commerce

How many times have you been IMing with a friend or co-worker across the country, placed a bet ("If that Sanjaya guy gets the boot tonight, you owe me a beer!"), completed said bet, but had no immediate way to fulfill it because the other person involved was miles away? Well, now there's a brand-new solution--but just for New Yorkers, for the time being.

BuyYourFriendADrink.com was launched today and announced on the New York edition of e-mail events service Thrillist. BuyYourFriendADrink, or BYFAD, is a way to purchase libations for your friends online, which they can … Read more

Facebook has introduced all sorts of interesting things to social networking culture. It began with a poke, and more recently allowed you to set people on fire (virtually, of course). As of yesterday, users are able to purchase and send virtual gifts (in the form of emoticons) to their friends on the service for $1 each, to benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and promote breast cancer awareness.

The icon set was designed not by Facebook but by Susan Kare who made the icons for the first Mac, including the notorious bomb icon which showed up every time … Read more

As some of you may know, I host a weekly video feature on our sister blog Crave, where I talk about fun tech-related stuff that's going on in New York City. This week, my video turned out to be rather Webware-related, so I'm posting it here for you as well. In this clip, I go over to Etsy Labs, the new real-world communal space opened by online handmade craft marketplace Etsy. It's a really cool convergence of the online and offline, in a way that kind of made me wonder--will the next iteration of the Web see … Read more

Iqzone is a new service announced at Demo 07 that allows you to post classified ads to the Internet using the camera on your cell phone. Users can create text-only postings or add pictures. The entire process is done by sending your photo and item description in a mixed media text message.

Iqzone is free, and all listings end up on the Iqzone's classifieds Web site. I'd like to see Iqzone build in some sort of integration to post to Craigslist and eBay. The service is being promoted as a quick way to sell things, but I can'… Read more

Price Protectr is a service that monitors online stores and alerts you to any changes in price within 30 days of buying a product. If it sounds simple it is, and frankly that's the way it should be.

Nobody likes finding out they could have saved money if they had paid attention to price drops, but it's easier said than done. Price Protectr does the work for you. All you have to do is give them the URL of the product you bought and your e-mail, and it will keep an eye on it for 30 days. If … Read more

At last month's NY Tech Meetup, I heard about Urbis, a peer-review community for amateur writers that also aims to improve their visibility to potential publishers. At the January NY Tech Meetup, the audience was treated to a presentation from CitizenImage, a local start-up that has a somewhat similar aim, but for amateur news and creative photographers. Unlike Urbis, the focus of CitizenImage is less on review and more on publication and monetization. The site allows photographers to upload their images, and then handles the process in which third-party buyers--optimally news outlets and publishers--purchase the photos. Additionally, news outlets … Read more

Terapad is a hosted blogging service (like WordPress and TypePad) with a bit of a difference: It's utterly overflowing with features that go well beyond blogging. Want your blog to have a store attached to it? Terapad has a store module. How about a jobs board? A discussion forum? An events calendar? Check, check, check. What's really surprising is that the additional modules are not bad. Although it's billed as a blogging platform, Terapad is more: it's really a small hosted site management solution. But it's as easy to use as a blogging tool, which … Read more

Just got a ping from the developer of Listpic, a service that provides a visual interface into Craigslist. Want to see all the motorcycles for sale in your area? Or houses for rent? This tool will display just the pictures. Clicking on one displays a pop-up of the listing. Clicking again pops you over to Craigslist. It also works with personals. Very easy to use, very useful, and a lot of fun. Thumbs-up from me.

It also made me think: how cool would it be if Like.com searched Craigslist (and eBay) in addition to the online retailers it currently … Read more

Are you stuck trying to find the perfect gift this year? If you have $6.8 million U.S. there's a 217-acre island in Poland waiting.

Szercki Ostrow, in the middle of Sniardy Lake (right near Czarci!), is up for sale on Private Islands Online, which specializes in, you guessed it, selling islands.

Naturally, a lot of the islands up for sale are in sunnier climes. Garip Island in Turkey sells for $20 mil, and it is only 88 acres. There's one in Greece for 1.5 million Euros, but it's only 2.5 acres. That won'… Read more