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In the business world, an untested idea is a bad idea. Before spending millions of dollars designing, manufacturing and marketing a product, companies first have to figure out whether anyone even wants to buy it. That process is called market research. Market research is big business. Surveys, in particular, can easily be conducted online or over e-mail. The cost of a 200-person, e-mail survey is $2,500 to $5,000. As an incentive for consumers to fill out online surveys, companies offer them rewards. At Web sites like e-Rewards and MySurvey, consumers either earn money or points for each survey they fill out and submit. Those points can be redeemed for rewards such as discounts on products, free airline miles or gasoline gift cards. Online surveys with rewards are a potential win-win situation for companies and consumers. The company gets valuable market research from a targeted survey audience, and the consumer is paid for his time through discounts and freebies on products he likes. The only problem with rewarding consumers for taking online surveys is that it gives them the incentive to cheat. The more surveys you fill out, the more points you get. In this HowStuffWorks article, we'll explore the ins and outs of online surveys: how they fit into overall market research plans, how reward Web sites work, and what can be done to make online survey results more reliable.
Have you ever wanted to try out a new personality? Since we're stuck with ourselves, day-in and day-out, our own personalities might sometimes feel a little tired from time to time. So what can we do about this? There are, of course, costumes, which are probably the reason so many people look forward to Halloween -- they can be their favorite superhero for a night and revel in a little creativity. But not all of us are willing to play dress up throughout the calendar year, mainly because doing so violates generally held social norms. After all, most Web sites that offer some kind of online community allow their users to create avatars, an electronic image that represents the person controlling it. Generally, members can be as creative as they like with their avatar, either fashioning it as close to their appearance and personality as possible or creating an entirely different personality.
One of these social networking services is Zwinky, a service launched in 2006 and owned by InterActiveCorp (IAC). Zwinky lets its members create their own cartoonish, large-headed and big-eyed avatars, which they can use in several different ways. One thing to keep in mind: Zwinky is open to anyone age 13 and older. If you're younger than 13, you won't be allowed to make your own account, not even with parental permission. Zwinky profiles can also be set to "private" if you're 18 or older, but profiles of Zwinky users younger than 18 are automatically set to private. So how does Zwinky work? What can someone with a Zwinky avatar do? And what kind of place is Zwinktopia, anyway? This may be a slightly unfamiliar approach for members of other social networking sites -- most simply request that you create a username and password and fill in some personal information, including e-mail addresses and phone numbers.
Zwinky, however, requires you to download a Zwinky icon onto your Web browser, which users click on to access the program's interface. When you've successfully installed the Zwinky program and opened up the program window, it's time to customize your Zwinky character. Every Zwinky has a personal wardrobe, which users can access by clicking on the "Open Wardrobe" button near the bottom of the screen. You can manipulate a Zwinky's appearance to make it look however you want, and users choose traits including gender, skin tone, hair style and color, and more. To move a Zwinky from one place to the next in a specific area, members simply use the mouse to point and click. You can make new friends or see a list of the ones you already have by clicking on the "View/Add Friends" button at the bottom of the interface. This button allows you to either send an e-mail to a fellow Zwinky requesting friendship or to see where in Zwinky's world your friends are.
If a friend is online, clicking on your friend can bring you straight to him or her, call up that person's profile or let you send that person a Znote. Of course, if another Zwinky bothers you or makes you uncomfortable, you have the option of blocking him or her from chatting with you. After choosing outfits, accessories and physical features for your Zwinky, you'd embed the avatar into other social networking sites like MySpace. However, on the previous page we talked about moving your Zwinky avatar around. If you embed your Zwinky into a Web page, isn't it just stuck there, with nowhere to go? The name of the location is, of course, Zwinktopia. Similar to other virtual worlds like Second Life and Club Penguin, Zwinktopia allows you to take your personal Zwinky avatar into an animated, video-game-like realm to roam, chat and play games. Many of the locations are based on real-life establishments -- everything including arcades, coffee shops and dance halls are fair game in Zwinktopia.
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