Category Archives: Product Launch, Announcements, News

Multiply is Closing Down by May 6, 2013 : A Look Back

Ever since I experienced the convenience of shopping online, especially for cosmetics that I already trust, I never looked back. My first ever online shopping experience was through Multiply.com back when you have to manually contact the online seller for the transaction. Now that Multiply is closing down on May 6, 2013, it’s a sad day, but I completely understand this business decision.

Multiply Marketplace is closing down on May 6, 2013

Many people were saddened by the news that the social networking part of Multiply was closing down. I was one of the many Multiply bloggers and users who enjoyed connecting with people on their site before the social media giant Facebook opened its doors.

When I learned that they were transforming their website to a local online marketplace, I was excited. I was even one of the bloggers who went to their press event where they made the announcement. When they went through a redesign, I thought they’ll continue to grow from there.

I remember buying my first gadget online from DB Gadgets – my Canon IXUS 220HS (I lost it just this year πŸ™ ). Since then, we bought 2 more gadgets from them.

My Canon digital camera that I bought from DB Gadgets

Yeah, I WAS one of those people who name their gadgets. πŸ˜€

I was introduced to my top favorite online beauty store, Digital Traincase, through their Multiply store. Thankfully, they have moved on to their own e-commerce site after the recent issues.

Multiply has helped many online sellers and internet shoppers at the same time. They provided a venue for both to connect in a secure and comfortable (familiar) environment. Before the server issues in the past weeks, transactions went on smoothly on my end.

Multiply Marketplace closing down is a huge opportunity for online stores, but a setback for many online sellers who depended on Multiply for their business to run. I’m sure they’ll find a new venue to sell their products.

To everyone at Multiply, thank you and we wish you all good luck! πŸ™‚

You can read more about this news here.

5 Black Friday Tips for Gadget Shoppers

Black Friday gadget shopping tips

One of the most anticipated shopping day of the year is coming – Black Friday 2012 is on November 23rd, a day after Thanksgiving! This is the BEST time to shop for those highly coveted gadgets like laptops, desktop computers, gadgets and other electronic devices.

With that said, I’m sharing some very useful tips for all of you who are planning on some Black Friday gadget shopping this year:

 

Black Friday Gadget Shopping Tips

 

1. Research for the best Black Friday deals and compare prices!

This is one of those days when retail stores mark down their items, even their most popular products, at surprisingly low prices. With that said, however, it is important that you do your research on the best deals you can find so you can maximize your shopping budget.

Also, it’s important to compare prices. This way, you can focus on that store with the best prices.

 

2. Know the store policies on returns and warranties.

For gadget shoppers, this is the most important tip of all. Make sure you’ve done your research. Most stores set a shorter period for return deadlines, so avoid the hassles by finding out about their return policy beforehand.

For warranties, don’t forget to check or ask. You might be rejoicing about a purchase that saved you a significant amount of money without knowing that the warranty policy is different from the regular priced ones. Well, this doesn’t really apply with popular gadgets, but just to be sure, ask.

 

3. Is it worth the hassle?

After comparing prices, it’s also important to know if the regular prices of the items you want are remarkably higher than the Black Friday prices the stores are offering. If it’s just a few bucks of savings, think about the hassle of waking up early, lining up and bracing the Black Friday crowds. Is it all worth it?

 

4. Look for early bird shopper discounts.

There are many stores that offer early bird shopping discounts as early as the week of Thanksgiving. Some offer early discounts online. Again, remember the importance of doing your research.

For Black Friday 2012, here are some of the popular retail stores that are offering early bird shopping deals:

  • Walmart starts their first Black Friday Sale at 8pm on Thanksgiving. They also announced a 10pm sale on electronics and another sale by 5am the next day.
    Walmart also made an announcement that those who are in line by 10pm and 11pm on Thanksgiving Day will get their most popular items:
    Apple iPad 2 for with Wi-Fi plus a $75 Wal-Mart gift card for $399
    Emerson 32-inch LCD TV for $148
    LG Blu-ray player for $38
  • Sears stores will open at 8pm on Thanksgiving and will stay open until 10pm on Black Friday. Additionally, those who are members of Sears loyalty club Shop Your Way can avail of the early bird specials online as early as November 18, 2012!
  • Macy’s, Kohl’s, and Best Buy will open at 12 midnight after Thanksgiving.
  • Lord & Taylor will be opening at 10am on Thanksgiving.
  • Kohl’s announced that online shoppers will be able to buy all early morning specials on November 21, 2012 and all day on Thanksgiving.

