The Weather Channel just announced it is preempting its regular programming and advertising today and turning it over to ongoing coverage of the Pacific earthquake and tsunami affecting Japan, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast. With no long-form programming, "DayPlanner" will run from 11a-7p and "Weather Center" from 7p-2a. In addition, no sponsorships are running until the threat moves beyond the West Coast. "Coverage could force additional changes for Saturday/Sunday," TWC said in a statement.

Interpublic's Universal McCann has taped Gregg Colvin as senior vice president-digital director of communications, and effectively, the digital lead for the media shop's Los Angeles office. Colvin, who joined UM from Fox Digital Media, where he was head of business operations and development for various initiatives, will work heavily with UM's Sony team, including Karen Hunt and Elyse Hoelzer, which handles every Sony division (Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Television, Sony Electronics, Sony Corporate of America, Sony Music).

Nissan says in spite of tsunami warnings for the west coast of the U.S. the automaker does not anticipate any immediate affect from the earthquake or tsunami on its "Americas operations, facilities, dealers or customers." The company, one of Japans largest three automakers has suspended operations at its Japan plants through Sunday, per a company statement. Nissan says its global headquarters building in Yokohama is was not significantly affected. "So far, there are no reports of employee casualties and employee safety precautions are underway at all locations," said a company statement.

Nissan, Honda, and Toyota's Japan operations are in force majeur because of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast there. Toyota closed three factories, Honda Motor Co. has also suspended production, which could affect exports of Toyota's Yaris sedan, Scion cars and Honda's Fit small car. Toyota said it evacuated workers from several factories in the quake zone. The Yaris is made at Toyota's Miyagi Prefecture plant, which has capacity of 120,000 units per year. Honda reportedly lost two employees at its Tochigi factory, Kanto region, near Utsunomiya. Nissan Motor Company is still collecting the damage data.

Google is used to helping people surf the Web, but this morning the search giant turned a portion of its home page over to warn people in the Pacific Rim of some life-threatening surf. Shortly after the devastating earthquake struck Japan, Google posted the following warning below its popular search bar on its home page: "Tsunami Alert for New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, and others. Waves expected over the next few hours, caused by 8.9 earthquake in Japan."

The Senate Antitrust Committee for the 112th Congress singled out Google's growing dominance online and said the committee will examine allegations raised by e-commerce Web sites competing with Google. The allegation state these companies are being treated unfairly in search ranking, and in their ability to purchase search advertising. U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, set the agenda for the new session of Congress. One point includes: Competition in Online Markets/Internet Search Issues. The agenda states "Access to the wealth of information and e-commerce on the Internet …

Facebook has now rolled out  one of the main changes to brand pages it announced last month, shifting subject tabs from the tops of pages to the left. Can you handle it? If the redesign has you rattled, social media marketing firm Vitrue has put together a few tips for page administrators dealing with the overhaul. You can see them here.

Meebo, which lets people manage IM and social networking accounts through a single interface, has added check-ins in the updated version of its iPhone app. The new app lets people check in to Web sites from their mobile phone by clicking any link in the app or scanning QR codes. The company previously introduced check-ins to for Web through its launch of itsMiniBar browser extension of its Meebo Bar in November. Next month, Meebo will roll out its Web check-in feature through embedded  buttons featured on partner sites like Macys.com as well as the more than 8,000 partner sites in …

U.S. TV viewers are dramatically increasing the amount of television time they view on a time-shifted basis, according to a new report just released by Nielsen Co. The report finds that the average American now watches nearly 10.5 hours of time-shifted TV programming per month, a jump of nearly 18% over the corresponding period a year earlier. The report, "State of Media," said the surge is not being driven by more time-shifted viewing via digital video recorders per household, but by more households using digital video recorders, which affected the national TV viewing averages. "The average person in …

Walmart, in an effort to recapture lost sales, says it will launch a new ad campaign next month, reclaiming its role as the store with the lowest prices and broadest assortment. The move comes an advertising slowdown of some months, Bill Simon, president/CEO, Walmart U.S., told investors at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Consumer Conference, which was also webcast. "We wanted to deliver on our 'Everyday Low Prices' and assortment promise, with an ad match guarantee." And it has stepped up its small-store format rollout, testing three different formats, which he says "will be ready to roll out …