Techcrunch and TheAlarmClock.com are reporting that Alice.com (aff) has raised an additional $4 million in funding from investors (following an initial $4.3 million investment last November). This is the direct-to-consumer website founded by former Jellyfish (later Microsoft Live Cashback, now...
The founders of Jellyfish.com (sold to Microsoft as Live Cashback, recently renamed Bing Cashback) are at it again! Today, Brian Wiegand and Mark McGuire launched a new shopping website, Alice.com (aff), which WILL revolutionize the way you shop for household...
Update, 12:04am, 2/16: The last night of live chat was lively, with a rare appearance by Jellyfish co-founder Brian Wiegand, as well as several other employees (Heidi and Keith). It appears that the honor of Last Commenter in JF Chat...
There was an annual meeting yesterday between Microsoft and its stock analysts in which the company announced a few upcoming initiatives to push its Live Search program (now integrated with Cashback, formerly the cashback part of Jellyfish.com). In this meeting,...
I came across a very interesting graphic today showing how a company can progress to either loyalty or disloyalty -- it can be applied to any brand, whether it's a rewards program or a specific merchant. It's nothing terribly ground-breaking...
I read an article on Mashable about how Microsoft Live Cashback (formerly the cashback shopping side of Jellyfish.com) is now rewarding for Ebay BIN purchases. Pretty cool, I thought. So I went to try it out myself. Ebay doesn't appear...
SearchEngineWatch is reporting that Microsoft will make an announcement tomorrow of the official launch of Microsoft Live Search Cash Back, their re-branding of the Jellyfish cashback shopping site. The switchover already started today, which I can attest to by virtue...
In an email to members today, Jellyfish said that it had been assimilated by integrated into Microsoft Live, and that members would need to log in with their Microsoft Live accounts or create one if they didn't have one. I...
Along with many others, I've been concerned about how Jellyfish's buyout by Microsoft would affect the company. There's a core group of employees at JF that have become like a second family to its members (okay, sometimes they're the "weird...
According to an email sent out today, Jellyfish.com's cashback service will be down from 4/25 through 4/30 "to perform necessary service upgrades and enhancements." There will be another outage in May. The ever-popular Smack Shopping reverse auction section will remain...
Jellyfish announced that on Wednesday from noon to midnight Central time, they will be doing their Smack (reverse auction) live and hosted by Jellyfish employees, with the Smack Wheel (chance to win prizes) in-between deals, and with increased quantities and...
Source, Inc., the company suing 38 rewards programs for infringing upon its patent for a "Centralized consumer cash value accumulation system for multiple merchants," is no stranger to the Marshall, Texas courtroom. In August 2005, Source sued American Express in...
You're going to order flowers for Valentine's Day, you might as well earn the most rewards for it, right? I re-examined shopping rates for at 15 online florists for these rewards programs (click the program's name to join the site...
Latest update on the case is here. On January 23, Source, Inc. (a California corporation) filed suit against 38 rewards programs for patent infringement. They say that several patents issued to a Patrick D. McCarthy of Louisville, KY (one in...
It's been a year (and two weeks!) in the making, but here's my annual review of the big events in the rewards program biz from last year! It was a long and eventful year, and not a terribly good one...
This blog entry, from 2005, explains succinctly why it's important that Microsoft return Smack Daddy to Jellyfish. Another blogger's take on this, "Big vs. Small," also applies. Don't get so big that you don't listen to your membership. It's a...
I'll admit it. I've been slacking off on Jellyfish's Smack Chat lately. I've been using the site often for shopping and price comparisons, but my ability to keep up on the day-to-day chat drama has been impeded by, oh, I...
Black Friday on Jellyfish was a lot of fun, and the excitement continues through Cyber Monday! Here's the scoop on what's coming up: Outwit pots will continue to be bumped up by $20 each game. The price drops in the...
My bank formerly had a debit rewards program offered through Visa Extras Rewards, but this year it switched over to a program run by Affinity Solutions. Affinity provides debit rewards programs to several banks including Regions and US Bank. The...
