Irrelevance Glorified

Well, thanks to the strike, I really don’t have much new Daily Show to post. So I’ll just be forced to make stuff up. It has been determined that if I was a superhero, my superpower would be a heightened ability to search for things on the Internet. It’s just how I’ve been blessed. So today….I will talk about the Internet. Have you heard of it?

One thing that’s always amazed me about the Internet is about how simultaneously terrifying and fascinating it is. I am a strong proponent of John Gabriel’s Internet…uh… Bad Person Theory (language warning). Give otherwise normal people a keyboard and some anonymity, and it’s quite unbelievable what they’ll come up with.

For me, you can put “deal sites” into the fascinating category. Put simply, if you’re shopping for a something like a computer/laptop or electronics, you are doing yourself a disservice if you don’t visit sites like Slickdeals or Fat Wallet. There are people dedicated to finding and sharing the best deals on products out there, so really, it’s no use trying to keep deals from people. The savvy, deal-obsessive internet users out there will make you pay.

My current obsession is Woot. Besides being the latest word of the year, Woot is the name of a popular shopping site who’s tagline is “One Day, One Deal.” Which, most of the time, is exactly what it is. One item for sale each day, selling until midnight or until they’re out of stock. Usually a pretty good deal. Even if you don’t want what they’re selling, I love checking in because the product descriptions are usually pretty hilarious. Sometimes they mock the product. Sometimes they mock Woot.com. Something they mock the type of person that would buy such a thing. Sometimes they just write fairy tales. Sometimes they mock classic literature. Customer service, while limited, is refreshingly upfront.

Woot embraces the crowd. Every day, each item can be discussed, and the comments always involve people pricematching and saying how much the item sucks. It’s all good. But the most glorious moments are those special days when you go to Woot and see flashing sirens — it’s a Woot-Off! Instead of just one item, there will be multiple items, each new item appearing when the old one has sold out. If you want something, you better snatch it quick. Everyone is anxiously waiting, hovering over the refresh button, looking for the bag of crap. A grab bag of random goods, usually only $1 a bag. Why would you want a bag of junk? Because it might randomly be not junk, like a big screen tv or something. Typically speaking, a few thousand bags of crap sell in less than a minute.

I love it. Take the crowd, whip them into a frenzy by the promise of a random awesome gift for cheap, sell lots of items. And all the while, entertain them with an irreverent attitude. Woot is Jeet-approved. I’ll have to thank Jesse for introducing it to me.

Update 12/26/2006: A great suggestion, anonymous commenter. As of now, Woot is Jeet approved!

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