No, you are not insane. Wootalyzer sent out a "Woot-off Start" and "Screaming Monkey" text message alert at 3:14 PM today. This was not a glitch in the Wootalyzer tracking system, but rather a glitch on woot.com itself. Everyone browsing woot.com at this time saw the screaming monkey appear, then disappear a moment later. A woot-off had "technically" started (it switched back to the daily laptop a moment later).

Sorry about the confusion!

This morning's downtime
Earlier this morning, all Wootalyzer systems went offline for about six hours. This outage was caused by a bad ethernet card in our web server, which has hopefully been replaced.

Woot.com Purchased by Amazon
In other news, Amazon has officially purchased Woot.com. What does this mean for Wootalyzer? Absolutely nothing for the time being. Because we are not affiliated with Woot.com in any way, our service will continue to operate as it always has and you can continue receiving your daily deal updates from us into the foreseeable future.

Recent Wootalyzer Updates
We've have, however, been doing a lot of work behind the scenes recently. New websites are being added to the tracking system daily, and a lot of our server code is being re-written in preparation for the upcoming v4 release.

Of course, we can still make no promises on the official date of Wootalyzer v4 (which includes Mac support), so don't get your hopes up until we get some more concrete estimates.

Just in time for today's woot-off (you have checked woot.com recently haven't you?), we're proud to release the new look of the Wootalyzer.com website. It's still a little rough around the edges, but hopefully the new style will be easier on your eyes than the previous version. Anything is better than red, yellow, and blue, right?

Anyways, have fun during the woot-off, and don't be afraid to report any issues with the software, alert service, or new theme to our support staff. Enjoy!

Approximately once a month, Woot.com sells an item called the "Random Crap," or "Bag of Crap." By purchasing this item for a measly $8.00, Woot will send you (randomly) a minimum of three randomly chosen items. These can range from broken toilets, to broken dvd players, to Xboxes, to mp3 players, to 60" plasma TVs (very, very rare). Even if you just receive "crap," the thrill of the mystery is still typically worth the $8.

So, here's some crap-buying tips direct from the pros:

1. Use Wootalyzer! We try our best to get BOC alerts to you as quickly as possible. Be sure to set your Wootalyzer options to open the "Buy Page" automatically when a BOC becomes available.
2. Have your credit card information stored at woot.com, you won't have time to type it in during the purchase.
3. Memorize your credit card security code, and be sure to type it in correctly when purchasing. You won't get a second chance, and your order will be denied if you type it in wrong during the rush.
4. As soon as the BOC appears, click the "Buy Item" button in Wootalyzer about three more times while your first buy page is loading. This will open another three windows for you to use to checkout. While the Woot servers are choking, checking out multiple times (simultaneously) will give you a better chance of getting an order in. Don't worry, only one of the orders will actually count if you happen to place more than one.
5. If one of your checkout windows has an error while loading, refresh it. It may take several attempts to progress to the next page.
6. Once you see "Your Order is Processing," "You're in Line," "This item is sold out," "Your security code is invalid," "Hold on while we check to see if we have enough stock," or "Your order is in," sit back and relax. There is nothing more you can do, your order is either in, or you're out of luck.
7. Check your woot.com account history, and your email, for purchase confirmation. If you don't receive confirmation instantly, check again in about an hour. BOC orders can take a long time to process.
8. Good Luck!

Well, this Woot-Off's "Random Carp" has come and gone - but based on your comments, it seems that many Wootalyzer users managed to acquire one of these rare treasures!

Based on some preliminary statistics, we estimate that all 9,752 users that were online when the BOC dropped received a Wootalyzer notification within 4 seconds of the item being posted. We even had reports from some users that the BOC appeared in their Wootalyzer before appearing on the woot.com homepage! Success! Even if you didn't get your carp, don't worry --- there's always next time.

Enjoy the rest of your woot-off everyone!

We've just launched a patch which should fix the multiple-Email/SMS alert issues some users have been reporting. Please let us know if you continue receiving more than one message per item.

Also, we have updated the tracking system to pull updates from both the Woot.com sale feed, as well as the front page. This way, no matter which page is updated first, you will always have the most up-to-date information. This should lessen the delay between when a new woot is launched and when you receive the corresponding alert.

Woot.com's new site Kids.Woot is currently hosting a woot-off of it's own! However, because not all of you have kids, it has been disabled from Wootalyzer by default. If you are interested in child-related products, be sure to follow these instructions to make sure you don't miss out on any great deals:

1. Open Wootalyzer
2. Click Tools -> Settings
3. In the Alerts tab, choose Kids.Woot (It's listed under the "Other" category)
4. Under "Track This Site?," uncheck "Use Default Profile" and click Yes
5. Back in the main wootalyzer window, click View -> Add Tracker
6. In this second tracker, select Kids.Woot from the Other category

Here at Wootalyzer, we have quite a lot of experience navigating through the deal-a-day market. So, in order to give a head start to all of our users, we have decided to post what we think is the most important information to know while deal-a-day shopping.