Finally, Jellyfish is giving us word on what to expect in terms of their Black Friday Smack Shopping promotion! They announced by email today that there will be "Best of" themed shows around the clock from midnight on 11/23 'til...
Last night's chat was a huge success and I want to thank everyone, program owners and members alike, who spent their Saturday night with me and Ginger of AdlibCorner! For a recap of the evening's highlights, please Continue Reading!...
It was a year ago today that Jellyfish.com launched their Smack Shopping reverse auction feature. Initially, it featured an unknown quantity of one item per day, starting at noon central time. The first item ever "smacked" was a 2GB silver...
Note: this analysis was updated for 2008 here. It's October again, and with Black Friday just weeks away, it's time once again to take an in-depth look at rewards programs' online shopping rebates. A Gallup poll conducted the first week...
The holiday shopping season is right around the corner, and maybe you're finally deciding to get in on this whole "online shopping rebate site" thing...but you have no idea what programs are out there or how to choose. For the...
It was bound to happen...the guys at Jellyfish have created such an internet buzz about their site, it attracted the attention of not just ONE of the big guys, but the biggest guy: Microsoft. The purchase price is reported to...
If you participated in "Smack Daddy's Quest," a referral contest on Jellyfish.com, and you accumulated 50 Quest Points or more (by 2pm central yesterday), you can turn your GURU points into cash! Guru points will remain in your account, but...
One of my favorite writers at SmarterTravel.com is a guy named Tim Winship, who co-authored a book called Mileage Pro -- The Insider's Guide to Frequent Flier Programs (buy it through my Amazon link here). He's written a lot on...
var jf_api_key = "072d86a4f0307db2391dec2490ab4e4a"; var jf_color = "blue"; The price you see is the price you pay, tax and shipping included! Remember, tomorrow night they'll be reverse-auctioning a Toyota Prius!...
Update, 9/5: Congrats to tbase, Jellyfish member and super-nice guy, on his winning purchase of a new Toyota Prius during tonight's Smack reverse auction! At 28.06% off, the car's selling price (excluding tax) was $18,781! Last week the details were...
Last September, I put together a little list of how some of the popular rewards programs stacked up traffic-wise, according to their rankings at Alexa.com. Alexa ranks websites based on the number of site visits they receive, on average, in...
There was an interesting article on Forbes.com yesterday called, "A Penny Pincher's Guide to Office Supplies". Forbes put together a shopping list of commonly used business supplies like toner, paper and pens, envelopes, stuff like that, and then compared prices...
It might help folks new to rewards programs to know which programs the veterans are doing and how well they pay -- to give you an idea of which sites to focus on. These are the sites that have paid...
Visitors to BountyZoo.com this weekend were in for a surprise -- the "page not found" error was gone and instead, members were immediately forwarded to Jellyfish.com...without any kind of explanation, "we're sorry for bailing on you," "screw you, we're keeping...
Yesterday, Jellyfish.com announced that on all purchases made through its Smack Shopping reverse auction, savings would be immediate -- in other words, the final price is what you pay. Before this change, Smack purchasers would pay full price for the...
In honor of Jellyfish.com's one-year anniversary on June 26th, the site will be having a 24-hour live Smack Shopping Smack-a-Thon hosted by chat admin Smack Daddy and co-hosted by various members of the Jellyfish community. I will be co-hosting...
In an update on yesterday's story regarding GradGold: In another press release on Tuesday, this one by AES (the loan servicer themselves), AES mentioned not only partnering with Upromise and Grad Gold, but also with Jellyfish, through an AES website...
If you're a regular CompareRewards visitor, you know that I'm very stoked about Jellyfish.com and particularly their Smack Shopping reverse auction. Today there was an article about Jellyfish (and two other recent internet startups) on Investors.com and in it were...
Fans of Jellyfish.com's Smack Shopping will be pleased to know that starting today, Smack Shopping will be offered on a 24 hour basis. Here are the details: These will move along slower than regular hosted shows (which will continue on...
