They should call it “The US domestic web that you can get bits of elsewhere.” A little long-winded I guess.
This trip has been an internet eye-opener. First hulu and netflix, then amazon, then yesterday I wanted to take advantage of an online Macy’s promotion (huge bag o’ samples if you spend $75) and even though my shipping/billing address is Austin, TX, my order couldn’t be processed because I’m using a foreign ip address. (So no online shopping at Macy’s while you’re on vacay, I guess.)
Now I can’t watch a friggin youtube video someone posted in the facebook comments?!?! That’s just stupid.
I was complaining to Ian (bald consultant/coworker from Australia on a 3-month contract) and he said that even in Australia, he had to buy a US address – apparently this is a service – to be able to shop certain sites like Amazon. Why doesn’t someone create a type of amazon.com for Asia-Pac and/or Europe. “We’ve got ebay though,” he said. Not the same.
O hi, Asia! 