I love a good deal, and the number of sites out there to help get special codes and links is massive and frequently packed with annoyances like pop-up ads and outdated content. To help sort through it I usually use Google, but a service called RetailMeNot seems like a worthy addition. The site's been around since last year, but has launched a new community portion of its site this morning that makes the coupon hunting experience a little more social and a lot easier to keep track of what deals are hot.
The service was created by the same folks who did BugMeNot and PDFMeNot (review) and follows a similar simplicity of letting you plug in a domain name of an online shop you're interested in like Amazon or GoDaddy to see if there are any promotional codes for discounts that might save you some cash.
With the new community additions the process goes a step further, letting other RetailMeNot users add their own coupon codes and note when they've successfully used a code to make an online purchase. Those updates, and other additions to the listings go into a central pool of updates, similar to Facebook's news feed. Ideally keeping an eye on this feed would give you the heads up on a new deal right when it's made available. It'll also try to match you up with other users based on the items you rate, similar to a service like Last.fm that matches you up with people who have similar tastes in music.
The rest of the features follow suit with any other modern day social network. Each user gets a profile and a variety of boxes to fill out to show their personality. It's the kind of thing I don't see a lot of my friends spending time or effort to engage in considering their efforts on pre-existing services. However, I really like the idea of collaborating with others to get good deals, which is something SlickDeals and FatWallet do a very good job at. If RetailMeNot could make this a good Facebook or MySpace application that does the same thing, I could see a lot of people flocking to it--myself included.
RetailMeNot lets you scour for deals. It also has a social element that lets you see deals other people are scoping out. (click to enlarge)
(Credit: CNET Networks)
Hot on the heels of my writeup of PDFMeNot yesterday, reader Bonexaw tipped us off about PDFescape, another Web based Adobe Acrobat replacement. This time around, PDFescape pulls double duty not only as a free PDF reader, but also as an editing tool and Web host for PDF files.
PDFescape lets users fill out forms--one of the most commonly used features (besides reading). Additionally, the authoring tools let users create their own forms and send them out to others to fill out and send back. The best part is that the entire system is set up to avoid recipients having to touch a piece of software.
PDFescape's editing tool feels a lot like a simple desktop application, with a toolbar up top, and a workspace that's set up with a file source list, and a tool pallet. The one major drawback is that there's no zoom toggle, making it a pain to use for general reading unless you're got a monitor with a large horizontal resolution, or don't mind panning with your mouse. Otherwise it's simple, intuitive, and definitely a step up from Adobe Reader if you need to change something on a PDF file and don't want to shell out for Acrobat, or use a third party editor.
Edit PDF files using PDFescape's editor that lets you get away with about as much as Adobe Acrobat for a lower price tag.
(Credit: CNET Networks)To help keep the service afloat there are small ads on the side of the editing and reading environment. Small watermarks are also added to each published PDF form, which users can get rid of using credits that can be bought in increments ranging from $.50 to $1 each, depending on how many you're buying. The real money, however, is in publishing, which is a paid service. It's aimed mostly at employers or other businesses that need to host a PDF with forms online. Publishing credits are considerably more expensive than the "premium" credits, but offer a year of hosting, increased file sizes, and automated sending of completed forms.
I still think PDFMeNot is the go-to service for opening up the occasional PDF file you come across, but PDFescape's publishing tool offers a whole lot of features in a small package that make it much better for publishers trying to escape Acrobat's price tag. Of course if you end up shelling out for the publishing credits, you might be better off investing in a copy of Acrobat and a Web host instead.
Note: This service officially launches on Thursday, and the site is password-protected until then. The folks at PDFMeNot gave us early access to share with Webware readers. Use the username "stateless" and password "systems" when prompted (no quotation marks either). Note that both are case sensitive.
One of life's little hassles is opening PDF links in a Web browser. The problem centers on Adobe's Acrobat software, which for all its popularity and genuine usefulness is notoriously slow. Depending on how old the system is, and the speed of the computers Internet connection, the application can bring the browsing experience to a halt with even the smallest of PDF files. While Firefox add-ons, such as FoxIt, have stepped up to the plate to let users can kick Acrobat to the curb, however, if they don't have it installed they're out of luck.
View PDF documents in a Flash viewer without mucking about with Acrobat using PDFMeNot.
(Credit: CNET Networks)A new service from the creators of log-in-avoider BugMeNot called PDFMeNot is taking a whack at the PDF problem. The solution? Adobe's Internet darling: Flash. To get to Acrobat-free PDF bliss, give PDFMeNot the URL of the PDF that is to be viewed. The service will grab the file and convert it into an easy to use Flash document (similar to that of Scribd) in a matter of seconds. Once the URL has been submitted, others that click the link will get it automatically, as each file is cached for future viewing once processed.
Power users who want to avoid having to visit the site every time they want to click a PDF link have a simple option. They can add a small bookmarklet to their browser. The bookmarklet will automatically dig through a page and convert PDF-ridden links before they even think about clicking them. Likewise, Web publishers can add a little line of JavaScript that will do this on all their pages. They can also simply add a PDFMeNot.com redirect in front of each PDF URL, which simply opens up the file in the Flash viewer when clicked.
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