Lifehacker: How to Get Google to Let You Know When the Price Drops on Something You Want to Buy. “Google rolled out a new shopping tool this week that makes it easy to track the price of an item you’re interested in on the web and find out when it drops in price.”
consumers
New York Times: Consumer Bureau’s Complaints Database Is ‘Here to Stay,’ Director Says
New York Times: Consumer Bureau’s Complaints Database Is ‘Here to Stay,’ Director Says. “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will continue to publish its database of consumer complaints about financial companies, ending — for now — a battle over public access to one of the agency’s most powerful tools.”
Search Engine Journal: Only 50% of Consumers Believe Search Results Provide Accurate Information About Brands
Search Engine Journal: Only 50% of Consumers Believe Search Results Provide Accurate Information About Brands. “New research on the expectations of consumers searching for brand information finds only half believe information in search results is accurate. Further, consumers hold brands responsible for the inaccurate information, even when it appears outside of a brand’s official channels.”
SGS: SGS Launches New Product Recalls Online Platform
This launched in late July but I missed it. From SGS (Standard Global Services): SGS Launches New Product Recalls Online Platform. “The platform, which launches on July 12, generates a searchable database of all unsafe product notifications compiled by official surveillance authorities operating in the European Union (RAPEX and RASFF) and United States (CPSC and FDA); with data from Australia and Canada to be incorporated into the site later this year.”
CNET: Amazon lists thousands of banned and unsafe items for sale, investigation says
CNET: Amazon lists thousands of banned and unsafe items for sale, investigation says. “More than 4,000 items for sale on Amazon by third-party sellers have deceptive labeling or have been banned or declared unsafe by federal regulators, according to an investigation by The Wall Street Journal published Friday. Nearly half these items were listed as shipping from an Amazon warehouse, said the Journal, and some were promoted as ‘Amazon’s choice.'”
Wired: This Clever New Service Auto-Cancels Your Free Trials
Wired: This Clever New Service Auto-Cancels Your Free Trials. “The Free Trial Card is a virtual credit card you can use to sign up for free trials of any service anonymously, instead of using your real credit card. When the free trial period ends, the card automatically declines to be charged, thus ending your free trial.”
UCLA Anderson School of Management: That Online Hotel Review You Wrote? It Matters
UCLA Anderson School of Management: That Online Hotel Review You Wrote? It Matters. “Research by UCLA Anderson’s Brett Hollenbeck, University of Toronto’s Sridhar Moorthy and University of Southern California’s Davide Proserpio suggests that hotels with favorable overall consumer reviews have been able to treat those ratings as a substitute for advertising: They have notably reduced ad spending as their online quality ratings have risen. By contrast, hotels with relatively poor online reviews have had to use ad spending to substitute for their lack of strong consumer recommendations, according to the paper, forthcoming in Marketing Science.”
