Local Search

Mashable – Bari Abdul is Vice President of Check Point’s Consumer Business, ZoneAlarm, focused on innovating consumer security for the digital age. He has over 20 years of experience developing and executing go-to-market strategies that deliver record revenue and market share.
It seems that the holiday shopping season comes earlier and earlier each year. Luckily, in the digital age, you can ditch the long lines of Black Friday and join the Cyber Monday crew by doing all your shopping online. However, even though shopping online is quick and convenient, there are risks involved.

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Mashable – Black Friday is starting to look a bit more like Cyber Monday. According to IBM’s study of 500 retailers, online sales on Friday were up 24.3% over last year, suggesting that people stayed home to avoid the crowds and in-store havoc.
Mobile devices accounted for 14.3% of all online Black Friday traffic, up from 5.6% last year, and they were responsible for 9.8% of online sales. The iPad proved to be the king of post-Thanksgiving retail — its users were more likely to purchase than other mobile users, with conversion rates reaching 4.6%.

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Reuters – South Korea’s communications regulator said on Saturday that personal information of more than 13 million subscribers of a popular online game of Nexon Korea Corp, a leading game developer in the country, had been leaked in a hacking attack.

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Reuters – Asaf Moses is in the midst of displaying a new way to measure body dimensions.

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Mashable – Thanks to this week’s advertisers and partners for enabling us to bring you the latest social media news and resources. Mashable’s sponsors are as social media savvy as our readers!
Advertise with us and get noticed.
Mashable is seeking site sponsors for our large, diverse audience — social media users, venture capitalists, early adopters, developers, bloggers and many more.

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Reuters – One of the worst cash crunches in decades is hitting Chinese companies, but for Pan Zhengqiang, borrowing money recently has been as smooth as the well-oiled machines at his widget factory in the farmlands surrounding Suzhou.

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Reuters – Internet service providers cannot be forced to block their users from downloading songs illegally, as such an order would breach EU rules, Europe’s highest court said on Thursday in a ruling welcomed by a consumer group.

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Reuters – British telecoms regulator Ofcom said on Thursday broadband suppliers should be clearer about how they manage traffic on their networks and the speeds users can expect to achieve.

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AP – An EU court says Internet service providers cannot be required to install filters that would prevent the illegal downloading of files.

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Mashable – Happy Thanksgiving! We are celebrating the holiday here at Mashable with a look back at all the Thanksgiving-themed Google Doodles since the search giant launched.
With a penchant toward poultry-themed designs, every single year Google has presented a special Doodle to mark the occasion. Here you can see them all in one place.

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AP – It looks as if Microsoft wants a seat at the negotiating table if Yahoo decides to sell part or all of its business.

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AP – Groupon Inc.’s stock fell below its initial public offering price for the first time Wednesday as investors reassess the challenges facing the still-unprofitable online deals company in a shaky economy.

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Mashable – In what could be the first sign of a potential buyout, Microsoft has signed a confidentiality agreement with Yahoo to get access to the company’s financial information, Reuters reported Wednesday.
Citing a “source familiar with the matter,” the report says Microsoft is one of many companies now combing through Yahoo’s business. Private equity firms KKR, TPG Capital, and Silver Lake Partners are also said to be interested in buying minority stakes of up to 20 percent, with plans to eventually own controlling interest in the company.

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NewsFactor – Google is continuing its streamlining efforts, shuttering projects that haven’t panned out the way the search-engine giant hoped and folding others into other products as special features. Google’s goal is to drive a simpler user experience.

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AP – Like Santa Claus on that one foggy Christmas Eve, Microsoft has summoned Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to guide some precious cargo — a holiday marketing campaign for its Bing search engine.

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Reuters – Microsoft Corp has signed a confidentiality agreement with Yahoo Inc, allowing the software giant to take a closer look at Yahoo’s business, according to a source familiar with the matter.

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Reuters – British police will examine a batch of email exchanges between climate scientists which appeared on the Internet Tuesday as part of an inquiry into the hacking of the private documents, police said Wednesday.

