Remember the sock puppet?
February 21st, 2007 • Posted by Bill Bice • Permalink
The Pets.com sock puppet is the classic symbol of dot-com hysteria, back in the days when start-up companies bought ads during the Super Bowl with wheel barrows full of cash from venture capitalists.
Turns out there were some pretty useful things to do with that whole Internet thing, and Jakob Nielsen's new usability study on gift certificates opens with a great quote that nails it:
Wishlists and gift certificates are the anti-pet-food of e-commerce. They don't require heavy shipping because they're a purely virtual phenomena. In fact, electronic wishlists and gift certificates are better than their physical-world equivalents because they can be transmitted instantaneously. Thus, e-certificates are the only gift that last-minute shoppers can buy and have delivered immediately — a fact you should promote prominently on your homepage for all major gift-giving holidays.
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