Alright, my first prediction for 2009: Yahoo gets carved up like a Christmas goose. No more corporate pussyfooting, no more billionaire shouting matches, just the stealthy, calculated approach toward the crippled wheezing of the would-be carrion. Soon it will all be over in a rush of feathers and blood. read more

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You may have heard that China's number one search engine Baidu has been the subject of some scandalous accusations lately. As a result, stock has plummeted, and so have advertising revenues for the company. A Little Backgroundread more

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Online advertising growth is set to slow into single digits for the first time in 2009 according to eMarketer's revised projections.eMarketer is basing its projections on the latest Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) data. It says online ad spending will reach 25.7 billion in 2009, which is 8.9 percent over the $23.6 billion that will be spent in 2008.Previously eMarketer predicted in August that online ad spending would grow 14.5 percent in 2009.read more

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Deals involving Google and Microsoft may get the government feeling nervous, but so far, Facebook's growth isn't causing much anxiety.  The SEC has given the social networking company special permission to keep hiring and handing employees equity without publicly sharing its financial data.read more

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Goodmail is a company that offers a service called CertifiedEmail whose goal is to eliminate security risks in email, and it is one that many organizations turn to when they have important emails to send. Goodmail's customers include a number of big name retailers from Walmart to Old Navy, not to mention ISPs like AOL, AT&T and Comcast, and government agencies like the FBI and the FDA.read more

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Even the harshest critics of Steve Ballmer will have to admit one thing: in regards to not buying Yahoo, he's been consistent for a long time now.  At a shareholder meeting today, Ballmer said that he still has no interest in a total acquisition, and Yahoo's stock has taken a nosedive of around 20.9 percent as a result.read more

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We all know that Yahoo's looking to cut costs.  Now, according to a new lawsuit filed by DivX, the search company went a little too far and backed out of two-year advertising services agreement.  DivX would stop receiving payments as a result.read more

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Online retail spending in October grew by only 1 percent compared to October 2007, representing the lowest monthly growth rate since 2001, according to a report from comScore who began tracking ecommerce seven years ago.The report said that the softness in online retail spending was due in part by negative spending growth in households earning less than $50,000 a year.read more

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After being accused of insider trading by the SEC, Mark Cuban's done the smart thing and stayed fairly quiet so far.  Just the same, one short announcement has given a few clues as to what's going on in relation to the Mamma.com charges.read more

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As you're probably aware by now, Google released its financial results for the fourth quarter yesterday, and although they managed to beat the analysts' expectations, they also had a drop in profit. read more

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Google was one of few successful companies on the stock market today; it provided a little bit of green within big lists of numbers that were otherwise mostly red.  This trend continued as the search giant released its fourth quarter financial results. read more

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Wealthier households are visiting lottery websites with more frequency than their lower income counterparts, Hitwise reports. Heather Hopkins’ investigation was prompted by AP report about rising sales of state scratch-off lottery tickets. read more

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There’s probably more than one way to interpret Bill Tancer’s chart comparing visits to the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) website and visits to charitable sites. At first glance, if you’re an optimist, it’s a shred of evidence to support faith in our better natures. read more

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If it seems like some companies are trimming fat just in anticipation of hard times, you may be right. In fact, that seems like the conventional wisdom. Among the most tightened budgets is marketing, but when consumer dollars are fewer and farther between, it’s probably not a good idea to let them forget about you altogether. read more

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Fair warning: this is an unsubstantiated, nonspecific, and not entirely easy to swallow rumor.  Today isn't April 1st, however, and the rumor seems to have gotten the attention of a leading tech reporter and at least a few stock traders.  So (for the umpteenth time) consider the possibility that Yahoo is on the path to getting acquired.read more

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With the inauguration of President-Elect Obama just days away, small business owners affected by recession see restoration of the country’s economy as his top priority, but many lack faith in him to improve matters, according to a poll of 50,000 small business clients by email and direct mail marketing company VerticalResponse.read more

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Liberty Media - and/or its chairman, John Malone - may not have a lot of faith left in Ask.com and other IAC properties.  It seems that Liberty Media has selling the company's stock left and right, unloading 193,100 shares in the last week alone.read more

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Yahoo Finance has launched a new Currencies Center focused on providing traders with a robust free investing resource.Yahoo says the launch is in response to a growing demand for a popular topic on Yahoo Finance, as traffic to the site's currency resources has doubled over the past year."Our increasingly globalized economy has led to an internationally-minded audience with more sophisticated investment needs," said Mark Interrante, general manager and vice president of Yahoo! Finance.read more

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Online holiday spending has now reached the same levels as last year thanks to Cyber Monday and the corresponding Tuesday, according to comScore.For the holiday season through December 5, $14.92 billion has been spent online, about the same amount compared to the same period last year.read more

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If you're friends with any Facebook employees, don't be surprised if your holiday gifts from them wind up being homemade ashtrays instead of multiple DVD sets.  The sale of shares that would have allowed some employees to make $900,000 has been postponed.read more

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One of the most interesting Internet phenomenons of late is Twitter. It has become a mainstream brand with Internet junkies, especially marketers and web entrepreneurs. Yet, in kind of a throw-back to old school Internet thought, Twitter has zero ads. read more

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Former controversial New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, who was forced to resign amid a call girl scandal, will now have a new job writing a column for Slate.com about finances and the economy.The column is called "The Best Policy," and will run every other week. In his debut column for Slate titled "Too Big Not To Fail" Spitzer takes the U.S. government to task for trying to bailout financial institutions.read more

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The rule of thumb is correlation does not equal causation. If ice cream sales increase simultaneously with the crime rate, obviously one is not causing the other. As the newly admitted recession continues, fingers are wagging toward one cause or another, democrats blaming republicans and vice versa. read more

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With the economy in an official recession and the continuing talk of doom and gloom, comScore has released some positive numbers about online holiday spending so far this year.read more

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People often ask themselves how much money they'd require in order to perform an unpleasant task.  Think about an actor considering a really stupid role, for example, or that entire show "Fear Factor."  And, well, it seems that $19 million was enough to get Carol Bartz to take charge of Yahoo.read more

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Let's acknowledge right now that there is a certain chestnut concerning hindsight and 20/20 vision.  That said, an analysis of traffic data is starting to make it look like Circuit City's bankruptcy was, if not inevitable, at least not a completely random event.read more

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This morning at Microsoft, it seems that someone sighed, "Let's get it over with."  The company has released a fourth quarter financial report that wasn't supposed to turn up until after trading hours, and the numbers in it aren't pretty.read more

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People have, at least to some degree, become accustomed to the recession.  Yesterday's 330-point drop in the Dow didn't seem so bad, for example, following the recent string of 500-point losses.  And yet, even under conditions such as these, eBay's fourth quarter financial report didn't look too good. read more

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Google is set to release its Q4 2008 earnings report tomorrow, and the company will likely set the tone for the entire search marketing industry and the online economy going into 2009. According to a recent market report, Google’s got a tough sell on Thursday. read more

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