. >> reporter: like the early dotcoms, groupon cultivates a hip, funky vibe. pin pong is encouraged. >> anybody want in on doubles? >> reporter: head shots of customer service reps recruited from chicago's improv scene line the walls. >> they think quickly, they have a good sense of humility, good sense of empaekt for the customer care site. they understand how to relate and they do so with a sense of humor. plays smooth operator when it's working properly. >> reporter: meetings are hold in a place that resembles an aging teenager's bedroom. and the point of this is what? >> um, the point of this is to have a bicycle that plays "smooth operator" when you ride it. >> reporter: the groupon ad copy reads more like the satirical onion than your grandmother's group ofry coupon. how to feel terrible and look great doing it. cheap cocktails in seattle. a reader challenge, what's in a fireside chat? or how to order yogurt the rude way. >> i mean, the e-mails are hilarious. i think that's part of their company personality. >> reporter: the competition is coming on stro

ron wohy, vice presidenof oduction and busess services for people media which runs black peopleeet dotcomthe largest bla meeting site for black singlesnd dina phillips, formerlyn online dater. wel get to the that. fos, welcome. greatly appreciate it. let me pick o youfirst. theyold me it's former. you dot do itny longer. is that because y found the love of your le online or it just was not for you? >> i think -- i didn'tind the love of my life. the person i met was not online but i think it justhanged my purpose, you know, the things that ianted to doind of changed my priorities. the me i was working a lot. so the online dating was very effective and helpful. >>ow much hesitation, if at all did you he before you actually t's a profile and raep jped in the ter? >> none. i started out more from curiosity. i heard about so many peoe who had met people, and after four months were engaged and the relaonship seemed to be reall healthy and thewere excited. so i w curious. >> ron, talko me about, a, the increase, suspect in traffic you've see over the years and the feedback you can give us in ter

dollars in venture capital invested in recent months came to california, which is higher than even the dotcomears. there's a lot of hope for rebound, but it's still going to be a slow rebound. >> so what are those bright spots in the economy that you're seeing here? >> well, there's no sector that's totally booming. even your sector of healthcare, which is actually, you know, the most vibrant, is still -- could hardly be called totally good times. but as i said before, in san francisco we are seeing, you know, tremendous resurgence in sort of webifying, interneti internetifying everything. and companies want to be meerp even companies like google and yahoo that are in silicon valley are setting up offices in san francisco because the top talent wants to be there. we were talking about you walk through south park and you see all these young people out on bicycles and, you know -- they're people with jobs. they're not unemployed young people. they're people with good jobs just getting a little sunshine. so that's a really strong area. we're also seeing -- you know, there's clean and green techn

suffered because of crime, i believe, and some of the economic downturn that we have noticed post dotcom implosion. upper haight has always been just a mecca. it deserves collective attention in making sure haight ashbury is not compromised but also an area we want to make sure is accessible for all. cole valley neighborhood, you know, to haight, is a bit of a hamlet, an enclave near the haight, in between there and ucsf and inner sunset. inner sunset, it's just a great swing area. what i mean by that is you just have such a great combination between merchants and residents, mass transit hub, a lower pac heights, certainly wants to enjoy the prosperity of pac heights but not want to lose its diversity that spills over from the fillmore western addition area. north of pan handle is a composite of everything i have just said. those are the aspects of the district, neighborhood by neighborhood, that makes it a challenging and needy district, but one i love and am responding to. >> ♪ >> welcome to another addition of district sf, sftv's profile of san francisco neighborhoods an their issues.

that's a little crazy and maybe, maybe it's a sign that gold, like dotcoms and real estate before itas become a bubble and it could burst. >> i have no idea what is driving it except the kind of wild and i think some unmisguided hysterical fear. >> reporter: ben stein, the actowriter and economics commentator is wary of the frenzy for gold right now. >> i think people are counting on it to be a sure thing are possibly in for quite a severe disappointment. >> reporter: still, right now, gold keeps going up and up driven by a sense that the world is out of whack and gold can somehow keep us safe until, as history shows, the price plummets again. >> the way i look at it right now, it's an emotionally driven market right now, and it's going to continue until the funds and the people change their minds. >> reporter: if you can guess that moment, you'll be, well, golden. >> well, well, well. >> look at us. >> apparently when you work the overnight shift you become worth your weight in gold. >> oh, man. if only our contract reflected that. wouldn't that be nice? >> i think i hear on the ove

. >> and that's what we're doing with hbcu's online dotcom. education, if you're thinking about getting a degree and thinking about online, think about getting it from a black college. when you go a black college, and you will be a student at one of our colleges, we have two colleges right now, hampton and texas sub. there are 105 historically black colleges in existence and we're not going to stop until we help all of them, but when you register with us, you become a student of that college. you become a pirate of hampton university. you become a tiger of texas sub and you become that student, and you know like i know, when you find somebody who graduated from an hbcu, it's a different kind of confidence, a different kind of swagger, a different kind of leadership, a spirit of success just goes with them, that they were inbread when they went to this historically black college. so we're going to do that virtually. >> right. so if the students don't have the time to attend the traditional classes and the brick and mortar university, why would

lynne sweet, washington bureau chief with the "chicago sun-times" columnist for "politics daily dotcomus from washington. breaking news, will this happen for sure and will you tell us when? >> well, people think that it could be as soon as friday. people close to rahm emanuel keep say, you know, his decision isn't made 100%. they still want to have wiggle room, but all signs point to him running for mayor of chicago and running pretty soon. >> yeah. and, lynne, it almost sounds like an anointment. he still has to run in chicago. right? >> well, let me correct that. there's no a perception in slick that she by any means anointsed and that is part of the national disconnect in the conversation about rahm emanuel. one thing that emanuel is is politically savvy. he knows he fleeds to get home if he wants to run because no one anointed him anything. with all respect, he knows this is a competitive race. there are big local names that probably aren't as prominent on a national basis as rahm emmanuel is because he works in the white house, but, you know, no one -- people in chicago actually a

out, maybe go to the press site and if the publicist e-mail is first name dot last name at company dotcomer thing to do is call the guys that are on local tv stations, the guy -- >> the guy that everybody is scared to death of. and say i'm going to call so and so at channel 2 and tell them -- sometimes that sort of gets their attention. twitter, facebook, the are lots of consumers logging complaints on the facebook sites of companies and companies are actually now hiring people to do nothing but manage their facebook -- facebook sites d to try to get in touch with consumers who aired grievances. >> they don't like bad publicity. >> no, they don't. >> thank you very much, amanda gengler. >>> up next, making your pantry your new cosmetic counter. dancing there? flying there? how about eating soup to get there? delicious campbell's soups fill you with good nutrition, energy, farm-grown ingredients, and can help you keep a healthy weight. helping you get to a happier place. have a nice trip. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. when allergies make them itch, don't wait for your pills to