1st Reflection, E-shopping

It is important for researchers to know the purpose of different websites. For example if a researchers wants factual information, if he/she ventures into 9gag.com(entertainment site), they may receive the wrong information from it. They should however go to an informative or news website as it is USUALLY a more reliable source.


An advocacy website I choose is http://www.stopextinction.org/, a website to stop exticntion of endangered species. The difference between this site and the site which I did my E-shopping from(different topics on both sites) is that one is an advocacy site while the other is a business/marketing site. Next is an advocacy site takes a stand while the business/marketing site does not. Last but not least, advocacy sites tend to persuade the audience into taking the same stand as them, however business/marketing sites only states positive factual information about their product but not persuasive in a sense, just trying to sell them.


My E-shopping activity is actually quite a new experience, because I have never tried simulating myself spending money so carefreely on the net. Shopping on the net is more limited in a sense that we don't get to test out the product and could only search for more images other than the ones provided by the online shop.

First, I went to eBay, but after browsing through awhile, I realized items sold in eBay are sold by different individuals and the way information are given is based on how the seller wants to portray it. I personally didn't quite like it because the information is all over the place.

Secondaly, I went to Play-asia.com to look for the PSVita, but they did not ahve the model I wanted. Continue to browse through anyway! I realized it is good that they have a 'comment' feature because it is more convenient to just continue scrolling down to look at comments about the product. I like this feature alot.

Lastly, I went to amazon.com. It is actually quite picture heavy, which i think is good, so i don't have to trouble myself by searching for more pictures. The search engine not only display results from the search query that I type in, it also shows related items and categories, probably for promoting purposes? I guess. They have a different method for discussing about the products, a forum. But I didnt like forum's to begin with. just a personal opinion, because i don't like they way things are seperated, though I could just serach for them.


The 2 most meaningful lesson I learned in Practical 1&2 is:
1)How to identify the category and purpose of the site
2)Identify the origin of the online shop to identify the currency, then convert to our own currency. We may make a big mistake by not converting the currency, believing the price is of our local currency.