It’s officially over folks. We are going back to slide rules and abacuses. Throw away your computers because there is a report that in the first 23 days of November online sales overall is off – gulp- 4%. That’s right 4%.

Amazon.com has unveiled a "Holiday Customer Review Team" that consists of half a dozen of its most active reviewers.

Amazon says the goal of the review team is to "provide fellow Amazon customers with top gift picks for the season as well as helpful tips on cutting costs over the holidays."

The reviewers have been given access to some of Amazon’s most popular Black Friday deals so they can offer up their opinions on the items with other shoppers.

Amazon.com has announced it is now offering Black Friday deals beginning today that will run through Cyber Monday.

The online retailer is also offering customers a chance to win a $10,000 Amazon.com Shopping Spree in the Black Friday Sweepstakes. The Black Friday sweepstakes closes at 11:59 p.m. PST, November 30.

More than 8 out of 10 shoppers will be looking for discounts on Cyber Monday and 69 percent will be searching for free online shipping according to a survey by Shopzilla.

A 22 percent increase in sales from last year’s day after Thanksgiving put more money in the pockets of online retailers this year.

Below is a summary of key data points from Hitwise regarding Black Friday Traffic (week ending Nov 17th)

The droves of Black Friday shoppers are just warming up. Last week, traffic to websites specifically dedicated to America’s Other Holiday was up 145 percent, dominated by new visitors and young women.

Turkey queries and Black Friday deal searches rate among the places Ask believes its search engine can help the typical person around the holidays.

Online traffic to Black Friday advertising websites is rising earlier in 2007 compared to 2006, Hitwise reported today. Online traffic to a custom category of Black Friday advertising websites increased 52 percent for the week ending Nov. 10, 2007 compared to Nov. 11, 2006.

People who are planning to shop on the day after Thanksgiving or Black Friday are looking online at Black Friday Web sites that feature advanced copies of retailer’s discounts.

The early birds are rising earlier this year as searches for Black Friday-related websites spike a bit earlier than last year.

Wal-Mart is threatening legal action against some Web sites that may release its Black Friday ads in advance.

Shoppers rang in the traditional start of the holiday gift-buying season with unprecedented traffic on MSN Shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend.

I might have mentioned the advantage of spending Black Friday online (or waiting for Cyber Monday) to certain crack-of-dawn-rising family members if not for the tryptophan coma my mother caused, and for the fact that it was 3 a.m. This Internet shopping thing, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, is catching on, even if this rise-and-shop ritual is still strongly in play.

Although most people think of long lines of shoppers outside stores awaiting 5 a.m. openings and deeply discounted merchandise, the lines were just as impressive on the Internet.

AOL and Ask each have made an effort to draw attention to their search engines with very topical categories for this week: what to eat and where to shop.

Several websites have cropped up over time, featuring scans of advertisements big retailers like Wal-Mart and Target plan to put out for the day-after Thanksgiving. Those retailers, and one in particular, are not especially thrilled with this.