Conduit.com was the creator of community toolbar, a concept which allows web syndication solution to many publishers. It offers an on-demand, quick, easy to use solution to publishers through toolbars which are customized. The publishers gain in many ways in terms of increased traffic to their site, brand loyalty and most importantly, revenues. It’s available in twenty two languages. Founded in January 2005, conduit’s head quarters are in Silicon Valley, California. Some of the biggest names are associated with conduit.com like Lufthansa, TechCrunch, Major League Baseball and Greenpeace.

Features

For publishers, the custom made toolbar, or called the ‘building blocks’ by conduit.com, displays their best content and feeds. Anything that the users do from their website, it is accessible from the toolbar also. Thus the users do not have to be logged on to the site always but still they will be updated even when they are on any other site. Conduit offers cool gadgets and tools like News tickers, Weather, Pop up blockers, Email notifier, Radio player and many more. Their search is powered by Google, the most popular search engine on the web. Conduit offers this service free of cost as they earn revenues from search box present on the toolbar. By doing search from the search box on the toolbar, the users click on the displayed results and the revenue generated thus, will be shared by conduit.com. Its success also lies in the fact that the service requires no maintenance and technical skill; no software is needed to be loaded.

Online publishers can use the conduit wizard and get a quick and customized toolbar, which allows real-time communication between the subscribers and publishers thus benefiting both. It caters to all kinds of publishers from bloggers to big corporations covering sites like social networking, dating, gaming, travel, media sharing, fan sites and online shopping sites. Their site’s community toolbar gallery displays their major publisher clients. Publishers using conduit’s API can incorporate contents like web application, software, games and multi media to their community toolbar.

By gadgetizing each and every aspect of their application, via a toolbar, a publisher can make new users by giving them an option of adding the particular gadget to their toolbar. You can visit the site’s case study link under Publisher’s tab to read about the growth story of their clients.

Custom made tool bar is a brilliant method of promoting a blog or website as it gives a good exposure on the user’s computer. For the users, it offers toolbars where they can search for hottest communities. The toolbar works on latest internet explorer and firefox version. Conduit offers 24×7 support via emails to the publishers and users.

Tips and tricks

Conduit is a very safe and secure solution vis-à-vis the traditional toolbars which were associated with search engines where users faced spyware and malware threats. The toolbar is completely unobtrusive and free of any advertisements.

Newbie friendly rating

Their website is very informative and exhaustive. A new user can get a lot of information from the website. It gets a ranking of 9 out of 10.

Shopping.com, a subsidiary of Ebay, is a one-stop center for all your shopping needs. The site is beautifully laid-out with user-friendly navigation. Essentially, the site is designed to allow online customers to comparison shop with a click of their mouse. Another valuable feature on Shopping.com is the product reviews, which give customers straight feedback on the products they’re interested in from people that have purchased them. The site is one of the top ten ecommerce sites on the Internet. Taking a look around the site, it’s easy to see why. The site is loaded with every imaginable product with price quotes from dozens of reputable companies.

Features

The homepage provides the shopper with everything they’ll need for some online window shopping. A search feature is the quickest way to locate exactly what you’re looking for. If you prefer to check out the various products, they are organized into categories on the left side of the homepage. The middle of the homepage shows the shopper the “hottest” items on the site, with links that will quickly take you to the products.

Site speed is extremely quick and you are instantaneously taken from page to page. If you know what it is you’re looking for, you can be in and out of the site, with the product purchased, in five minutes.

Shopping.com also offers gift cards and a children’s section.

We took a look at sports equipment and were amazed by the selection. Searching “baseball bats” we found hundreds of bats being offered by dozens of stores. The shopper simply scrolls down to see the prices each store offers.

Tips and Tricks

The site index, located at the very bottom of the homepage, gives a complete one-page layout of all the products on the site, with quick links to each of them. It’s an easy alternative to the search feature that allows you to read through all the Shopping.com products.

Newbie Friendly Rating

Shopping.com is an attractively designed site that is extremely easy to use. Products are organized by category along the left side of the homepage and a search feature at the top of the page lets you find anything with one click. Once you find your product, it’s easy to compare prices among the brands. Navigating the site couldn’t be easier, it’s a new users dream site because it’s just that easy to use.

We give Shopping.com a Newbie Friendly Rating of 10.

EBay is an American company and an online auction and shopping website. It opened in U.K. in the year 1999 and is now the leading auction site. With eBay’s country specific sites, it is now possible to trade almost anything from any where regardless of the location. It is an online market for the world. EBay community has millions of users across the globe in around 25 countries. For eBay UK all transactions take place in British Pound. The fee structure on the UK site is different than the USA site.

Features

Almost anything can be put for auction if it is not illegal and against the law. There are thousands of items listed on eBay under various category heads like collectibles, computers, furnishing, home décor, jewelry, coins, mobiles, pottery, sporting goods, boats, cameras, vehicles and their parts. Big companies sell their latest products and services here.  EBay motors is the biggest automotive selling place where you can trade in anything from cars to motorcycles and used cars also. Many restricted items on eBay are firearms, alcohol, tobacco, drugs etc. there are seller tools on eBay like sell your item, turbo lister which can save your time and manage and track the status. There are eBay stores also where a seller can showcase his merchandise. There are three levels; basic store for those starting out on eBay; premium store for medium sized sellers and Anchor store for the high volume sellers.  EBay community has EBay blogs, discussion boards, chats, reviews to share your opinion with others. There general chat rooms and some are product specific chat rooms. EBay pulse gives the latest information and inform about the most popular items. EBay has a feedback forum which allows users to rate their experience after the transaction. Both buyers and sellers are expected to leave a feedback within sixty days of the transaction. Buyers give a rating to sellers which are called seller ratings. They are rated from 1 to 5, where 1 is lowest and 5 is the highest. The Power sellers are those which have a rating of 4.5 and above across categories for a period of twelve months. Their feature EBay for charity provides an option for sellers if they want to give away their proceeds to a charitable organization of their choice.

Tips     

While logging in and becoming a member choose a username which is nice to sound and people can easily remember it later. If you are a regular user, you can download eBay toolbar as it will save your time by keeping you updated about any auctions, present in your watchlist, which are going to send soon. Bid for only those items which you are intending to buy. Before bidding always do price comparisons check on other such sites. It is a good place to market fake goods. For a naïve person, it can be difficult to distinguish between genuine and fake. In case of doubt or if you have any query, ask the seller.  

Newbie friendly rating

It has become an online medium between buyers and sellers. It has had its shares of scams but that has not damaged its popularity. It is user friendly and eBay has a strong business model to sustain itself. Our rating has to be 10.