“The service called Drive”….will allow users to upload photos, documents, and videos to Google servers for sharing with others and later retrieval”"

Drive, which is expected to launch in the coming months, will be free for most consumers and business, with a premium service offered for those who want to store a large amount of files, the paper reported.

The domain name Drive.com has been owned for many years under semi privavy with a Paul Ginsburg listed as Administrative contact.

The domain name Drive.com inexplicably is going and has been going to a Network Solutions holding page.  The domain does get traffic with an Alexa rank of 2.1m, and gets according to compete.com between 1K-5K per month.  Of course that was before the news that Google is going with Drive.

The domain name TheDrive.com, is owned by Marchex.

 …

“Yahoo! is retroactively charging Tsavo for what Yahoo! is now saying was actually low quality traffic, ranging back over many months during 2011.”

“While the Company and Yahoo! remain in discussions on this issue, the Company now expects that Yahoo! will enforce its decision to charge back this amount citing its right to do so pursuant to the terms of Tsavo Media’s agreement with Yahoo!.”

“Cyberplex also announced today that its President, Ted Hastings, has provided his resignation.”

According to TechCrunch.com, Tsavo Media  operates a network of roughly 300 websites and blogs which generated the traffic.

“‘The company’s network of Internet publications includes crappy websites like LumaGardening.com, ThinkFashion, TechSerious, WealthyGeek, Twirlit, DiscoverFame and KidGlue.”"…

Today however with the Super Bowl it goes a lot further.

I used Shazam last night during the 1st NFL Honors Award show broadcast on NBC last night and instead of getting the name and artist of one of the songs played on the broadcast, I got somthing that looks very much like an App called: Super Bowl XLVI: From Indianapolis.

One of the many things you can do with the “app” is “rate the commercials” as they air.

It’s a way you can make your voice heard on Godaddy.com commercial and the Godaddy .Co commercial as they air.

During the game and some of the commercials there will be other opportunities to Shazam the Super Bowl.

Enjoy the game…

Stories have been written on the topic,  Sessions at domain name conferences have been dedicated to the subject and we have written about it on TheDomains.com as well.

According to  Adweek.com , Seth Sternberg, CEO and founder of Meebo had a completely different point of view saying that:

“I think apps are dead in three to five years,”

“”Don’t get too used to the app for everything era. In just a few years it could be over.”

He added that:

“As the links between mobile devices and the cloud speed up, applications won’t need to be stored locally to deliver a snappy experience.”

“The cutesy, bright-colored icons (or “chicklets”) that make it easy to open different programs will stay, but the distinct underlying software will go.

Another participant in the session, Shawn Gunn, head of strategic advertising for mapping and location data company Navteq added:

“It’s very hard to understand a unique user in each one of those app environments and so your ability to monetize against them, whether it’s for advertising or other types of models, becomes a lot more difficult,”

“You have much better targeting on the Web because you can kind of persistently track a user. . . . That’s a big challenge today in mobile.”

“As developers move toward more open platforms and remove the silos,  “apps” will give way to mobile experiences that are more like the Web.”

 …

The article starts off saying:

“2012 is poised to go down in Internet history as one of the most significant 12-month periods from both a technical and policy perspective since the late 1990′s”

Number 3 on the list is the new gTLD program that is opening up shortly on January 12th for applications.

As for the new gTLD program PCWorld writes:

“”3. Up to 1,000 new top-level domains will start being introduced.”

“”ICANN plans to launch a new program Jan. 12 to add hundreds of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) such as .hotel and .paris to the Internet.”"

“This controversial plan has been under discussion for six years, and it is finally scheduled to begin. ICANN’s new gTLD program represents the biggest change to the Internet’s naming system since 1998, when ICANN was formed.”

“If ICANN’s latest attempt to expand the domain name space succeeds, it could fundamentally change the way domain names are used.”

“Among the new categories of names that are expected to be approved include: internationalized domain names in non-English language scripts; geographically oriented domains for cities and regions; domain names tied to specific interests as well as domain names tied to individual companies and brands.”

Also mentioned in the top 5 is that Verisign contract to run the .com registry is up for renewal in late 2012.  However if the ICANN treats the renewal of the .com contract with Verisign the same as it did with the .net contract this year, it will be a rubber stamp.

 …

The opinion said that the Act did not prohibit the states from accepting online lotto purchases from residents within the state.

According to the Times, In a separate request in July, Senators Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, and Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, asked the Justice Department to clarify its position on Internet gambling, seeking either to affirm that federal law prohibits gambling over the Internet or to make sure that Congress has a role in drafting any expansion of online betting.

Nevada is making a push to be the first state to allow online poker betting from within the state.

According to the Times, “”The new policy merely reverses the Justice Department’s longstanding position that all forms of online gambling are illegal in the United States.”

“It does not necessarily pave the way for national rules governing online gambling.”

We have maintained over the years, that as states seek more sources of revenue to pay the bills it seems to be inevitable that the US will soften its rules prohibiting online gambling to join most the rest of the world.

 …

For the week ending Dec. 18, four days surpassing $1 billion in sales, making for  an all-time record of $6.3 billion in online retail spending for a week, up 14% from tthe same week last year.

The final shopping weekend before Christmas reached $1.04 billion to rank as the second heaviest weekend of online spending on record.

2011 Holiday Season To Date vs. Corresponding Days* in 2010

*Corresponding days based on corresponding shopping days (November 2 thru December 19, 2010)

“The final big week of online holiday shopping remained strong throughout, with four days surpassing $1 billion in sales and the second heaviest online shopping weekend on record,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “With only a few more days until Christmas, the preponderance of Americans’ late season holiday shopping will shift to brick-and-mortar retail, although the procrastinators among us will still be able to take advantage of expedited shipping and buy online up to and including the day before Christmas Eve with the guarantee of having their gifts delivered in time for the holiday.

“In total, we will see another $5 or $6 billion in e-commerce spending over the remainder of December to finish off what has clearly been an outstanding season for online retailers.”

Ten Online Spending Days Top $1 Billion this Holiday Season

“For the 2011 holiday season-to-date, ten individual days have surpassed $1 billion in online retail sales. Cyber Monday (Nov. 28) currently ranks as the heaviest online spending day of the season – and in history – at $1.251 billion. Monday, December 5 ranks second at $1.178 billion, followed by Green Monday (Dec. 12) in third with $1.133 billion. Free Shipping Day (Friday, Dec. 16) ranks sixth at $1.072 billion.”

The article cites a study from RevTrax, which found that “offline sales benefit most from online paid-search ads. A two-year study ending in August found that for every $1 of ecommerce revenue generated from paid-search ads, marketers gained approximately another $6 of in-store revenue.”

“The study also found that by creating a keyword-level attribution model, marketers in the study better understand the ROI of each click on a paid-search ad.”

“Retailers with an average transaction of less than $200 found the average click on a paid-search ad generated approximately $15 of in-store revenue, with some merchants seeing as much as $28 of in-store revenue.”

“Approximately 9% of clicks on a paid-search ad generated an in-store sale, with some merchants seeing up to 26% of clicks on a paid-search ad generating an in-store sale. Some merchants saw a cost of sale as low as 1%.”"

“”Chrome took 25.69% of the worldwide market (up from 4.66% in November 2009) compared to Firefox’s 25.23%. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still maintains a strong lead globally with 40.63%.

“We can look forward to a fascinating battle between Microsoft and Google as the pace of growth of Chrome suggests that it will become a real rival to Internet Explorer globally,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “Our stats measure actual browser usage, not downloads, so while Chrome has been highly effective in ensuring downloads our stats show that people are actually using it to access the web also.”

“”In the US Internet Explorer continues to perform strongly and is maintaining market share at 50.66%, up slightly from 50.24% year on year.”"

“”Firefox retains second place on 20.09%, down from 26.75%. Chrome is up to 17.3% from 10.89%. Safari is on 10.76% from 10.71%.”"

 …

comScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), reported that holiday sales season-to-date, are $9.7 billion 14% increase versus the corresponding days last year which was $8.4 Billion in sales during the same time frame.

“The official comScore 2011 holiday season forecast is that online retail spending for the November – December period will reach $37.6 billion, representing a 15%t gain versus year ago. ”

“This strong growth rate represents an improvement compared to last season’s 12% increase.”

“Due to the strength leading up to and during the holiday season-to-date, comScore’s statistical models are forecasting that U.S. retail e-commerce spending will grow at a rate of 15 percent versus last year,” added Fulgoni. “These projected growth rates reflect the significant channel shift we’re witnessing from offline retail as an increasing number of consumers rely on the online channel for initial browsing, price comparisons and completing transactions. With this continued momentum, comScore anticipates nearly $38 billion in online consumer spending during the November and December time period.”

Yesterday IBM also released figures on online shopping.

According to IBM, “U.S. shoppers took advantage of early sales this holiday driving a 39.3% increase in online Thanksgiving day spending while setting the stage for 24.3% online growth on Black Friday compared to the same period last year.

Some more findings from IBM:

“Mobile traffic increased to 14.3 percent on Black Friday 2011 compared to 5.6 percent in 2010.”

“Sales on mobile devices surged to 9.8 percent from 3.2 percent year over year”

IBM Coremetrics  tracks more than a million transactions a day, analyzing terabytes of raw data from 500 retailers nationwide. ”

Buy.com says its sales were up double digits as well.

“Buy.com today reported sales over the last two days grew by double digits year-over-year (as of 8 p.m. PST on Friday, Nov. 25).

 …