good

Facebook moved further into virtual-good sales on Monday, with a micropayment platform that's no longer tied to the dollar, but rather points that can be purchased and earned.

This is a common enough scenario in virtual worlds and online games such as MapleStory, but the gamelike metaphor that this brings to social networking may introduce confusion and annoyance to the users who have made Facebook such a powerful force.

With more than 120 million users, perhaps a better move would be to start offering subscriptions. Personally, I would pay to NOT get certain invitations or for the simple function … Read more

The tale of retail game cards is a pretty amazing one. In a recent interview Rob Goldberg, founder and CEO of GMG Entertainment, a publisher of "digital currency cards" that you see on sale at Target, Safeway and a number of other big-box shops, shed some light on how the market came to be and where it's going in the future.

According to Goldberg, sales of the game cards will be worth $75 million to $100 million this year with an expected run to $500 million by 2010. Interestingly enough, Target was the retailer that figured it out first and convinced Apple to offer iTunes cards.

GMG started in the marketing services working with retailers--specifically Target--but around the same time as that, well, it's not very well known, but it's Target who actually brought the idea of the pre-paid iTunes card to Apple and sold them on that.

The first iTunes cards were co-branded and were exclusive to Target. In terms of retailers in North America who were focused on pre-paid cards for digital entertainment, Target were ahead of the curve.

… Read more

Considering the mess the real economy is in, the virtual goods economy is a welcome distraction.

Here is a link to the agenda and the registration page. Use discount code ROSENBERG for 10% off of the ticket price.

I'll be there grilling people on how they make money from items that only exist ethereally and then determine if I can create a sub-market of "ghost goods" which … Read more

Last week I got a glimpse at GoodGuide, a new product recommendation service that rates products as safe, healthy, and green based on their ingredients, manufacturing, and distribution. It's part of a new class of services that are bringing data transparency that can save money, lives, and the environment, not necessarily in that order.

BillShrink.com recently launched a recommendation service that focuses on unpacking the complexity and cost of cell phone plans. The free service analyzes wireless phone bills and rate plans from the major carriers, and then monitors usage and makes recommendations for saving money. Another company, … Read more

GoodGuide is a new product recommendation system focused on "safe, healthy, and green products." It will tell you what chemicals are in your toothpaste, or if your socks are made with sweatshop labor.

The company's real value add is in acquiring the data on the products. The packaging of the data into a site is the easy part, but we think they've done a great job at it.

That's it, simple story. Looks like a great product and service. iPhone app coming, and expansion into other areas as well: Food, toys, electronics, adding to the … Read more

eBay on Wednesday plans to unveil a new e-commerce site for shoppers of environmentally friendly and fair-trade goods, as expected.

In a bid to win over eco- and socially conscious shoppers, the online auctioneer will add a new retail component to its fairly new community site WorldofGood.com, which targets people who care about healthy living and the ethical treatment of workers. The site, which eBay built in partnership with fair-trade company World of Good, will sell products ranging from fair-trade coffee from Costa Rica to toxin-free skin cream from London.

The move is an attempt to capture a piece … Read more

This is the show where we KILL the Batman. And by kill, we mean praise...maybe obsess. We scored a few free tickets to attend an exclusive Dark Knight IMAX screening and after getting stood up by three contest winners, we finally get in touch with Cesar Marty, who came to enjoy the movie with us. And man...did we enjoy it. So much so that we spend the first half of today's show gushing over its superiority over all other superhero flicks. Don't worry, we keep Wilson "The Spoiler" Tang on a short leash. The … Read more

You'd think the parent company of $1,500 Louis Vuitton handbags would be able to tolerate a few fakes on eBay. Not so.

And a French court agreed on Monday, ordering the online auction giant to pay $61 million (38.6 million euros) to luxury goods powerhouse LVMH, according to Reuters. LVMH, along with other luxury-brand groups like Tiffany & Co. and Hermes, has claimed that eBay isn't strict enough about policing the sale of counterfeit goods on its site.

eBay promptly appealed the court decision, saying that LVMH was simply trying to crack down on competition; eBay … Read more

Ghosty, one of my favorite satellite radio DJs, he's on Sirius Disorder, urged listeners to email their favorite weird and obscure music. Never heard of any of the records, but it set me to wondering about some of my more out titles, and if I had to pick one I'd go for, The Rotor Rooter Good Time Christmas Band LP. It came out in 1974 and yes, I bought it for the wacky title, but it's actually a really good record, I've played it many dozens of times. Mixing equal parts polka, psychedelic, rock, classical and just flat out bizarre, Rotor Rooter is a blast from start to finish. If I had to pick just one cut, it would have to be "Fanfare/Buick LeSabre."… Read more