In the Digital Age, services often evolve at a pretty fast rate. That isn't true for Craigslist though, which has kept its simple interface for years and years. We're seeing Craigslist begin to modernize a little bit, as it now finally has an official mobile app available on both iOS and Android.
A collection of cheap imitations of the original Apple Watch are currently posing on Amazon as a perfect alternative to the far more expensive alternative. Brands like YAMAY, Willful, Letsfit, SKYGRAND, and ANBES make little effort to hide the fact that they're not only using lookalike UI - in some cases, they're literally selling the same devices under different brand names. Scratch that - in quite a few cases... in a CONCERNING number of cases, companies appear to be selling the same product with different brand names for different prices.
This may not come as a very big surprise to you, but both Black Friday and Cyber Monday were big days for Amazon. We'd expect those two days to be important for any retailer as large as Amazon, but today the company gave us a better idea of just how successful they were. For starters, Amazon confirmed that Black Friday 2019 was the biggest Black Friday in the company's history.
Google continues to build out the capabilities of Google Assistant, and beginning today, it can help you buy movie tickets. Google has put its Duplex AI at the center of this functionality, allowing you to ask the Assistant to find showtimes near you. This isn't the first time we've seen Google pair Duplex with the Assistant, as the pair are also used to assist in booking restaurant reservations.
Today, Google Shopping is getting an overhaul while Google Lens is receiving some new functionality. This redesign of Google Shopping is a pretty big one, as it aims to put information and product listings from "thousands of stores" in one place. The idea is to allow consumers to quickly compare item prices across stores - both online and brick and mortar retail locations - so they can find what they want without overpaying.
In mid-2015, Amazon widely launched a product called the Dash Button, a small plastic device with a product's label and physical button that could be used to easily reorder an item. The idea behind the buttons was that consumers could place them in places where the related product was relevant -- a detergent button in the laundry room, for example -- to reorder the item without using the company's app. Those buttons will stop working this month.
Google announced today that it will make it easier to access your payment information within Chrome regardless of the device you're using. Now, as long as you're logged in on Chrome, you'll see the option to choose from saved payment information when you're filling out a checkout form. The hope is that this makes checkout faster and more convenient for Chrome users.
Amazon has already tested the waters with in-person order pickup through services like Locker, but today the company is expanding on that concept in a pretty big way. Amazon is launching a new service called Counter, which is available in various Rite Aid locations around the US starting today. The idea behind Counter is pretty straightforward: Place an order on Amazon and instead of having it delivered to your house, you can have it shipped to a nearby Rite Aid and pick it up in person.
Amazon has undoubtedly changed the way we shop today, if not directly then indirectly by pushing the idea of online shopping to the masses. For better or for worse, Amazon has become as indispensable a brand as Google. And to celebrate its influence in our lives, Amazon has confirmed its fifth and biggest Prime Day shopping craze that will span 48 hours of retail heaven or hell, depending on who you ask.
Walmart is taking the fight to Amazon in a big way, announcing today that customers will soon be able to place grocery orders for in-home delivery. Walmart, of course, already offers grocery delivery, but as the company points out, this new service called InHome Delivery takes things one step further by allowing associates to deliver groceries right to your kitchen, even going so far as to stock your refrigerator or cupboards as part of the drop off.
While there are people who'd readily admit being addicted to shopping, few of those will probably look forward to doing groceries. It's one of life's necessary evils that has created a market for online groceries and deliveries. Not everyone can afford to escape regular trips to the supermarket, which parents with toddlers may look to with dread for fear of trolley accidents. Putting its driving expertise to work, Ford has designed a new trolley that intelligently step on the brakes to prevent kids from colliding with people or shelves.
After getting your and your friends' data and bombarding you with ads, the next frontier for social networks is getting users to shop on or through them. Not even Instagram, who has evaded most high profile scandals last year, isn't immune from that desire. Granted, it already has a shopping feature but with the new Checkout feature that's rolling out, it will keep users from having to jump to brands' own online stores and, consequentially, keep most of the data for itself.