time to load, probably because they were scanning large databases. If your task is to look for a commercial site quickly, these sponsor sites are probably a distraction. If the presentation had gone successfully, the winner would not have been the one who clicked on those sites.

         Because the ability to search is so dependent on computer skills, the Internet age has an effect on which consumers succeed. I wonder how it may bear on gender differences, since shopping is traditionally associated with women, while computer skills are traditionally associated with men. Granted, these are stereotypes, and the times are a'changing. Nevertheless, a lot of men may now feel at an advantage over women in the online world, which would shift the balance of power when it comes to shopping.

         In this presentation, we focused upon concrete items like clothing and books. In fact, much of the online shopping I have done has consisted of downloading songs. I have also ordered a few books from Amazon. The sheer comfort of being able to order something just by clicking on a menu is one of the great attractions of online shopping. But there is a downside. There isn't as much of a barrier as there was in the past against buyers spending huge sums of money on a sudden whim or impulse. There's something deceptive about buying from the home, something unreal about it; it doesn't feel like you're doing anything major.

         But I'm a careful spender. So much of what I've used Amazon for is as a reference place, and to hear what customers said about an item. That was one of the more subtle points we were trying to get at in the presentation, how online buyers have a much wider selection to choose from than traditional buyers, and therefore they can make their choices more carefully, using most of the sites as references rather than definite places to buy.

         I'm sure most of us have been to those car-buying sites where you enter your specified criteria from a series of questions and they show you your ideal car. If I were to ask for one major addition to the current crop of general online stores, I would say that they ought to have more of those criteria-building searches where you can find what you're looking for more easily. Humans are better at intuiting people's wishes than machines are, but as our programming of the machines increases in sophistication, we may reach a point when online buyers can scarcely believe there isn't another human operating the searches.

Response to N. Barsky's "The Presentation That Will Live in Infamy" by A. Campbell
You guys shouldn't feel bad...it could've happened to anyone! I thought what you guys did was very fun and entertaining, it's just too bad the computers kept crashing :-P

Response to A. Campbell's post by N. Barsky
Oh, it was entertaining all right... for the audience!

Response to N. Barsky's post by P.C. Paul
Hahahaha. I told you I should have brought three towels to wipe the egg off.

Response to A. Campbell's post by P.C. Paul
I don’t feel bad at all but as a Project Manager and IT guy I should have prepared a "Panic Button" (which has now become the artifact that the presentation was delivered to Shipka in.) A box we could open up in case of power failure and gone on without the computers. Most old time engineers have one too. They usually frame them with a sign that says, “In Case of Power Failure, Break Glass!” What’s behind the glass? ... The answer is...

         With the websites that I personally used, once the item was announced, I thought about where I could get it and then went to that store’s site. I have never heard of or used Froogle, so everyone else who was using that seemed to be doing so much faster. I still don’t really understand what it does except just list sites where you could buy the product.

         For the first item, an oven, I went to Sears.com. The site was well-designed and easy to go through. The next item I remember was a laser printer. I went to staples.com and found it. My method for finding these things was much slower than everyone else’s. For the weird objects, such as the samurai sword, I think I just put them into Google and it sent me to a site I could purchase it from.

         I have been a big online shopper since I came to college. I use amazon.com for a lot of stuff, like books and DVD’s. I also consider itunes a method of online shopping, and I buy a new song at least once a week. The best/worst thing about online shopping is that it goes right through my check card. I have online banking as well, so I always know my balance in my checking account, but it’s so much easier to buy something and just wait for it to arrive then to have to drive to many different stores to find what you want, especially with the high gas prices. Most of the stuff that I buy online, especially from amazon, is free shipping, so I am not paying anymore than I would in the store. If I need something on a certain day, then I would go to a store and get it that way, because sometimes the items don’t arrive when you expect them to. Another downfall of online shopping is that when shopping in a mall, there is an off chance you would find something you weren’t looking for. That’s a good thing and a bad thing, where it might be something so perfect for you, but then you are spending more money that originally expected. Basically, I think online shopping is the best, my mom does most of her Christmas/Birthday shopping for us online. It’s wonderful.

         So, I’ll admit, I cheated. I looked over at Kate's screen and noticed that her Google was missing the 'G.' in place of the 'G' was an 'Fr.' as baffled as i was about this predicament, I asked her what was wrong with her Google page. She enlightened me on the face that Froogle was merely an extension of Google that was created specifically for online shopping. Tada! Jackpot! Yes? Maybe, maybe not.

         I was not familiar with using Froogle and therefore was slow to react when I had thought that I’d found the specified item with the lowest price. When using Froogle, all the items are listed from lowest to highest price range, but there was a catch. We couldn't use auction sites like eBay. Most of the items that Froogle found (the cheapest ones, anyway) were listed on eBay. That was quite annoying. On top of all of this, I’m a fairly slow typist (I still need to look at the keyboard to type and such. Aaand I don't use the correct fingering. But that's a different story).

         Anyway, I profusely thanked Kate for educating me on the ways of the wise Froogle. Unfortunately, because I was so unfamiliar with the program, I didn't "win" the online shopping spree because I just plain wasn't quick enough. I thought that Froogle was a great tool to use for this particular group presentation and I think it presented more organized, specific options as opposed to Google.