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Reuters – Shares of Pandora Media fell more than 10 percent on Wednesday after the online streaming music service company gave a muted fourth-quarter outlook.

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AP – Singapore Press Holdings Ltd., which dominates the city-state’s print media, has sued Yahoo Inc. for copyright infringement for allegedly reproducing content from its newspapers without authorization.

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Reuters – U.S. online spending should increase 15 percent this holiday season, outpacing even last year’s torrid growth, as shoppers are enticed by more retailers offering free or low-cost shipping, analytics firm comScore said.

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Reuters – Google Inc has abandoned an ambitious project to make renewable energy cheaper than coal, the latest target of Chief Executive Larry Page’s moves to focus the Internet giant on fewer efforts.

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Mashable – It seems ereaders are going to be a hot holiday tech gift this year — the Tickle Me Elmo for grown-ups, if you will.
The space has certainly heated up of late. A market once dominated by the iPad and a few generations of Kindles is starting to rumble with the introduction of the Kindle Fire and the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet.

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Reuters – The Stop Online Piracy Act might be stopped before it ever gets online, as yet another influential voice has come out against it.

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Reuters – Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), which has a near monopoly of newspaper publishing in the city-state, said on Wednesday it filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Yahoo Inc, alleging the internet giant reproduced news from its newspapers without permission.

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Reuters – The online holiday shopping season got off to a solid start, according to data released on Tuesday by ComScore Inc.

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Reuters – Netflix Inc’s shares dropped as much as 7 percent on Tuesday after it warned of a loss for 2012, a move the prompted several Wall Street analysts to cut their price targets for the online video and DVD rental company.

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Reuters – Grammy-winning singer Rihanna may soon be headed to the top of the album charts after her latest record, “Talk That Talk” reached No. 1 on iTunes on Tuesday, one day after its release.

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Reuters – Online streaming music service Pandora Media Inc reported a rise in total revenue on strong advertising sales, beating expectations.

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Mashable – Duke Chung co-founded Parature in 2000, with a vision to provide superior customer support software accessible via the Internet. Today, Parature’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product suite supports millions of end users worldwide.
With the advent of social media channels, customer service has forever changed. Consumers are no longer willing to sit and listen to classical music on hold. In today’s age of hyper-responsiveness, customers expect instant responses from support reps on very public online platforms.

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Reuters – Netflix Inc’s shares dropped as much as 7 percent on Tuesday after it warned of a loss for 2012, a move the prompted several Wall Street analysts to cut their price targets for the online video and DVD rental company.

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Mashable – Bernard Moon is co-founder & CEO of Vidquik, a new web conferencing and sales solution platform, and blogs at Silicon Moon.
I met the Huang brothers, Charles and Kai, a few years ago through a mutual friend over BBQs and casual poker nights, and Kai is an occasional StarCraft partner if my twin girls fall asleep at a decent time.

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Citybizlist (press release)

Polls Open for 2011 Best of Citysearch Spa and Beauty Campaign in Atlanta – cbl Citybizlist (press release) ATLANTA — Polls have opened for the 2011 Best of Citysearch Spa and Beauty campaign in 10 top US markets including Atlanta. Users can cast their vote for the best spa and beauty treatments in the following categories: Day Spa, Gym, … and more »

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AP – iTunes’ Official Music Charts for the week ending Nov. 21, 2011:

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AP – In a story Nov. 21 about LivingSocial, The Associated Press misspelled a footwear company’s name. The correct spelling is Skechers USA Inc.

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Mashable – As retailers prepare for post-Thanksgiving holiday shopping, consumers increasingly turn online to search for the best deals. Last year, according to the National Retail Federation, 212 million individuals spent an estimated $45 billion total on Black Friday. This year, social media has played a big role in Black Friday marketing, and buzz about when and where consumers are shopping is stronger than ever.
Black Friday is already trending on Twitter, and it’s no surprise, especially since most companies are expanding sales from Thursday night all the way up to Cyber Monday.

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Appolicious – When Apple released the iPhone 4S in October, the device didn’t have much to set it apart from the iPhone 4 that Apple released a year before, except for one big feature: Siri.