 

5. Shop online.

Some stores like Apple have been known to give out the best deals on their products at their online stores than retail stores or official distributors. So, again, do your research and compare prices in-store and online. If the price difference is not significantly high, then why bother waking up early and lining up, right?

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Have fun shopping! I’m planning on buying a new laptop this year. How about you?

Related Black Friday Articles:

Facebook Lets You Edit Own Comments

Ever experienced leaving a comment on someone’s Facebook post only to realize you committed a grammatical mistake a few minutes after? Or have you ever wanted to add something to your previous comment, but it’s way past the time you’re allowed to edit? I’ve experienced both, and being a what we call grammar nazi, I sometimes panic upon realizing that I had a lapse in grammar in a previous comment. πŸ˜€ Now, you can edit your own Facebook comments even those that you posted a long time ago.

One of the features of Google+ that I absolutely love is the ability to edit your posts and comments without having to delete them and starting all over.

You can edit your comments on Google Plus

It was one of the things I wanted Facebook to have. It’s been problematic since there are times a comment you posted already received a certain amount of likes or responses, so you didn’t want to really edit it.

Edit or delete Facebook comments

I know, some of you might say how shallow to be whining about having this feature on Facebook, but there are some uncontrollable instances wherein you’d need to just edit a portion of your comment without deleting it completely.

Here are a few of the instances I would need to use the edit comment feature on Facebook:

  • I’m on my mobile when I left a comment. I can’t tag people yet to notify them better that I was replying to their comment.
  • You have fat fingers ( πŸ˜€ ) or clumsy fingers. I sometimes press multiple keys and I don’t see that mistake ’til I go home and check on my laptop.
  • My own grammar mistakes haunt me, I tell you! So, it’ll give me some peace of mind if an old comment I posted with a grammar error can still be edited. That way, it’ll look like it never happened. I’m PERFECT! LOL πŸ˜€
    Well, to be quite honest, I seldom commit grammatical mistakes when I post comments ’cause I’m very OC about that. I tend to watch my grammar on my comments more than on my actual blog posts. πŸ˜€

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Though you can now edit your comment and make that mistake or grammatical horror go away, people will still know you made changes because your comment will now be marked or flagged with “Edited” right below your message:

Your comment will show up as 'Edited'

Well, you can always make up some BS excuse why you edited your comment anyway, so it’s all good. πŸ˜‰

I just wish Facebook can also add a feature to edit the actual post. Right now, we can only edit the captions for photos we post on our walls, which will then change the status message itself.

When you post a link or just plain text, you can’t edit it anymore once it’s out there. It’s either you delete it completely or acknowledge your mistake through a follow-up comment. But, why would you want to do that? πŸ˜›

Google+ has this feature already, allowing you to change your posts without removing the tags too. I bet Facebook will catch up soon. πŸ™‚

Google Plus allows you to edit your post

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Now, if only Facebook or Google+ would allow us to edit someone else’s comments. πŸ˜€ Just kidding!

What do you think of this update? Are you also glad that Facebook allows us to edit comments now?

Facebook Updates : As of Last Week of June 2012

Whenever Facebook is acting up, I’m pretty sure they’re working on some changes or adding new features again. Here are some of the latest Facebook updates this week and a couple of things I noticed that were changed this month of June 2012. Please note that if you don’t see some of these changes yet, you probably are still not using Timeline OR you’re still next in line.

 

Vanity URL for Facebook Pages Anytime!

Before, Facebook pages need to have at least 25 fans before they can request for their vanity URL or Facebook username. Now, no need to wait or request for it. You can change it right away.

How to set your Facebook page's vanity URL or username

I changed one of my newly-created Facebook page’s username / vanity URL even when it had 2 fans only.

Facebook page username is available

Done changing my Vanity URL or page's username even with no fans

 

 

Changes in Facebook News Feed

I see more updates from people on my News Feed than from Facebook pages I follow, especially restaurants. So, I’m guessing that they’re now limiting the amount of posts for businesses that appear on my news feed. A tactic perhaps to get them to pay to promote their posts on Facebook.

