MP3 Barbie

Is it the Barbiepod? She has just as many outfits as the Barbie your mom knew and loved, but she’s probably more appealing to the little female digital natives running around your house. Because she’s a music player, and when her feet are plugged into the docking station, “she unlocks pages and pages of games, virtual shops and online chatting functions on the BarbieGirls.com Web site,” the New York Times reports. This is kind of the tao of Webkinz, the new way to both market and sell “Web-enabled products” to Web-enabled kids. “Instead of asking young Web surfers to punch in their parents’ credit card numbers, BarbieGirls.com and other sites are sending customers to a real-world toy store first. Some of these sites (like the Barbie one) can be used in a limited way without purchasing merchandise — the better to whet young appetites – but others, like the popular Webkinz site, are of little or no use without a store-bought product or two (or three, or a dozen).” Then there’s SpotzGirl.com, which allows users to design their own jewelry, picture frames, etc., with Spotz that are like charm-bracelet charms or buttons (the button maker can be purchased for $24.99 at a real-live store). Both sites are about personal expression – decorating oneself, site characters, and/or spaces.