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AP – A criminal investigation into mortgage swindlers has expanded beyond deceptive advertising on Google’s Internet search engine to root out con artists who were luring their victims on Bing and Yahoo, too.

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Reuters – Netflix Inc said late on Monday that it agreed to sell $200 million of convertible debt to long-time backer Technology Crossover Ventures as the struggling online video rental company tries to raise new capital.

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Mashable – Game publisher Square Enix announced on its blog today that it plans to release a version of the beloved role-playing game Chrono Trigger for the iPhone and iPod touch next month.
Originally released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo, Chrono Trigger is hailed by many as a landmark game for its unique story and mechanics. Players travel through time via mysterious portals, gathering a party of memorable characters across different epochs and learning of their mysterious interconnections — all in a bid to save the world from a future of destruction.

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Reuters – EBay said it acquired the data analysis firm Hunch to help it develop more recommendation technology for its online marketplace.

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Houston European Wax Center Nominated for Best Hair Removal in Houston San Francisco Chronicle (press release) European Wax Center Houston-West University was recently received the nomination for "Best Hair Removal" by Citysearch. Voting is taking place online at citysearch.com, where local residents can vote for their favorite places to go for waxing in … and more »

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Mashable – Google unveiled the latest version of its free Search app for the iPad on Monday, making searching on the Apple device faster and more intuitive — and, ironically, giving Android tablet users another reason to switch.
Google’s YouTube video on the app, above, highlights some of the key new features of the free app — including an easy way to recommend and share content with others on Google+, Siri-like voice search, and Google Instant — that is, seeing display results as soon as you begin to type, without the need of pressing the search button.

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Voting Opens for Best of Citysearch, Spa and Beauty PR Newswire (press release) 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Citysearch, a CityGrid Media property and operating business of IAC (Nasdaq: IACI), today opened its polls for its 2011 Best of Citysearch Spa and Beauty campaign. Best of Citysearch has remained the go-to source for the best … and more »

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Appolicious – Back when Apple first rolled out its subscription setup for publications in the iTunes App Store, there was quite a bit of initial enthusiasm. Despite some issues with the policy at first, it seemed like most publishers were seeing the iPad (and other tablets like it) as a big new revenue stream for an industry that had been struggling for years producing primarily in print and on the web.

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Reuters – A growing number of U.S. kids say they have been picked on via text messaging, while there has been little change in online harassment, researchers reported Monday.

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Reuters – China has more than 300 million registered microbloggers, state media said Monday, one of its fastest growing groups of internet users that the government has vowed to control.

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Mashable – Why can’t newspapers seem to make any money online?
That’s the question I asked myself the other day as I ran smack up against The Baltimore Sun’s paywall after having reached my 15 page per month (free) limit. I’m not a big reader of the Sun, but I was curious about what people were saying about Gordon Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares” visit to one of our local eateries. I clicked a link on Facebook that was supposed to lead me to a post on the Sun’s food blog when I smacked right into the wall.

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Mashable – Ron Johnson, the executive who helped create Apple Stores with Steve Jobs, says that the company’s Genius Bars were not a success initially and the company even used free bottles of Evian to get customers to visit.
“No one came to the Genius Bar during the first years,” Johnson, now the CEO of J.C. Penney, wrote in a Harvard Business Review blog post on Monday. “We even had Evian water in refrigerators for customers to try to get them to sit down and spend time at the bar.” Johnson goes on to say that Apple stuck with the Genius Bars anyway because “we knew that face-to-face support was the very best way to help customers.” Within three years, Genius Bars were so popular that Apple had to set up a reservation system.

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Mashable – eBay on Monday announced it was buying Hunch, a technology platform that makes recommendations to users based on their expressed affinities.
The purchase aims to “improve the shopping and selling experience for eBay customers” by using Hunch’s “taste graph” prediction technology to make recommendations, according to a press release from eBay. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Unchrunched pegged the value at “around $80 million.”

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AP – Here’s one way to avoid getting trampled by bargain-hunting hordes knocking down store doors on Black Friday: Online deals service LivingSocial is unveiling a slew of bargains for the holidays that are just a couple of mouse clicks away.

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