We’ve received a number of tips indicating that that Jellyfish’s flagship product, online social shopping show Smack Shopping, is going to be shut down. This is surprising move for Jellyfish, a Microsoft-owned online shopping portal, since the premise of the show is based around the audience creating hot (low-cost) deals on online products. In a economy where a good deal is desirable, one would think Smack Shopping could survive. Scheduled shows used take place 24-hours a day, 365 days a year, but last year Jellyfish changed Smack Shopping format to only one show per weekday and none on the weekends.
We wrote about Microsoft acquiring the discount online shopping service, Jellyfish, in 2007. And creators and serial entrepreneurs Brian Wiegand and Mark McGuire have had several successes in the start-up world, with the most recent, Alice.com, set to launch this March. When Microsoft bought Jellyfish, they seemed optimistic about the website, saying that they “think the technology has some interesting potential applications as we continue to invest heavily in shopping and commerce as a key component of Live Search.” → Read More
From MAKE, this homemade LED jellyfish costume is crazy. Imagine running around in the dark with that thing on. Cool, right? Now imagine it while you’re drunk. Halloween LED Jellyfish Costume [MAKE] → Read More
Microsoft has acquired Madison, Wisconsin based discount shopping service Jellyfish.com. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed, but the deal was sealed Thursday. Under the terms of the deal, Jellyfish.com will maintain its standalone identity and its 26 employees will remain in Wisconsin. Jellyfish.com previously took $5 million in funding from Kegonsa Capital Partners and Clyde Street in October 2006. Jellyfish.com’s platform, which Marshall Kirkpatrick described when he reviewed in for TechCrunch as being “a little bit frightening and bizarre,” is a reverse auction where buyers bid on reducing prices, betting on when to place an order without knowing quantity at the given price. The Microsoft Live Search team said they “think the technology has some interesting potential applications as we continue to invest heavily in shopping and commerce as a key component of Live Search.” → Read More
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The Jellyfish Beer Bong is one tentacle short of being the most awesome frat-accessory ever. For $10.99, you get an inflatable plastic beer bong that comes in the shape of a Jellyfish. Unfortunately, it only has one funnel for beer flow, which is kind of disappointing considering Jellyfish tend to have several tentacles flowing side to side. But the booze experts over at Liquor Snob reviewed it and say that for the price and portability, you really can’t beat the Jellyfish. Rumor has it you can snag it for $7.99 for a limited time. Chances are I’ll order one for endless fun in the sun this summer. Official Site [via Liquor Snob] → Read More
on their site. The site offers a limited number of products at a deep discount. The Smack Auction reduces the price over time, but only until supplies run out. If you don’t buy before they’re out, you’re stuck. The key is to time it and buy just before you hit that magic, hidden number. The fine folks at Jellyfish are planning to offer phones and laptops at a considerable discount, so hang out next Monday and be ready to rumble. Smack Page → Read More
on their site. The site offers a limited number of products at a deep discount. The Smack Auction reduces the price over time, but only until supplies run out. If you don’t buy before they’re out, you’re stuck. The key is to time it and buy just before you hit that magic, hidden number. The fine folks at Jellyfish are planning to offer phones and laptops at a considerable discount, so hang out next Monday and be ready to rumble. Smack Page → Read More
on their site. The site offers a limited number of products at a deep discount. The Smack Auction reduces the price over time, but only until supplies run out. If you don’t buy before they’re out, you’re stuck. The key is to time it and buy just before you hit that magic, hidden number. The fine folks at Jellyfish are planning to offer phones and laptops at a considerable discount, so hang out next Monday and be ready to rumble. Smack Page → Read More
Though I find it a little bit frightening and bizarre, I’m watching right now a new reverse auction at Jellyfish.com. The company’s standard practice is that it returns part of its revenues from sales performed through CPA advertising on its site. We reported on $5 million in funding for the company late last month. Now they have launched a feature they call the Jellyfish Smack of the Day. Here’s how it works: an undisclosed quantity of a particular item (today it’s an 80 gigabyte Video iPod) will be put up for auction, starting at its regular price and falling in price every few seconds. Users watch the price fall, torn between letting it fall lower and buying the item at the current price before the mystery quantity is sold out. There’s a forum for real time communication and the psychology sounds just nuts. On the first day the event was held, 10 people got Apple 2GB iPod Nanos for free. On Friday 50 SD-P1700 Portable DVD Players were sold in the Smack, some for as low at $60. Thursday’s PowerShot SD450 Digital Camera never fell below $100. Affiliate revenue sharing, real time chat, crowd shopping – sounds pretty 2.0, doesn’t it? Or perhaps it just sounds like fun. As I post this, the iPods are at $310, the forum is hopping and no one knows how many are left. The company plans on holding the Daily Smack reverse auctions every Monday through Friday. If you find yourself in psychological shambles by the end of the week, here’s a link to the National Council on Problem Gambling. I’ll see you at Jellyfish though. Update: It looks like the iPods sold out for right about $200, down from a starting price of $350. The forum was quite active towards the end, sociology and psychology students would have had a great time. See also Woot, a site that sells a single item for a low price every day (and was repeatedly derided in the Jellyfish Smack forum) and ZeeDive, a site with a different model we reviewed here. → Read More
Madison, Wisconsin shopping search engine Jellyfish.com just announced the end of a $5 million round of funding from Kegonsa Capital Partners and Clyde Street Investments. It’s been a busy week of funding announcements for 2.0 style sites. Jellyfish searches for products across more than 1000 thousand stores that provide Cost-Per-Action compensation to Jellyfish for each purchase. Jellyfish then returns “at least half” of that compensation to users. Thus search results display the base price for any given store selling an item, the CPA return percentage and thus the ultimate price for buyers. Jellyfish calls it a Value Per Action (VPA) model. Kegonsa Capital Partners and the company’s founders Brian Wiegand and Mark McGuire provided initial seed funding for the company earlier this year. There is no shortage of comparison shopping sites around the web, but very few of them are this interesting. Sharing affiliate revenue is nothing new (see our coverage of Kulist and FatWallet, for example) but doing it with class and getting funding is impressive. If the site gains substantial adoption, the company hopes it can drive base prices down and commissions up. Vivek Puri’s excellent blog StartupSquad had a good explanation of the service and reported that the round was about to close two weeks ago. See also our comparative review of shopping review sites Retrievo, ViewScore and Wize. → Read More
