New search system could take eBay searchers away from accessory sellers.

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As small businesses really start spending for local online ads over the next few years, they should push revenue for local ads alone to what the total market is today for all online advertising.

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EA will open its cartoony shooter Battlefield Heroes in a few months as a free to play game, with some monetization options tossed into the mix.

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Marketers aren’t exactly sure what they are meant to do with interactive marketing, but they do plan to spend money on it.

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A record spend of nearly $5.1 billion flowed to the coffers of online advertising firms in the second quarter of 2007.

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Sit down… this may come as a shock to you.

A new study from AT&T says that setting up the Internet on a tiered level would offer “significantly more” capacity than the system that’s being used now.

Coincidentally, it will offer “significantly more” capacity for AT&T to make more money. They didn’t say that in the study exactly - that’s my interpretation.

read more | digg story

What do you get for the relative that has everything? How about an all-expenses paid, no strings attached, custom rape fantasy, courtesy of Second Life.

That’s right! You too can be manhandled (or womanhandled, if that floats your boat), beaten, bloodied, violated, humiliated, sexually assaulted in ways I’m sure that haven’t been invented yet for the bargain basement price of $220 Linden dollars.

It’s a small price to pay for such a heartwarming gift that truly captures the spirit of the yuletide season for that special someone.

When you think about it, nothing says “Merry Christmas” like a personalized sexual encounter that’s forced upon you against your will.

What will those crazy geniuses at Linden Labs think of next?!

Hopefully they’ll manufacture some virtual decency for themselves.

Joe Lewis
Staff Writer | WebProNews

Everybody’s got their fetish*, and having one for shoes seems popular. But combine that soul’s penchant for flashy footwear with PlayStation, Nike Air, affluence, auctions and charitable causes, and you have a real rubber meets the road situation.

Okay, that was a little melodramatic…wanted to get in as many puns, alliterations, and phrase-turns as possible.

Over at BlueSoul.com BlueSole.com, a shoe auction site (thank you for joining us in surprise), a rare pair of Nike Air sneakers, PS3 edition moon units (sorry Frank) with the console launch date on the back and a special hologram swoosh have a current bid of over $5000.

That’s five grand for shiny PS3 Nikes. And as JoyStiq points out, it ain’t like they actually work as a portable PS3.

But if you think these are some opulent bidders who’d rather be the only one they know with 21st Century geniusly marketed space-gaming shoes than buy the poor kid down the street a T-bone or two, then think again. This auction’s for charity, baby.

*I dislike the word “fetish” now. It has two very different definitions, one gross and one very cool. The pervs ruined it. But in this sense, the magical definition may be more appropriate – we all remember Spike Lee and his Nike tagline, “It’s gotta be the shoes.”

Two things seem apparent: the general public has embraced the myth of Cyber Monday; the operators of CyberMonday.com were not fully prepared for this.

Several times this morning, I have tried to bring up the site, only to be timed out every time. Could it be so busy today with online deal seekers that the serves melted?

I’m looking into it.

What I find interesting for right now is, cybermonday.com was registered October 28, 2005, just a few weeks before a press release officially created it. The pain of being duped has subsided by now, thankfully.

In an effort to increase exposure to their fledgling merchant service, Google Checkout, the search giant has announced that starting today (known as Cyber Monday), shoppers using their merchant service will be privy to special discounts based on the amount of money they spend.

These discounts are being offered by participating vendors, which are identified by the following Google Checkout logo:

To commemorate the Cyber Monday festivities, Google also launched a Google Checkout Holiday Promotion site that has a Froogle look and feel to it. Interested users can use this site in order to find gift ideas as well as a list of merchants taking part in Google’s discount bonanza. Another feature of Google’s holiday special is these discounts are available until December 26 of this year.

Google is also pushing the timesaving element of their merchant service. Google Checkout members do not have to enter personal information. Much like a web form auto-fill function, Google Checkout stores the necessary online transaction information so users don’t have to constantly fill out billing and shipping forms associated with online shopping.

Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews Blog