• ClickZ , Friday, December 1, 2006 10:45 AM

Online sales over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend were good--so good, in fact, that research organizations and marketers are arguing over which day, "Cyber Monday" or "Black Friday," is the bigger deal.

According to comScore Networks, Cyber Monday did $608 million in sales this year, a 26% hike from last year. But many e-tailers put out the sale signs on Black Friday, too, which resulted in $434 million in sales--a 42% hike on the day that is normally observed as a national mall holiday.

Many guess that eBay was the biggest beneficiary on Friday, as the online auctioneer recorded record-breaking traffic of 7.5 million.

Nielsen/NetRatings decried that Black Friday actually bested Cyber Monday in sales, since the Internet drives both online and offline conversions. In its analysis, Nielsen used traffic panel data, which showed that 19.2 million uniques were surfing retailing sites on Friday, versus 16.1 million uniques--who were mostly at work--on Cyber Monday.

Nevertheless, comScore predicts that Cyber Monday's record sales will easily be eclipsed during the week of Dec. 12. Overall, the research firm said online holiday sales will be $24 billion, nearly one-quarter more than last year.

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