March Madness is an exciting time for sports fans. One thing that annoys me is that there is only channel that shows the games.  I think there is an opportunity to have for CBS to have an exclusive website for price to shows all the games live where the user can choose one game or flip back and worth between them. Its nice to watch the ending of games, but if you are an avid fan it is not the same looking on espn.com for the updates. There is an enormous amount of people who are interested in March Madness with the popularity of “march madness pools” and gambling.

Steep and Cheap is a site that takes products from all over the internet and sells a different product every half hour for MUCH cheaper than you can get it anywhere else. I am assuming that they buy wholesale products incredibly cheap and up the price only a small amount. because they are simply an internet presence they can do that. I think this model of simply an internet presence will be one that is taken hold of more in the future and is something that should be looked into by any business looking to please a customer and still make money. Check out the Craze!

Digg has decided to undergo a revamp of its design and features, allowing users to have more customization and personalization with regards to their searches. Digg will also offer a more flexible design allowing people to search every keyword on the site, as each word will become the topic of a new discussion. Users will also be able to submit stories to Digg from any site on the web.

I don’t know how many of you spend your saturdays going to garage sales, estate sales and auctions, but I’ve gone to quite a few with my parents over the years.  This can be a lot of fun and a great way to find some rare and unusual treasures, you know the junk that piles up in your basement or attic,  at a cheap price.  Plus getting in a bidding war with some stranger can be quite exciting in its own right.

Well now you can go online and find auctions and estate sales in your area and even bid on the items online.  Here are two of my favorite sites to find auctions:

http://www.auctionzip.com/ – auctionzip is a great way to find auctions in your area and preview the goods before you go.  This is for those of you who still like to go to the physical auction and touch and feel the goods before you purchase them. This site is just a great venue for information.

https://www.proxibid.com/ – Proxibid lets you view auctions and then bid on individual items from your living room or wherever you surf the web.  This is perfect for when you don’t have the time to go to the auction or you just don’t want to get up off the couch.

I know some of you are saying, “why don’t you just check out ebay?”  Well I like going to an auction or garage sale without really knowing what I’m looking for and hoping to find that one treasure or odd item that would really complete my room.    So if thats what you’re interested in then check out these sites.

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament brings a new element to the internet:  online sports brackets.  I believe this concept brings out the gambler in all of us!

Some of the most popular bracket challenges online are found on CBS, Fox, ESPN, and Yahoo.  Top prizes are typically $10,000 for the best bracket, although one site offers a new Infiniti car.  Ruby Tuesday (the restaurant chain) and others have even offered $1,000,000 for a perfect bracket!  Although your chances of getting a perfect bracket are almost nil, the gambler in me is quick to try something free if you have even the smallest chance.

What we may not realize is how much publicity and advertising revenue these companies are getting in return for their efforts.  A $10,000 prize is chump change for brand such as ESPN, so I believe that they have more to gain from the online bracket challenge than we do.  Still, it’s worth a shot at the big bucks!