WebProNews

Google Puts Black Friday Searches Up 20 Percent

People may or may not have mobbed stores this Black Friday - your humble author hid inside and didn't watch any live TV - but they definitely spent some time at their keyboards.  Google has stated that searches for "Black Friday" increased by more than 20 percent on a year-over-year basis. That's actually a sort of low number, too, at least among the group of them that Google tossed out.

Number of New Twitterers Declines

We've been looking at Twitter's growth on a monthly basis, in terms of new user registrations and number of tweets. In October, new Twitterers were down, but tweets were up. November's numbers paint a similar picture. Matthew Daines, the lead developer of Twellow, has shared a couple of new graphs for last month.

Google Launches AdSense Product Ideas Page

AdSense is an important fixture in a lot of people's lives; it can represent anything from spending money (hey, little splurges do the heart good) to what pays the mortgage.  And now, individuals have a chance to shape it more to their liking, as a new Product Ideas for AdSense page has launched. Try not to get your hopes up; as word spreads and more people contribute ideas, the odds of any one suggestion making it in front of an important Googler will decrease.  Also, there's no guarantee that any of the recommendations will be implemented.

Yahoo To Discontinue Direct Media Exchange Platform

Yahoo completed its acquisition of Right Media - which cost it about $650 million - two and a half years ago.  Now, it seems that the arrangement's been revisited, as Yahoo's announced that it will discontinue the Direct Media Exchange (DMX) platform. Under Carol Bartz's leadership, Yahoo's cut a lot of products and services in recent months so that it could better focus on more important stuff.  Briefcase, Farechase, GeoCities, and Go are some of the fallen that quickly come to mind.

Italian Prosecutors Request Jail Time For Google Execs

Italian prosecutors have - sort of - tried to put several Google executives (and the company's former CFO) in jail.  The prosecutors requested sentences ranging from six months to one year in connection with a case that involved a YouTube video and a disabled boy.

Link Building for Bing Rankings: Dos and Don'ts

It's easy for businesses to get caught up in Google's expectations for their sites, when trying to market through search. That's certainly a wise thing to do, considering Google dominates the search market by a huge margin. Still, there are other search engines that people are using, and it is also wise to make sure your site is performing to the best of its ability in those too.

Online Retailers See Strong Cyber Monday Sales

U.S. online retailers reported strong holiday sales results on Cyber Monday (Nov.30) 2009 compared to the same period last year, according to a new report from Coremetrics. Cyber Monday sales were up 24.1 percent compared to Black Friday 2009.  Consumers spent more per online order ($180.03 versus $170.19 for an increase of 5.8 %) compared to Black Friday.

YouTube May Expand Into TV Show Biz

It's no secret that YouTube's trying to catch up to Hulu in terms of offering premium content; the site's administrators often make a big deal out of movie and TV show additions.  What is under wraps - or at least hasn't been publicized in press releases and blog posts - is that YouTube might also be interested in charging for access.

Google Changes How it Handles Paid Content

Google has made a change to the way it treats its "first click free" option for publishers. The option was designed for legitimate publishers to get around Google's cloaking policies, which discourage the showing of one web page to a crawler while the user sees something different.

Google Begins "Next Chapter" in Search Advertising

Update: Google says its new ad formats are "the next chapter in search advertising", and its "AdWords New Ad Formats Initiative" will focus on two themes: