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.