If Google is the juggernaut of the search engine world, ShopWiki looks like it’s poised to become the leader for niche shopping searches. The site crawls Google listings (among others) to create a very flexible shopping search engine. You can also browse the listings by category, such as Kitchen Appliances or Ceramics.

First of all, I love the design of the site. It is clear and easy to navigate, with big, bright buttons where it matters. Once you search for an item, there is also a prominent filtering engine on the right side that helps you narrow down your search by criteria such as price, color and stores. They also feature other products you might be interested in–a search for “casserole dish” also uncovered a featured Pyrex dish set for sale at Amazon.

In addition, ShopWiki has main pages for products that provide shoppers with more information. For example, the Microwave Ovens section provides pages of info on how to buy a microwave. Once you find an item you like (I picked the Whirlpool Over Range microwave), you’re taken directly to a comparison shopping page filled with, in many cases, hundreds of stores stocking the item you want. (Then I filtered it down to just show the black microwaves, of course, because the color-filtering feature is so cool!)

To me, it’s the perfect synergy between search (which we’ve all become accustomed to) with information, all at our collective fingertips.

One of the things I miss most about the small town where I grew up is the mailboxes. Everybody expresses their own personality through the way they accessorize their house, and the first thing you see is the mailbox.

Mailboxixchange is an e-commerce site that sells all sorts of contemporary mailboxes, from large commercial mailboxes to modern mailboxes for individual homes. They have an extensive selection that suits all tastes, but the predominant style is classy, cool mailboxes that will make your home look unique.

The site is really easy to navigate, with helpful videos, useful product descriptions and live help. You can even shop for options like newspaper holders and custom letters and numbers. Overall, it’s the perfect site if you’re thinking about ditching your old, boring mailbox.

Our friends over at Edward’s Hair Solutions have pointed us in the direction of a very disturbing trend: counterfeit GHD hair straighteners. In recent months, fake straighteners from the Far East have caused household fires in the United Kingdom and Canada. These deceptive knock-offs lack the safety features that have made GHDs so popular in the first place, and are of a lower build quality that helps to keep the prices down.

Edward’s offers a handy guide on how to spot fake GHD hair straighteners and the comments on that article point to this being a worldwide problem.

It’s a shame that consumers and shops alike (not to mention GHD) are suffering from these knockoff products. Shops like Edward’s Hair Solutions, which is an authorised seller of GHD hair straighteners, not only have to compete against the prices of counterfeit products but must convince informed consumers that they’re the real deal. It’s a conundrum - you either have people shopping on price alone who would much rather pay £50 than £85, or you have saavy consumers who are skeptical that a non-High Street store could be legit. (Worth noting that fakes have even been reported on Amazon, so nobody is immune to this criticism.)

What are you doing this holiday season? Are you even going to try to buy straighteners with all the confusion in the marketplace?

San Diego Padres reliever Heath Bell went through something this offseason that tons of armchair managers have also experienced. He stepped on the Wii Fit board and the game labelled him “obese” (which, in turn, makes your character look like David Wells).

And, like many of the Wii Fit’s biggest - and less famous - fans, he did something about it. Bell lost 25lbs this offseason in a workout regimen that included playing games on the Wii Fit. It’s now being reported that he looks “svelte” and better than ever, with his coaches even asking him not to lose more weight in order to keep his velocity up.

Heath Bell may be the first athlete to unofficially endorse the Wii Fit. How about the rest of us? Have you lost weight using the Wii Fit, or did you throw the balance board back into the box when the game called you fat?

Ask anyone who has applied for a business loan, mortgage or even a credit card in the past year, and there’s no disputing that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to secure a line of credit. Businesses, in particular, are hurting from this belt-tightening - moreso than individuals, many businesses live on credit and floated money. With the world credit markets in crisis, many businesses are facing the option of changing the way they handle their finances, or going under.

Businesses who have been let down by banks and other traditional lenders in the past 12-18 months are increasingly looking to alternative methods to pad their capital requirements and pay the bills each month. Alternative services include seeking financial services from third-parties, who have the ability to transfer funds through ACH processing, eliminating a company’s need to rely strictly on banks for their loan needs. For many businesses, this means getting instant access to cash without delays due to paperwork, payment hold times or snail mail applications.

With electronic payment processing, businesses are able to move money securely and instantaneously, benefiting their customers and their supply chain in the process. It may be a break from popular, traditional methods, but there’s nothing popular about the current economic situation!