Last week deal site Groupon launched a Dream Weddings channel. Today it looks like they have added another channel — a “kid-friendly club”. The new Groupon Kidz Club features deals that are either geared towards kids or are kid-friendly. Each city appears to have a couple of local deals including test prep and photography services along with a large number of national deals. For example, the most popular company on the deal sites, Vistaprint makes an appearance on the kid-friendly deals list.

Frankly I can’t figure out by the tone of the content (outside of the deals) if this could be a late April Fools joke. Groupon has created several personalities within the Kidz Club including: Glasses, Blade, FopTop, Roll, E-Male, Pyles and Swarmy.

The Kids Club features games like “help roll get his croissant back” and a word scramble. These games aren’t online, I assume you need to print out the page and give it to your kids.  There is also content including, “HELP elderly folks cross the first part of the street and then encourage them to get across the rest of the way on their own!” There is also an official Kidz Club theme song.

I don’t get all of the (probably very expensive) content Groupon creates — from this sillyness to the “extra” content they post at the bottom of their deal pages. Just post the deals and move on to posting more deals.

If you are looking for a job at a startup located in Dallas, you should check out the RoundUp for Startups event later this month. The free startup recruiting event will be held on April 21, 2012 from 4-8 pm at Deep Ellum Brewing Company in Dallas, Texas. The evening is broken up into two segments:

• 4-6 pm: social recruiting and networking
• 6-8 pm: a band will jam while attendees network over food and drinks

Over forty startups located in the Dallas area will be attending the event recruiting for over 100 positions. The organizers describe the event as, “…open to everyone that is interested in joining growing and young technology and startup companies, from recent graduates to seasoned professionals. If you are a software/hardware/network/equipment/test/QA engineer, software programmers/developer, user interface and user experience (UI/UX) specialist, web/mobile designer, system administrator, project manager, or technical designer, this is your chance for a great career move. If your speciality is sales and marketing or business development, and you want to work with the next great North Texas startup, this is your chance to get involved. If you have a passion for what you do and are looking for a fulfilling position at an exciting young company, don’t miss this event!”

As a Giants fan, I’ve been told I am banned from entering the city limits of Dallas. But for the few of you out there that aren’t Giants fans, this looks like a great opportunity to network and potentially grab a job at a Texas-based startup.

Don’t be an April Fool…check out some of the latest web technology and business jobs posted for April 6, 2012 on the CenterNetworks Job Board. Subscribe to the CN Jobs feed and get all of the latest Web industry jobs delivered directly to you.

Featured Jobs:

• Front End Developer at Soli
• Senior Software Engineer at OkCupid Labs
• Software Engineer at Causes

More Jobs:

• Systems Analyst/Senior Systems Analyst -SharePoint Developer – ITS Application Development at Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
• Web Developer, Online Publications at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Interaction Designer, Data Visualization – News at WNYC

Employers – Join other top companies on the CN Job Board. Post your jobs today – only $10!

Amazon has announced that as part of their streaming video launch on the PS3, they are offering the ability to view the first episode of over 100 television series for free. The free watching period runs for a week from today unless you have an Amazon Prime account which will allow you to watch the full seasons of each show for free.

Some of the series you can watch the first episode for free include:

• Storage Wars (Dave Hester is the man!)
• The Office UK
• Hawaii Five-O
• NCIS Season 1
• Pawn Stars
• Parking Wars (you best park correctly in Philly!)
• Shipping Wars
• Project Runway
• The A-Team Season 1 (BA!)

Amazon notes that “Instant Video” is also available on the Kindle Fire, Roku, televisions, Blu-ray players, and set-top boxes.

View all of the series here.

As I work on getting in great shape, today’s Amazon Local deal really appealed to me. And as a deal hunter, I’ve seen thousands and thousands of deals from every segment you can imagine. From gun permit training to lingerie to Hawaiian vacations, I’ve seen it all. Or at least I thought I have until I found today’s deal on Amazon Local!

Just imagine this… you want to win a marathon – 26 miles of running, knocking people over to take their spot, hoping you can beat some guy or girl from another country and bring the belt back home to the USA. You trained, you said your prayers, you took your vitamins (brother!) and you are ready. But inevitably you will get a high number and start way back in the pack and have no real chance of making it to the finish line in first place. So instead you head to McDonalds for a 20 piece mcnugget and a large fry.

The good news is that now Amazon Local will put you in the front of the pack – for a fee of course. For just $29, Amazon Local will guarantee you get to start ahead of all of the “professional runners” in the Beantown Marathon. They note that if you pay the $29 you can, “take the last few weeks of training off and still achieve a personal best time”. Purchasing this deal gets you a 10 minute head start! That’s only $2.9 per minute!

The unfortunate thing is that at the time of this post, nearly 58,000 people have purchased the deal. So my guess is that you will be behind all of the other deal hunters but you will still get a 10 minute head start over the non-payers.

Lastly, if you finish the race on foot (you cannot take public transport!), Amazon will give you bowls of chili and beer.

I am so glad I made my purchase before they sell out! What are you waiting for?

note: obviously this is an april fools joke from amazon local!

Last December I noted that there was a deal for the Kindle Fire that made it the best day to-date for buying an Amazon Kindle Fire. Today’s deal makes that deal look like child’s play. Today only, Amazon is offering refurbished Kindle Fire devices for $139! The deal is the Gold Box deal of the day and Amazon notes that supplies are limited. If you want a Kindle Fire, today is the best day to become an owner of the 7″ tablet.

You can read the full explanation about the refubished Kindle Fire devices on Amazon’s website. Here are the important bits:

Prior to sale, every pre-owned Kindle undergoes a rigorous refurbishment process including:

• Full diagnostic test
• Replacement of any defective parts identified in testing
• Thorough cleaning and inspection process
• Complete repackaging with a new box
• Most recent software version update available for the product.
• Final QA inspection before acceptance as Certified Refurbished stock.

The refurb Kindle devices have the same return policy as the new devices and come with the same warranty. You also get the free one month of Prime as well.

I have purchased multiple refurb laptops from Dell and a refurb iPod from Apple and all three devices look brand new and have been just as reliable. What I generally don’t trust refurbs from third-party companies, this Kindle deal is direct from Amazon so you know they will stand behind the device should anything go wrong.

Over the past year, both Living Social and Groupon have been adding new channels within their services. Living Social has been rapidly expanding their Gourmet and Home channels. I’ve noticed Groupon pumping their Goods channel heavily as of late. While most of the products in their Goods section seem to be closeouts or products that probably didn’t sell so well in retail, they seem to be selling like hotcakes on Groupon.

We’ve seen people who got married using Groupon and let’s not forget Greg’s proposal to Dana on Groupon last year. Today I noticed Groupon is pushing a full channel for weddings.  Interestingly the url doesn’t contain weddings but rather occasions so I wonder if Groupon will launch deal centers for other occasions.

The local wedding deals listed include (your deals may vary by location) tanning and salon services. Most of the page offers nationwide deals including name change services, engagement rings, wedding gowns, photography services, wedding invitations and of course the most critical honeymoon in Morocco or a safari in Africa.

Even though I am a huge deal hunter, I can’t imagine using a deal site for my wedding. Maybe invitations or other basics but would I want to worry that the honeymoon might not be absolutely perfect to save a few dollars?