drives

The rising speculation among the technorati out there is that Twitter is the next big acquisition. There have already been offers made and turned down, but one expert thinks the buyer will be Google or Yahoo because search can’t afford to miss out on Twitter’s potential as a disruptive force—the word “killer” once again deployed in hyperbolic force.

It’s either a brilliant publicity stunt or one of the gutsiest t-shirt sellers on the Web really lost his nerve. The proprietor (undertaker?) of TshirtHell.com is closing up shop because he’s tired of dealing with hate mail. As a Web writer whose been on the receiving end of more than a few nasty comments, I can say, if you give in to hate mail the terrorists win. Regardless, “Sunshine Megatron” is just tired of it all.

Psychology researchers have suggested fear of losing drives up auction prices, not more “rational” economic principles. So the next time you sense you’re overbidding on eBay, you probably are, not due to any theoretical “price the market will bear,” but instead due to some competitive wiring in your brain that says win at all costs.

Last . fm said today that its free-on- demand music service, launched in January, has increased CD and download sales 119 percent through its partnership with Amazon.com.The CBS owned site said that its users have purchased 66 percent more albums and singles they did before the launch of its free-on-demand service.

Price and free shipping are on the minds of online holiday shoppers this season. Forty-three percent said price was the most important factor and 18 percent cited free shipping, according to a recent survey by Synovate of Chicago for Guidance.

Websites in the health & medical and the travel categories received substantial traffic driven to them from search engines in November 2007.

A new report form Nielsen Online examines the reasons shoppers turn to the Internet during the holiday season.

Google Maps is forcing the U.S. Navy to change the design of one of its buildings in San Diego called "The Seals Lair" which from an aerial photograph appears to be in the shape of a swastika.