By Colby Horton
Shop Site of the Month
Cars Unlimited - Edgartown, Mass.
www.cars-unlimited.com
This site was chosen for its design, organization and graphical approach. The home page offers a clean presentation, complete with a brief description of the shop and several photos depicting the professionalism of the facility. The service menu is concise and framed with several photos of the shop floor. A section on the shop's "Ethics" and a well-written "About Us" section make the site informative. Staff bios outline the credentials of each member of the Cars Unlimited team.
Web Wise
TiVo Adds 'Net Capabilities
My home is one of the 8.8 million homes in the United States equipped with a digital video recorder (DVR). And I'm not sure what I did without one. Thanksgiving dinner was in the middle of the Dallas Cowboys game. So we simply pressed the pause button on our DVR, ate our turkey, and came back to the game after dinner.
DVRs are becoming increasingly popular in homes today, in part because they are now being offered with cable and satellite services. DVRs allow you to record your favorite shows, as well as pause, rewind and fast-forward live television. But to keep up with the competing cable and satellite entities, the original DVR system, TiVo, is introducing a suite of Internet-related services to its offerings in hopes to entice more consumers to subscribe to the company's system. The new services are being provided to TiVo subscribers through Fandango, Yahoo and Live365.
One of the new services offered is the ability to purchase movie tickets through Fandango from the user's television. Users will provide their ZIP code to call up text about local movie offerings and even charge tickets to their credit cards. Eventually, the DVR pioneer will connect the service to its existing movie ads so viewers can watch a trailer and purchase tickets immediately.
Another service offered through TiVo will allow users to select and listen to streamed podcasts - radio shows made available when the user chooses to listen to them. And those who subscribe to Live365 on the Internet can listen to the service's user-created radio stations directly through their television. In addition, simple games will be offered through the new service.
The new services are offered initially to 300,000 of TiVo's 1.3 million subscribers who have connected the DVR to their home networks.
With the increasing popularity of automotive-related shows, consider using TiVo to record and play them for your customers in the waiting area of your shop. If you're a shop owner with a high volume of business that demands you work hours when your favorite shows are on, TiVo lets you tape those shows and watch them at a later time. Like other technologies today, TiVo can add a little more flexibility to your life.
Net Numbers
Digital video recorder (DVR) penetration is estimated at 8.8 million homes, or 8 percent of the U.S. population. That number is expected to grow to 45.9 million homes (39 percent of the population) by 2010.
Source: Reed Business Information
ASA Web Ways
Need a Web site?
The Automotive Service Association offers an affordable Web site plan for your shop. Starting this month, ASA will begin a new program to create multi-page Web sites for members for a one-time setup fee. The new sites offer features such as online appointment scheduling, service menus, an opt-in newsletter function and more. In addition, ASA will offer Web hosting services for $10 per month - one of the lowest prices in the industry. For more information, including pricing, call (800) 272-7467, ext. 234, or visit the Members Only area of ASA's Web site (www.asashop.org) and click on "Web Services."
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Net Worth is written by Colby Horton, ASA's electronic communications manager. He can be reached at (800) 272-7467, ext. 234, or by e-mail at colbyh@asashop.org.
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