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Last month Best Buy announced a new social and API-driven initiative to give its web business a boost. The Best Buy Remix Developer Network comes with an affiliate plan that lets developers earn commissions if the traffic they send to BestBuy.com results in a sale.

When someone searches for the term "dog," they're very likely interested in our furry friends.  But a few folks might be curious about digital on-screen graphics, and won't want to dig through stuff about rottweilers and retrievers.  So personalized search remains as important as ever.

I am going to go on record offering you this powerful life-changing advice that will be the most valuable information you ever consumed. Sound familiar? If you pay attention to spam you can view the trends and see where it is going before it even goes there. One of the big trends that is rarely talked about is how hard spammers hunt hard to find credible sounding words. In spite of being on the do not call list, every day I get a call from the message center, the card center, the consumer center, or the national consumer protection foundation, etc.

Online retailer Amazon.com will pay 1,000 euros ($1,500) a day in fines in order to offer free shipping in France while it appeals a December court ruling that made the practice illegal. Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer of Amazon, sent an email to customers of its French Web site stating Amazon will continue to offer free shipping while waiting for the outcome of the appeal.

Rich Skrenta has a new startup called Blekko in the works, and plans to make a run at the search engine world with it.

We’ve reached the point at which the average person is sure to own a cell phone.  He or she still isn’t too likely to surf the Web with it, however, and he or she is almost definitely opposed to mobile advertising.  All of which points to the conclusion that mobile ads won’t take off in the way proponents have predicted.

The interns are taking over the Googleplex! Seriously, if you want to know why Google is so intent on reaching geniuses at an early age, you need look no further than today’s upgrades to Google Reader.

Google is penalizing some big-name publications and blogs, including the Washington Post, Forbes, and Engadget. Over two dozen have seen their toolbar PageRank drop by a factor of 2 to 4 overnight.