Last night, Jellyfish.com unveiled a new game played among members during their Smack Shopping show, "Outwit the Smack." In this game, a member is chosen at random to play against other members of the viewing audience for points and prizes....
[Last updated, 5/2] In a press release today, Jellyfish.com announced a strategic partnership with a company called Channel Intelligence. CI has a product called SellCast Online, which will enable CI's current merchants to become Jellyfish advertisers -- integrating their product...
A new version of the Jellyfish Smack Shopping show will be unveiled tomorrow at 3pm Central. There are said to be changes to include multiple chat rooms, personalizable blog-type member pages, and much more. Tune in tomorrow to see if...
There's more to Jellyfish.com than Smack Shopping...not that you'd know it, as much as I chatter about the Smack. But at the heart of Jellyfish is its comparison shopping engine -- search for an item and see how cheaply you...
Brian Wiegand, co-founder of the Jellyfish.com rewards program, was called a "serial entrepreneur" by the Wisconsin Technology Network, as they announced today that he had sold his second internet startup. NameProtect, founded in 1997, was just sold by Wiegand to...
Can't get to the Jellyfish Smack of the Day during the day because of work or other obligations? Tune in tonight for a Wednesday Primetime Smack which will get cranked off at 8pm Central time. It looks like the first...
There's an interesting interview up with Greg Kaldor (VP of Merchant Services at Jellyfish.com) on GetElastic.com. He talks about, among other things, Smack Shopping (how it got its name, the psychology of chat, themed Smacks, etc.). You all know I'm...
I know I post a lot about Jellyfish.com and their Smack Deal of the Day, but it's so addictive, I find I plan my day around being at my computer at noon central time so I don't miss a minute...
Jellyfish.com's popular reverse auction, the Smack Deal of the Day, is doing a smack-a-thon today, with multiple deals all day long! So far, some of the deals have included a Circulon 10-pc Cookware Set for $104.85 after rebate (the auction...
During yesterday's regularly scheduled Smack Deal of the Day on Jellyfish.com, members were treated to a sneak peek of the new features that will officially be unveiled on Tuesday's Smack-a-Thon. Members will be allowed to vote, from the end of...
Wow, 2006 was a busy one in the rewards program biz. Not a lot of new programs last year, but we saw a lot of old ones fail... and a couple of big ones change ownership. How well do you...
My friend Rebecca at the Ebates Blog made a great post last week that detailed the standard shipping deadlines for Christmas arrival for 16 popular online merchants. I wanted to supplement it for my readers here. Please note: you can...
Update, 11:45pm ET: It's over! Almost 11 hours of deals, including white gold .5K diamond earrings for 65.5% off, an Xbox 360 core system for 51.3% off, a Kitchen Aid Artisan Series 5-qt mixer for 46.6% off, a digital picture...
In chat today, Jellyfish.com announced that we could expect two big promotions coming up: This Wednesday night at 7pm ET will be Smack Shopping After Hours, where all items for sale will be non-tech products. Tuesday of next week will...
Update, 12/3: Because the Black Friday Jellyfish promotion was so successful, they'll be doing a new 24-hour Smack again before Christmas! Details are promised this week and I'll share them with you as soon as I get the scoop! Tomorrow,...
Late yesterday I got word from my source at Jellyfish.com that they too will be doing a Cyber Monday promo of some kind. They're still hashing out the details, and when I hear more I'll pass them along!...
I've mentioned the Jellyfish.com program here before -- they're an online shopping rebate site with fantastic rates, and they also have a built-in comparison shopping search engine that is really cool and could be the topic of an entirely different...
Jellyfish.com yesterday started a new promotion called the Smack Shopping Deal of the Day (it turns out that a group of jellyfish is called a "smack." Who knew?). Every business day (no weekends or holidays) at 1pm Eastern, a new...
Jellyfish Review - Updated 11/06 Please click here to join. Jellyfish.com launched in beta on 6/26/06. It's open to U.S. and Canadian citizens 18 years or older. There are currently over 1,000 merchants participating in the program, and although there...
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