It’s not that I don’t like seeing other people’s feeds, but I ended up hiding and unsubscribing to most of them, just so I can lessen the amount of their updates showing up on my feed.

 

 

My Interests Lists and Favorites

To resolve the above issue, I decided to create my own Facebook Interests feeds to keep all the pages and people I want to read from in one place.

Also, in case you don’t know yet, you don’t have to be a fan or to “like” a page, or be friends with someone to see their updates. You can subscribe to people’s public posts AND you can add Facebook pages to your Interests lists to subscribe without actually liking their page. See my example below.

My Interests list on Facebook and my favorites on the left

I’m subscribed to the Facebook page Everyday Jokes, but I’m not a fan of their page. Now, this makes it harder for page owners to keep their fans engaged and loyal, don’t you think?

You can subscribe to Facebook pages' updates without being a fan

But, I guess it’s time brands or businesses take this more seriously.

 

 

Hover Cards on Facebook

From the screenshot above, you’d see that when you hover your mouse on the Facebook profile photo or the name of the page or person, you’d see their Facebook Hover Card.

The hover card shows statistics like mutual friends, number of fans and friends who liked the page, and the cover and profile photos. Plus, information like the name or description will show up on top of the cover photo, right beside the profile photo.

Hover card for Facebook pages shows information

This may help gain you more followers for your page when other people share your contents on their walls. So, you might want to think about how your cover photo will appear. I personally don’t think it’ll have a great impact though, but it’s better to consider it when designing your cover photo just to cover all bases, right? πŸ™‚

For Facebook pages that have claimed their address or place, there’ll be a map instead of the profile photo on top of their cover image. When clicked, this directs users to a full Bing map.

Facebook pages with claimed places will have hover cards with Bing maps

Brands or businesses usually use their logos as profile photo. Because of the hover card, you might want to consider adding your logo on the cover photo too. I know, that might look too repetitive, but it can help identify or associate your hover card with your brand upon seeing the logo.

If you don’t think the hover card works, you can check the Insights of your Facebook page and there shows a statistic or number of “likes” you got from people seeing your page’s hover card. The screenshot below is for our food blog’s Facebook page:

On Hover Insights for Facebook page

 

 

 

Notification Bar for Facebook Page Admins

Update: They call it Voice bar which makes it easier for you to switch profiles.

I have my Facebook pages set so that whenever I do anything on the page, it’ll show up as an activity by the page.

If you want to interact with people on your page using your personal Facebook profile, you can easily switch using the link on the new notification bar for Facebook Page admins on top of the page.

A notification bar on Facebook pages

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The last update on Facebook – changing our default email on our profiles to the Facebook.com email address – wasn’t accepted well by almost everyone I know. I think these changes I featured here will improve our Facebook experience, except for the fact that the reach of Facebook pages somehow appears to have been altered to the disadvantage of businesses. I’m hoping that will still change.

What other Facebook changes have you observed lately?

UPDATE: Facebook Changed Your Default Email Address

I know most of my Facebook friends are not aware of this yet – Facebook changed the default email on our Facebook accounts. There was no notification of this change, so if you have a different email showing up on your About page for people to contact you, it’s now changed to your @Facebook.com email.

Default email is now your Facebook email

No one seemed to be interested (at least among the people I know) in using their Facebook email address, so I’m not quite sure what they’ll be doing to make us want to use it. I’m pretty sure they’re working on something to keep us on Facebook. We can all just speculate for now ’til there’s an official statement.

If you want to change your email address back to your original email, just click on the Edit button on the Contact Info section on your About page. Then, click on the new button with the circle and click on “Hidden from Timeline“.

Change default email on Facebook

Now, obviously, if you’re not using Facebook Timeline yet, this won’t be there, as reported by someone on my list. You can also add multiple email addresses there if you want. I happen to not like anyone seeing my email address on Facebook. If they want to get my email address, they’d have to put some effort into it (see my contact page).

Just a few minutes ago, Facebook messaging was also down. So, I’m expecting to see changes within the next 48 hours.

What do you think will happen? Share your speculations at the comments section! πŸ™‚