Skip to Content

Free TUAW iPhone app -- try it now!
AOL Tech

shop posts

Filed under: Business, Web services

Open a free store and get stock with Zlio

zlio online shopZlio helps users to start up an online store, quick and easy, and even if you don't have any stock to sell, Zlio can hook you up. Zlio has a stock catalog of thousands of products that you can start selling in your free shop. The US version of this French site launched yesterday, with the French version that launched early last year. When users sign up for stores, they pick their own unique URL, choose site designs from pre-designed templates, and drop in products from the Zlio store to start earning affiliate incomes. Products in your Zlio store can then be tagged and reviewed and descriptions of products can be added in.

Supposedly, after starting a Zlio shop your store will automatically be referenced from the main search engines, attracting visitors without any effort. Good marketing should be dropped into the mix to ensure any success with this kind of shop opening experience.

Filed under: Design, Photo, Text, Utilities, Video, Windows, Blogging

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI released

Corel Paint Shop Pro XICorel has released the new version of Paint Shop Pro Photo XI. New to this release is the organizer, which has Picasa-like search and organizational features; the photo color changer (which is self-explanatory); the time machine, which will set your pictures back and make them look as if they were taken in another era; the depth of field effect, making the background fade to draw more attention to the object of focus; skin-smoothing; film and filter effects, and a ton more. The new release is ready for you now and costs $59 to upgrade or $99 for the full version, in either download or boxed format. There is also a 30-day trial available with free registration and login.

Filed under: Web services, Social Software

ThisNext: Social shopping advice

ThisNext
Trying to figure out what car/TV/fridge/shampoo to buy? Try ThisNext. It's one of the latest entrants in the quickly-becoming-crowded "social shopping" market, and looks to be off to a good start. There are two primary activities on ThisNext: Discover and Recommend. Discover is another word for "go shopping." You can search for items you're interested in and get recommendations, or your can just browse. The recommendations seem to have a very stylish slant to them, so if you're like me the site make you feel a little uncool, or maybe just poor. But it's well-organized with pretty pictures, tags, user comments, and so on. The Recommend side of the site is what you'd expect: You can link to and write about products you like, and you can make Amazon-like themed lists, like Writer Gear or Don't Leave Home Without It. Of course, none of this makes ThisNext any different from Amazon (except that ThisNext doesn't actually the sells the products, it just links to them). It's the social aspect, of course, and like any good social software, ThisNext lets you share recommendations with and get recommendations from your friends. The premise, to paraphrase my boss Jason, is that you trust your tech-savvy neighbor or cousin more than anonymous CNet reviewers or Best Buy employees to tell you what's the, er, best buy. While the premise is convincing, I'm not entirely convinced that the execution will be successful for everyday users who might not have any experience with social networking. However, ThisNext's implementation looks well thought out--Michael Arrington calls it "the best I've seen so far," and its profile in the New York Times doesn't hurt, either. I'll certainly be giving ThisNext at least a cursory glance the next time I'm going through some deliberation on a purchase.

Filed under: Business, Internet, Productivity, Web services

Savefinder: Ask a personal shopper

savefinder personal shopperIf you are looking for something, but just don't want the hassle of searching for it, try asking a Savefinder personal shopper. This online personal shopper will research and locate the items you require. Better still, when they find it, you will be hit with an email and Savefinder can immediately initiate a transaction on your command. No more searching the internet for days looking for something, let a personal shopper do all the work. Of course they will require a fee. When you post a question to the personal shopper, there is a $2 US fee, then there is also a question listing fee of $2 US. So if the minimum $4 answer fee is livable for you, why not let someone else shop for you. Savefinder is a worldwide service, so everyone can enjoy the benefits of having someone else do the grunt work.

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio