The FCC has ruled on net neutrality and offered up a compromise solution: ISPs can’t throttle fixed line computer users based on what kind of content they’re accessing, but wireless providers can. [More]
internets
Report: Facebook Beats Google For Web's Most-Visited Site
By 3.16.10
It’s official — playing Farmville and tagging friends in photos (and consequently untagging embarrassing photos of yourself from your friends’ photos) has become more popular than actually trying to find things on the internet, as a new report shows Facebook edged out Google as the most-visited site on the internet last week. [More]
Online Readers Unwilling To Pay For News Content
By 3.15.10
As some news sites — especially those belonging to national newspapers — move or consider moving behind pay walls as a way to increase revenue, a new study shows that an overwhelming number of online news readers have no interest in paying for content. [More]
Too Lazy To Type LOL? There's A Keyboard For That
By 2.16.10
When you’re IMing all your BFFs, do you have difficulty typing Internets-friendly phrases like LOL, L8R, TTYL on your Qwerty keyboard? In fact, do you have a problem pecking away at the keys on your Qwerty keyboard in general? A new keyboard unveiled at the New York Toy Fair hopes to be of assistance to you and all the other 8-year-olds like you. [More]
ISPs Threaten Metered Broadband As Net Neutrality Looms
By 10.21.09
Remember when you called up your ISP and, after an unholy modem screech, were billed for every minute you spent online? (Actually, it occurs to me that many Consumerist readers probably don’t remember this.) If ISPs’ current efforts pay off, we may all soon be paying for every little byte of Internet that we use.
AT&T DSL Customer Sold Wrong Series Of Tubes
By 9.30.09
Richard is annoyed at AT&T. Due to what we will optimistically call a mixup, he didn’t exactly get the DSL service he ordered and was paying for. While he has straightened things out with the company, he wants to keep other customers in his area from having the same experience.
Grocery Store Cancels Facebook Coupon Deal, Enrages Customers
By 8.3.09
Marsh, a grocery chain in Indiana and Ohio, made a special coupon available to their fans on Facebook. The coupon was good for $10 off a purchase of $10 or more. Great deal, right? Until the promotion got out of hand, and the store stopped accepting the coupon on Friday, with no warning to customers. Based on past similar experiences, you can guess how well this turns out.
Complaining Via Twitter Works When Comfort Inn Won't Listen
By 7.20.09
Kristy and her husband were dissatisfied with their recent Comfort Inn stay while on vacation in southern Utah. The hotel manager resolved their cleanliness concerns, but then threatened to revoke their discount if they complained to corporate. Kristy tried to get her message across to the people in charge through the usual channels, and it seemed that nobody wanted to listen, Finally, she posted about the situation on Twitter and got the resolution she was looking for.
Um, No, Herbal Supplements Will Not Fight Swine Flu
By 5.3.09
The FDA wants you to know that herbal supplements have not been approved to fight swine flu, or really anything. Still, some internet pharmacies want you to believe that a pill of twigs is the answer to all your unlikely health ills. And like all good scams, some of their products are dangerous…
Avoid Swine Flu: Hold Your Meetings On The Interweb
By 4.30.09 — Updated: 11.8.12
Sure, there are swine flu scams out there, but what about the perfectly honest companies using the threat of global pandemic to hawk their wares?
ISP Donates to United Way to Make Up For Internet Outage
By 4.23.09
Reader Jon in Washington state has some issues with his ISP, Broadstripe. Namely, the periodic outages he experiences, and how the company decided to make up for the most recent one.
ATT Filters Own ToS Changes As Spam
By 10.23.08
Red Tape Chronicles reports on how AT&T internet decided to announce a change of its Terms of Service (ToS) via email. Some of the policies were contentious enough for some, but then many customers didn’t even receive the email, because AT&T’s own filters marked it as spam. Its questionable whether you can announce you’re changing someone’s contract by email fiat, especially if your own system prevents them from even receiving the message in the first place.
Dell Downgraded From "Evil" To "Bumbling"
By 9.11.08
“They’ve been downgraded from evil to bumbling.” – Me in FORTUNE about Dell’s online thrusts that attempt to repair their image and listen to their customers more. What do you think? Do you feel any better about them than you did two years ago, or are do their customers still writhe in the eternal flames of “Dell Hell?” Would you add Dell to your Facebook?
Readers' Favorite 3rd Party Online Wishlists
By 9.11.08
A number of readers chimed in on the Best Buy-branded wishlist browser add-on post with the alternatives they prefer instead. They were: 1) Amazon’s Universal Wishlist, 2) Del.icio.us, 3) Wishlist.com, 4) Wishlistr.com. Got any others? As far as what most Consumerist’s thought of the Best Buy add-on, commenter dragonfire81 probably captured it best…
Save For Specific Goals With SmartyPig.com
By 9.10.08
“Saving up.” It’s nearly an alien concept in this “buy with debt” world, but into that breach steps SmartyPig. The site lets you set and save for specific goals in their online savings accounts at a competitive 3.9% APY savings rate. There’s all sorts of built-in graphs and widgets to track your progress, but then you can make it social, if you like, by making a page where your goals public and having friends and family or other random people on the net (export to Facebook, etc) track and root for your progress, or even contribute to your goal.
Free File Hosting For Life From FileSavr
By 9.10.08
Update: Site is running slow right now, servers getting slammed by all the demand.
Amazon Ends Post-Order Price Guarantee
By 9.3.08
Amazon ended its post order price guarantee this Monday, according to an email a reader and deal forum members received from the online retailer.
Quickest Measure Of Gustav's Negative Economic Impact: Woots Per Capita
By 9.3.08
UPDATE: Prompted by this post, Woot did their own post analyzing their internal data much more thoroughly.
