Holiday Shopping and Digital Voice Assistants Trend Upwards | #185

Popular Technology Radio

Black Friday and Cyber Monday reported record breaking online sales while brick-and-mortar businesses saw slight slumps; but an unexpected victor emerged as eBay reported the strongest two days in their history. Mike Etchart waxes poetic about the glory days of eBay in the early 2000s and what a revelation it was to be able to find rare items previously only found through exhaustive garage saling and swap meeting. Alas, all good things fade, and as Amazon.com rose to prominence, eBay's success waned; and what wondrous, unexpected avenues Amazon would follow in the age of digital voice assistants. The Washington Post Tech Columnist, Geoffrey Fowler, recently wrote an article detailing his experience with the 'big three' of smart speakers - Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri. While each assistant has their quirks, pitfalls, and triumphs, one speaker stands above all. Geoffrey describes how Amazon was able to claim the top spot from competitors that, at first glance, should have had an upper hand in the space. Then, ERN Production Assistant, Cody Castleberry, details his experience out among the throngs of Black Friday (or rather, Black Thursday) shoppers. The decline of brick-and-mortar sales is apparent, as less intensive crowds are gathered in checkout lines year by year. We close the show with a few Cyber Monday statistics that may be surprising, and a discussion about the convenience of sharing your information contrasting the price of admission for a private, more exclusive Apple ecosystem. Learn more about holiday shopping trends and your favorite digital voice assistants.

• [00:00:00] Remembering Glory Days of eBay
• [00:06:01] Digital Voice Assistants and Tribes
• [00:12:30] Amazon Alexa: The Good, Bad, and Ugly
• [00:19:51] Amazon vs. Google vs. Apple
• [00:28:25] Online Holiday Shopping Shift Continues
• [00:35:51] Info Inclusive vs. Privately Exclusive