• Clothing Haul Videos Hit YouTube, Lead To Rising Retail Sales by Laurie Sullivan

    A series of "haul" videos continue to emerge on YouTube highlighting prices and products at a variety of stores, just in time for back-to-school sales. These clips -- which show girls sharing and describing recent product buys, along with ads and other content -- will influence 57% of apparel purchases this year, according to a recent study. ...Read the whole story

  • ReachLocal Gives SMBs Local Targeting by Laurie Sullivan

    ReachLocal has combined its search and site retargeting platform to give small and medium-sized (SMBs) businesses the opportunity to reach local consumers online with targeting tools similar to those used by Fortune 500 companies. A handful of companies have been testing the tool -- Reach Retargeting -- for a few weeks, but the company plans to open it up to others on Monday. ...Read the whole story

  • FTC Signs Off On Facebook Privacy Settlement by Wendy Davis

    Facebook has settled charges that it deceived users by breaking its promises to keep their data private, the Federal Trade Commission announced on Friday. The settlement, proposed in November, requires Facebook to obtain users' express consent before sharing their information more broadly than its privacy policy allowed when users uploaded the data. ...Read the whole story

  • Travel Research Trumps Bookings On Smartphones by Mark Walsh

    The natural affinity between travel and mobile technology has long meant big expectations for the sector's expansion to mobile platforms. The surge in smartphone ownership in the last two years -- nearly half of U.S. mobile users are now estimated to have smartphones -- would seem to provide the launchpad for that growth. ...Read the whole story

  • Ecommerce Still Strong, But Future Less Certain by Gavin O'Malley

    Domestically, online retail spending reached $43.2 billion in the second quarter of the year -- up 15% year-over-year, comScore reports. This represents the eleventh consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and the seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni noted Friday. ...Read the whole story

  • DIY Builds Sponsorships For 'Blog Cabin' by David Goetzl

    Susan Leigh, the ad sales head at the DIY Network, would love to bring a state-of-the-art entertainment room to one of the houses refurbished in the network's "Blog Cabin" series. She'd like to sign sponsors such as Sony or Nintendo to show off their cutting-edge technologies. ...Read the whole story

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