When it comes to online growth, there's nothing like a Friendster. A Nielsen//NetRatings analysis released today finds that Friendster has grown unique audiences by 74 percent since the NetRatings began tracking it in June.

Retail sites are starting to pop in the last month and a half of the year. According to a study by Hitwise, traffic to retail Web sites rose 3.4 percent in the week ended Nov. 22.

LookSmart has thrown its hat into the field of full-text article searching. The San Francisco-based company launched today a service that allows Internet users to search more than 700 publications to find 3.5 million articles. It replaces LookSmart's former FindArticles publication database.

Update on the possible extension of the ban on Internet access taxes: It hasn't happened yet.

A federal investigation of online fraud has netted more than 125 arrests or convictions since it started last month, authorities said today.

I promised myself I wasn't going to do another online holiday shopping story anytime soon.

I never open an e-mail I don't trust, and I trust few. I have a subconscious limit to the amount of pop-ups I can handle without annoying me, and I choose my Web sites wisely. I'll let a few rich-media applications take over my screen, for variety and trying to do my bit for online advertising. But I'm careful with just about everything I do online, even using two personal e-mail accounts.

Three years after the PC industry began showing signs of weakness, there are indications that it's coming back. Retail sales of computer products increased 8 percent to $21.7 billion in the first nine months of 2003, according to a study released this morning by The NPD Group. That compares to growth of 2.8 percent for the same period in 2002.

There's a lot of smart marketing going on in the efforts to can spam. Yesterday, some of the nation's largest trade groups bought space in the Roll Call, a newspaper read by lawmakers, urging them to pass an anti-spam bill right away.

Move over iTunes. Take a nap Napster. Wal-Mart's coming to town. Those four words have struck fear in the heart of many a retailer over the past two decades and now it's poised to strike some e-tailers. It's a familiar scene. Wal-Mart arrives. Smaller stores lose customers, lose market share - sooner or later, lose business.