         Plus, Froogle was very easy to navigate. At the top were categories to choose different products from and a price-range specifier. All of the searched-for items were listed from lowest to highest price range so Froogle made it easy for me to find the lowest-priced items in the shortest amount of time possible. There was no browsing involved. Pictures of the items were also listed next to their prices so that eliminated the "middle man." I didn't have to click on a link to visit another page to see if the item I searched for was the item specified by Froogle. That cut down on a lot of time. Apparently not enough though, because I was still too slow and didn't win the grand prize. Boo.

         I don't really shop online ever, so I’m not sure what my ideal online shopping site would encompass. But as far as I can tell, Froogle works better than anything that I could ever personally come up with. Although, to alter it just a bit, I think that I would want a search to specify whether results can come from auction sites or not. That way, I could filter out results from sites like eBay and keep the ones that items are coming directly from the retailer.

Response to B. Bauhaus post by P.C. Paul
CHEATING is exactly what we wanted you to do! Being in the computer lab in a typical flyer formation forms a collective environment. Yes, we wanted all out competition in an entrepreneurial spirit, but we also expected groups to begin sharing "search techniques" as part of an "active learning" experience either overtly ("Hey, how did you get there so fast?") or covertly (Hmmm, I'm gonna peak at my neighbor's screen and hope I don't get caught...).

         In the new Information Systems building, the computer labs are set up differently. The computers line the walls and the center section has large desks to sit at for collaboration. This sets up a different expectation just by the arrangement of the physical space. At times, we had to take online tests and quizzes. Quizzes had time limits such as 15 minutes. The computer would time out at 16 minutes. Also, the professor could proctor the exam by watching where people's eyes were focusing and pass out warnings.

         Having the computers set up in rows of three facilitates for collaborative computing.

         With less rules comes greater degrees of freedom. But this could also become a hindrance because you begin to depend too much of what someone else is doing and miss out on opportunities.

         I don't know about you, but I was never really formerly taught how to search for ANYTHING on a computer other than performing boolean searches or formal use of SQL language in Oracle, Access, and dB3 & 4. I had to teach myself or ask others "how do you do...." The UMBC Library now offers training sessions every semester on how to search for information within the UMBC Library system, but that is considerably different than what we did. The UMBC Library is highly structured. The Internet is the Wild, Wild, Wild, West or "Hunt and Peck." We now know we are not all equal in computer skills and by bringing everyone into one space within the computer lab, although there was a competitive element, we all did learn some new computing skills through active learning methodology and techniques versus passively absorbing information by listening to a lecturer and being told what to do. We taught each other as a collective.

         Last, by requesting this blackboard post, we all now have the opportunity to share our deep dark secrets on googling in a non-competitive environment.

         Before Froogle, I just used Yahoo and Google and some other search engines that may not even exist anymore. There was a time that I used Ask.com a lot too, but Google proved better for everything, not just shopping. A few years ago, while shopping for Halloween supplies, I came across a site called Nextag.com. It operates in a similar way to Froogle and before I knew about Google's specialty engines, like Froogle, I used Nextag a lot. I still use it sometimes, but the results are not a good a Froogle, usually. Froogle's appearance is okay. And I like the side results that can sometimes be helpful. It is easy to navigate and quite user friendly. Whenever I need to find an item to buy, I am hardly ever disappointed by Froogle. Of course, I should add that I always used eBay too, even when buying brand new items. I have been able to get some CD's and DVD's, especially, for just dollars. Froogle has yet to find me a site that is that cheap. But, Froogle also is linked to eBay so eBay results will be included in the results from Froogle. About my ideal shopping site, I think that Froogle is pretty good. I can't really think of a site that would be better. I have never really had trouble finding anything with Froogle. I think if I was unable to find a lot of the items I want to purchase, I’d have another opinion on the subject. My ideal shopping site is one that works :-D

         In Thursday’s class, during the online shopping competition, I chose to Google all of the choices. I do not think that was the best choice for online shopping. While I received a bunch of different hits for whatever the item was, I still had to look at the different site description to figure out if it was EXACTLY what I needed. This, in turn, consumed a lot of time.

         My ideal site would probably be titled ‘http://www.whatyouneed.com’. There would be different sections on the website. For example, if you were looking for some kind of electronic device it would be located in the electronics “department” of the website. It would have the item’s picture, description, and other competitors’ prices for that same item.

         Online shopping is convenient and I love it.

A response to A. Reed's "Shopping..." by P.C. Paul
For electronics CNET.com works well because it is quite searchable.

         All of the shopping sites that I logged on to were aesthetically boring. They contained long lists (with or without small pictures), a price for the item, and the order number. There was little color, or decoration--it was the exact opposite of a store. In that respect, I didn’t like it. It was hard to differentiate between sites because they were all set up the same way. It was, however, rather easy to get to the sites. Bilal told me about Froogle and from that moment on any item I typed into the search engine would come up immediately, ready to purchase. Aside from the computers freezing, shopping online was quick. It certainly takes less time to type in an item and have it pop up on the screen, than it does to search for an item on the sprawling shelves of department stores. If I was someone who didn’t enjoy shopping or didn’t have time--I would definitely shop online.

         The best part of the presentation was when the group members taught me about quotations and brackets. They literally improved my life! I had no idea that putting quotations around the item I’m searching for would make the search results more accurate. Since that day, when I am researching anything online I frame it with quotation marks. It has saved me so much time!

         P.S. Thursday was introduced to ask.com. I love it. I can ask all sorts of strange questions and actually get answers to them.