Stay in the know with Google SMSWritten by Jakob Jelling
The Short Messaging Service (SMS) from Google sends short, quick, text answers in response to your queries from an SMS-enabled mobile device, such as a cell phone. For example, you can look up phone numbers and addresses of local restaurants, do local phone book searches, compare prices from online merchants in Froogle to those you find in local stores, even look up definitions of words from dictionary. SMS has long been a common means of mobile communication in Europe. It has been available in US for some time, but hasn't been widely used. You don't need a phone with a web browser to use Google's SMS. Since information is transmitted as text only, without graphics, only ability to send and receive SMS messages is needed. At present, service is only available only in English, through major US wireless carriers like AT&T, Nextel, Sprint, and T-Mobile. Your service plan must allow for SMS messaging also. Use of SMS doesn't generally count against minutes under most plans, but both your SMS to Google and answer received from Google will typically count towards messages allowed.
| | 10 Tips to Improve Your Shopping CartWritten by Barry Harrison
Whether you call it a shopping cart, a basket or a bag, process of completing a purchase on your site has to be as simple and pleasant as you can make it. And you MUST offer assurances your customers need to reduce their security concerns.1. Let customers know where they are in process. Number steps in checkout process, and clearly label task for every step. Allow shoppers to review what they did in previous steps and return to current step if they do go back. 2. Include a link to product detail page. Shoppers may want to make sure they selected right item before they complete their purchase. They shouldn’t have to navigate using their “BACK” button. 3. Add pictures in shopping cart. Including a thumbnail image of product within shopping cart has been shown to increase conversion rate by as much as 10 percent. 4. Make next step obvious. Include prominent "Next Step" buttons on every checkout page. Be sure that button you want shoppers to click on is most obvious item on page. 5. Make changes easy. It should be simple for shoppers to change quantity or delete items from their shopping cart. 6. Keep it friendly. If information is missing or incorrect, provide an error message that helps shopper understand problem and how to correct it. But never blame him for making a mistake.
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