The Wootalyzer Insider's Guide to Deal-a-Day Shopping

1. Beating the system

Let's face it, everybody wants money. You want to save money, and the deal-a-day websites want to make money. So how can you both win? Here's the three typical situations to look out for:

Retail Promotion:
Some websites (such as Amazon) feature products at a significantly reduced price in order to attract and retain customers. These deals are great, because they are typically brand new items, which you can grab at a reduced price for a limited time. These are some of the best deals-of-the-day you can find.

Overstock and Refurbished:
Other websites (such as Woot!) buy items in bulk that manufacturers have refurbished, or no longer want to keep in their warehouses (old models, too many were produced, etc). This way, the website can make money even while passing on the deep discounts to you. These deals can be great - but be sure to look out for items that are out of date or possibly broken.

Tricksters:
Lastly, there are a few deal-a-day sites out there which have no intention of helping you out. They may use flashy advertising and huge fake "discounts" to lure you in, but watch out - you could probably find a higher quality item elsewhere at a lower price. These sites can also exhibit low quality customer service, slow shipping speeds, and unreliable warranty promises. We at Wootalyzer try to protect you by not tracking websites we suspect to be of this quality. Be aware of where you shop. You can never be too careful.

2. Refurbished, Reconditioned, Recertified

Many people do not understand the differences between a refurbished item and a new one. While the two may seem identical most of the time, there are a few things you should be aware of while purchasing a refurbished item.

When a consumer returns an item for any reason (whether it is broken, scratched, or they simply do not want it), it is then shipped back to its original manufacturer. The manufacturer inspects the item, fixes any defects they may find, and sends it out to be sold as a refurbished item at a cheaper price. Keep in mind that this inspection process varies based on manufacturer - some may simply repackage a broken item, while some may put it through numerous tests to ensure it works correctly.

So, purchasing a refurbished item is a gamble. You may receive an item with a defect that was not fixed during repair. You may receive an item that works and looks like brand new. In any case - be sure that ANY refurbished item you purchase comes with some type of warranty from the manufacturer or reseller just in case you wind up with a dud.

Contrary to popular belief, the terms "refurbished, reconditioned, and recertified" are identical. They can be used interchangeably, and have identical meaning. Some websites use these terms in an attempt to hide the fact that the item has been purchased before, but do not be fooled. Read descriptions carefully, and make sure you know the condition of the product you are buying.

3. Shop Around

Just because a website sells a deal-of-the-day, doesn't necessarily mean it's a great deal. Shopping around before purchasing an item is always important. Here's an easy way to do a price check:

1. Visit shopping.google.com
2. Enter the name of the item you are interested in
3. Look for the cheapest price from a reliable website (4-5 stars with many reviews)

If the price you find is lower than the deal-a-day price you are looking at, chances are it's probably not that great of a deal.

4. Mystery Boxes

Boy oh boy. Who doesn't love a great mystery box? The great thrill of opening a package full of trinkets and products that are probably worth more than you amount you paid. Right? Not necessarily.

Many deal-a-day sites sell mystery boxes (mystery bags, mystery items, etc). Basically, you pay them a predefined amount of money. Then, they send you whatever they feel fit, on the assumption that what they send will probably be worth more than you paid. Unfortunately, most websites take this opportunity to send you all the products that they couldn't sell or don't want. So, here's our purchasing advice on mystery products:

• You don't like the thrill of receiving a mystery? DON'T BUY IT. You will be disappointed at what it has to offer.
• Read customer reviews on previous mystery boxes from that website. Are they unfavorable? If so, DON'T BUY IT. Many times, you can find reviews that include the contents of previous mystery boxes.
• Does the mystery box cost more than ten dollars? DON'T BUY IT.

5. Be Smart

Lastly, but most importantly, be smart about your purchasing decisions. If you are unsure about a product's price, feel free to price compare at other stores. If you have questions about a businesses practices, do not be afraid to contact them and ask.

Also, if you have any trouble with any of the merchants listed within Wootalyzer, please let us know so we can ensure it will not happen to any of the other Wootalyzer users.

Have fun, stay safe, buy cool stuff, and save money.

-- The Wootalyzer Team

In an effort to consolidate support for Wootalyzer, we have revamped many of the support systems in place.

First, our email support has been converted to a ticket system, which helps reduce the number of lost emails, and greatly decreases response time. You can find the new support system at http://support.wootalyzer.com .

Second, we've moved everything from the "Bug Reports/Feature Requests" forum over to a new bug/feature tracking system. It's built right in to the rest of the site, so you don't even have to make a different account! You can find the new project management system here.

And to tie it all together, we've made a nice little dropdown at the top of the site which gives easy access to everything. Here's to better support!

Welcome to the woot-off! We've got plenty of server capacity organized this time around, so your woot-tracking "adventure" should continue without a hitch. (unless woot goes down, of course, which is not exactly unusual).