"The customer is always right." This may always have been true but you wouldn't know it from the experience most have had before the days of social networking. Rest assure, that in this connected age we as consumers are much more empowered.

The trend of social shopping has been growing now for several years but the timing for this community is perfect. With smart phones gaining popularity, the masses are arming themselves with portable knowledge, equipped with several means of communication, high quality cameras, and social networking apps, retailers need to be aware that the consumer has evolved. Beware the multi-tasking consumer.

Here are a list of some social shopping sites:

Stylehive http://www.stylehive.com/

Jelly Fish http://www.jellyfish.com/

Crowdstorm http://www.crowdstorm.com/

This Next http://www.thisnext.com/

Wist http://wists.com/

Shop Wiki http://www.shopwiki.com/

Kaboodle http://www.kaboodle.com/

The trend towards "connected tv's" and devices is a sign that people more and more want to enjoy the convenience of being connected without being chained to a desk. Laptops are becoming the norm as prices fall, next-gen kids are growing up not even having used a desktop computer, and smartphones are becoming more accessible and user friendly. So what does all this mean? Well, I hope it means that we've reached the stage where technology is finally adapting to us and not only facilitating but simplifying our connected lifestyle.

ABI Research released a study which included over 1,000 households, and found that the younger consumers want to interact with their friends online and watch tv simultaneously. Yahoo! is on top of this movement with their tv widgets, and have partnered with some of the larger electronics company to stream flikr, news, and weather to your livingroom via the internet.  So can we expect channels/widgets for Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter in the near future? I don't know about you but I already use my TV for online content, listening to Last.fm and Twittering. So I welcome a more user friendly interface so I can continue to do these things but on the comfort of my couch and a remote control. [via cnet news]

Okay, so you have to admit the urge to beef up your friend count was quite tempting when you first signed up for Facebook. Next thing you know your list is over 100 and edging up to 200 when you realize, hey, I probably only have about 30 real friends and of those I probably only regularly see about 10 of them. So you investigate your list and quickly notice that you don't really know most of these people or you haven't seen them in over a decade or longer. You want to remove them but you're worried about offending anyone.