An analyst with Experian Hitwise predicts that December 23rd will be the biggest day of December for retailers receiving online traffic from email campaigns. Driving the traffic will be multichannel retailers preparing their customers for the post-Christmas sales rush. However, November is still expected to generate 70% more retail revenue than December, with many customers largely completing their holiday shopping by December 4th.

After New Jersey officials declared earlier this week that residents displaced by hurricane Sandy would be eligible to vote by email or fax, the volume of requests and ballots has been overwhelming, paralyizing the system and engendering confusion and frustration in voters. Some officials are calling the situation a "catastrophe," with emails bouncing from filled inboxes and one county clerk even resorting to publishing his personal Hotmail address just so requests and completed ballots could arrive. As a result, the state has extended the submission date for completed ballots to Friday at 8pm, though ballot requests must still be made …

A ComScore report emerged last week indicating that for the first time, Google had overtaken Hotmail in total worldwide users. More detail from the ComScore data is now available, showing that despite the most users worldwide, Gmail is not the leader in any of the major regional designations. Hotmail is still dominant in the Latin American and European markets, while Yahoo! leads in North America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East / Africa. 

A survey of over 1,000 US adults by Blue Kangaroo found that 43% report that at least half of the new email in their inboxes are from marketers, including daily deals, retail newsletters and sales alerts. Only one in four report that they are frustrated by the volume of commercial email. 

The weekly digest email Twitter introduced in May - containing popular tweets by followed accounts and other items of interest - is now available as a daily option. Given the short half-life of tweets, moving to a daily newsletter aligned with the site's content. The emails are made possible through Twitter's acquisitons of Summify and RestEngine. Twitter signed up all users automatically for the weekly digests beginning in May, but users must change to the daily digest by modifying their account preferences themselves.

The latest ComScore Mobilens data reveals that for the first time, over half of the US mobile users 13 and older are using a smartphone. 51% of the 234 million mobile users use smartphones, up from 38.5% one year ago. 

New Jersey authorities have declared that any state resident displaced by hurricane Sandy would be designated an overseas voter, and allowed to vote by either email or fax. The system is identical to mailing in an absentee ballot, with the difference being that the ballot is downloaded and then returned via email or fax instead of mail. "We’ve been doing this since 2008, it’s just that in this emergency and the aftermath of the devastation of this hurricane, we’re trying to make voting as accessible as possible for people who can’t get to the polls," said a spokesman for the …

Cloud-based email services company Intermedia is offering businesses whose communications infrastructure has been compromised by hurricane Sandy a month of free email services while they work to restore their existing communications. Hardware distributor Ingram Micro is also offering free access to hosted servers for businesses that need to restore applications. 

A new report from Econsultancy and RedEye indicates that while most organizations are engaged in conversion rate optimization best practices, they are two to four times as likely to admit needing to improve than they are satisfied with their performance. The study tracks responses from 900 companies and charts their responses against ten separate conversion rate tactics, including testing the effectiveness of calls to action, and aligning email and analytics. 

Anecdotes and legal action regarding inappropriate and prohibited internal electronic communications appear to be on the rise. A study from Messaging News reveals that while 99% of mid-sized and large organizations have an internal email policy, only 38% report that it is a detailed and thorough policy – 61% report that their email policy is basic and covers only general use of email. Only one-third have policies in place covering smartphones and the web, and one in five have policies for social media.