Yahoo Buys Online Contest Site Bix

By Geoff Duncan Published November 17, 2006

Internet titan Yahoo has snapped up yet another small Internet company: this time, the acquiree is Bix, a social Web site which lets users create (and participate) in online contests. Contests are broken into loose categories including photos, writing, comedy, dance, and "beauty," with perhaps the site’s best-known offering being video lip-synching – some more general contests on the site solicit votes for the best video game or best U.S. president. Site users cast votes and winners receive prizes, often offered by companies which see the contests as online promotional tools. Bix offers online tools to record audio and video (assuming users’ computer hardware is up to the task)

Bix apparently views the Yahoo acquisition as a way to bring its offerings to Yahoo’s (much) larger audience; Yahoo sees Bix’s technology and business model as a way to supplement Yahoo’s own social media offerings, offering an American Idol-like experience where visitors can be the judge.

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Yahoo’s acquisition of Bix is the latest in a string of acquisitions designed to propel the company into the social media and "Web 2.0" spaces; other recent additions include Flickr, Del.icio.us, Jumpcut, and Upcoming.org.

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Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Smart Home

Best Buy Labor Day sale: Chamberlain MyQ smart indoor security camera is $35 today

Chamberlain MyQ smart indoor home security camera deal at Best Buy -- on shelf

As part of Best Buy's Labor Day sale, there are several smart home security devices discounted, making it one of the best times to outfit and protect your home with modern surveillance gear. The Chamberlain MyQ smart indoor home security camera, for example, is down to $35 today -- saving you $5. You'll save even more with a My Best Buy Plus or Total membership. It's a hard-wired smart security camera with crystal-clear 1080P full HD viewing, wide-angle vision, motion detection features, and two-way audio support -- so you can communicate with anyone in your home. Pair it with some of the other home security devices and you'll have a full system up and running in no time.

Why you should shop the Chamberlain MyQ smart indoor home security camera at Best Buy

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The My Best Buy Plus membership essentially pays for itself after a few buys

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I shop at Best Buy quite a bit. I know that's not the story for everyone out there, but it works for me. One of the biggest benefits of shopping there is that you have access to an exclusive membership, called My Best Buy Plus. With it, you not only get free two-day shipping, which is excellent because you get your gear faster, but also you can access member-only pricing and discounts. You even get early access to hard-to-find or new products, giving you a headstart over anyone else shopping for the same things. But the benefits don't end there. More importantly, at $50 per year for Plus, the membership essentially pays for itself after you buy a few items especially if you take advantage of the exclusive discounts. Even better, My Best Buy Plus and Total members sometimes get extra discounts. Let's delve into some of the other benefits and discuss the differences between Plus and Total tiers, shall we?

Why should you subscribe to My Best Buy Plus or Total?
Let's get the prices out of the way first:

Smart Home

Chamberlain’s MyQ smart garage video keypad is only $70 at Best Buy

Chamberlain MyQ smart garage video keypad deal at Best Buy featured image

When it comes to outfitting your home with smart devices, to truly make it a smart home, the three best things to buy are smart lights, a smart lock, and a smart garage door opener. The smart garage door opener, specifically, will allow you to open and close your garage in various ways. You can use the traditional proprietary remotes, your phone via an app, or a code -- usually achieved by installing a remote keypad nearby. If you're going with a Chamberlain MyQ smart garage door opener, which you should, we have a line on an excellent deal for a unique keypad to pair with it.

The Chamberlain MyQ smart garage video keypad is a numerical access keypad, first and foremost, to open your garage door, but it also has an integrated 1080P HD camera with a 160-degree wide-angle view. With the smart app, you can keep track of when the door is being opened, but you can also use that camera to see who is entering, or exiting your home. Normally $100, it's on sale for $70 today at Best Buy, saving you $30.