In his Off The Grid column, Michael Wolff takes a look at all the ways in which Google is presently being "attacked" by mainstream media, and what it means for the search giant. From Rupert Murdoch's promise to "de-index" News Corp. content from Google to David Carr's and Ken Auletta's critical takes on the company, Wolff asks: "Does it matter to Google -- nearly as invulnerable, on the basis of its market share, as a company can get -- this sour grapes and calumny on the part of its competitors?" The answer: "It might" - or at least …

Regarding David Carr's post, "The Fall and Rise Of Media," Fred Wilson, pointing out that it was he who gave Carr his start in New York media, says he believes the move from a "velvet rope model" to a meritocracy is a good thing, and that the new media business we are building in the wake of the old one will be a better media business; "leaner, faster, and controlled more by users than media moguls." Yet, along with the "gut wrenching" and "upsetting" impact the industry's transformation is having on career journalists, Wilson says he has …

Gawker Media says that its widespread use of full-time yet non-employee contractors is finally being ended. Workers at the company's various blogs will have the choice between going full-time, as "actual employees," or staying as contract workers, but only working four days a week. "This is awesome news for those among us who were afraid that in the hideous future, no one would ever find employee status anywhere again," writes longtime on-again-off-again Gawker editor Choire Sicha. "On a day-to-day level, this is less awesome for Gawker Media employees, who have to choose between being squeezed into the office …

Analysts are predicting that a strong start for Web retailers should continue into what is otherwise expected to be a lackluster holiday season. Companies with the most to gain from said trend include Amazon.com, Wal-Mart's online unit and Google, analysts said. comScore said Sunday that U.S. online spending on Black Friday was the strongest it has ever been, up 11% over the prior year, with $595 million spent online. Sales at retail stores rose 0.5% to $10.66 billion on that day, the official kick-off to holiday shopping, according to ShopperTrak. "That's pretty significant in a recessionary environment -- to get …

With economic markets on the mend, Mashable asks whether consumers shopping again. The answer? Data just released by marketing optimization firm Coremetrics reveals that Black Friday, the traditional start to the holiday shopping season, turned out to be a good day -- and a welcome relief -- for online retailers. Consumers spent more, ordered more, and did it all more efficiently than compared to Black Friday last year. According to the Coremetrics data, the average online order on Black Friday jumped to $170.19, an increase of 35%. Last year, consumers only spent $126.04 per order on the websites …

AOL head Tim Armstrong raised serious questions earlier this month when he announced imminent plans to ax about 2,500 employees. How could the company continue operate sans a third of its existing workforce? What would such a company even look like? Now, partly addressing both issues with yet another bombshell announcement, Armstrong says the company will begin partly automating its online news reporting process. "Instead of relying on AOL's experienced staff of editors and writers to put together the written content for AOL's news Web sites, the company will be employing an algorithmic system …

Once upon a time, the Monday following Thanksgiving weekend spelled big business for online retailers, as consumers hopped en mass onto their employers' fast Web connections to do some serious holiday shopping. Today, however, with more than 60% of U.S. homes now sporting high-speed Internet access, more people are flipping through those online catalogs at home, according to Ken Cassar, vice president of Nielsen's online research division. As a result, more online stores aren't waiting until Monday to get the proverbial party going. They're throwing their own Black Friday events. Amazon.com, for one, is doing deals every day this week. …

Cognitive Daily asks whether a person's online persona matches up to their real-world personality? No doubt, for marketers and everyone else, it's increasingly important to know how well the digital world represents the real world. In writer David Munger's own experience, "People I meet online are generally quite recognizable when I finally get together with them at a conference or physical meeting." Supporting his hunch, new research does find significant correlations between the behavior of volunteers in person and online. "Liking" in person and online were moderately correlated, as were verbal disclosure and online disclosure. Non-verbal expressivity was …

Perhaps telegraphing a similar move stateside, Twitter Japan has introduced a tiered payment model that will charge audiences to view tweets from premium Twitter accounts. Twitter Japan will introduce the paid subscription options starting in January, which will allow account holders to charge audiences who want to look at their tweets and access links to their external Web sites, Kenichi Sugi, COO of DG Mobile -- a subsidiary of Japanese Twitter partner Digital Garage -- said at a conference earlier this week. According to local reports, the plan will allow audiences to view some text on all tweets …

Google has streamlined its movie search function on users' iPhone, Palm WebOS, or Android-powered devices to make on-the-fly searching for movies easier. When users search for "movies" on their mobile browser, they can click on "more movies" and an updated interface appears, lending them a film's synopsis, trailer, and local venues to check it out. They can also review ratings, list films by category, and view movie posters. Searching by theater gives users the option of asking Google to find a movie nearest them, or reviewing a theater's listings to see what works with their schedule. Since the …