Expect to see plenty of free shipping offers this holiday season, the most common shipping promotion will be free shipping with conditions, according to the 2007 eHoliday study conducted by BizRate Research for Shop.org and Shopzilla.

Have a seat; your hypocrisy detectors are about to blow. First the good news: The House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs passed the Global Online Freedom Act, which would penalize companies like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, and Cisco for aiding countries like China spy on political dissidents.

It’s hard to imagine a Web without onramps like search engines these days. They’ve become an essential part of the online experience. It may be equally as hard to imagine what the next phase of online advertising will be, as used to the sponsored links as we are.

Earlier this year, I asked whether manufacturers would post product reviews. Many retailers are doing it, of course, but too many manufacturers think allowing their customers to review their products is "risky"—there’s that word again. So, does the risk outweight the reward?

It has been an interesting week – a few blog posts out there attacking others, a nice article on online reputation that was syndicated from the Seattle Times, and a phone call via Facebook asking me about … defending your reputation because of blogs.

Despite the hubbub generated by a New York Times report, the world of book digitization doesn’t start and end with Google, or even the participation of Microsoft and Yahoo in the Open Content Alliance.

JupiterResearch predicts that US online retail during the holiday season will grow to over $39 billion this year. This represents an increase of 20% over last year. About 126 million users are expected to buy online, which is a 6% increase over last year.

Internet retailers plan to drive their holiday sales primarily through search marketing, even though they are noticing that costs are rising and ROI is dropping. They also plan to increase free shipping offers and promote percent-off discounts.

U.S. online holiday retail sales will reach $39 billion in 2007, an increase of 20 percent over last year’s holiday season according to a new report from JupiterResearch, "US Online Retail Holiday Forecast, 2007."

Video advertising online shares close ties with its more well-known sibling, the television ad, and that’s what will make it a success.

Consumer product reviews are becoming more trusted according to a Deloitte Consumer Product Group study. Deloitte revealed that 62 percent of Internet users read product reviews written by fellow consumers.

Blackboard Inc. and Project Tomorrow have released "Learning in the 21st Century: A National Report of Online Learning." The report examines the role online learning has on students and teachers.

The Internet has become a travel distribution channel with 70 percent of online leisure travelers booking some of their personal travel online and 52 percent purchasing all or most of their travel online according to a new report from JupiterResearch, "US Travel Consumer Survey 2007."

You may or may not know about The Generations Network, but one of its properties has been a huge help to amateur and professional genealogists everywhere.  And now Ancestry.com, along with the rest of The Generations Network’s properties, has a new owner: Spectrum Equity Investors.

About 16 percent of American households who use the Internet watch television broadcasts online according to The Conference Board and TNS. The number of people watching entire episodes has doubled from a year ago.

Job hunters are continuing to increase their use of the Internet as the main part of their job search according to a new report from the Conference Board.

Ron Paul fared a little too well in a post-Republican debate poll run by CNBC, prompting the news site’s managing editor to believe astroturfing had taken place, forcing them to take down the poll.

$10 million could buy a lot of stuff – cars, recliners, you name it.  Or it could – and apparently did – buy one celebrity gossip site.  The $10 million came from CBS, and went to Dotspotter.

I just finished reading a great article in Multichannel Merchant (October 2007 issue) titled, “E-conundrum” written by Ken Magill.

In the article, Shop.org’s State of Retailing Online 2007 report was referenced providing the average cost per order for varying online advertising channels. I wasn’t surprised by the results…

The study stated the following: