Digital Media

If you're looking for just the right gift for Aunt Sally, you may find yourself turning to social networks and your mobile phone this holiday-shopping season.

More consumers expect that these two aspects of technology will help lead the way this year, according to a recent survey from consulting firm Deloitte.

Deloitte, which surveyed more 10,000 consumers for its 24th annual holiday-shopping survey, drillled down on technology's effect on buying habits by releasing new statistics on Wednesday.

The survey found that 53 percent of consumers plan to use social media to research gift ideas, 52 percent intend to check the wish lists of relatives and friends on social networks, and 60 percent plan to hunt for discounts and sales using social networks.

Mobile phones are also becoming a tool for bargain-hungry shoppers. Among those surveyed, 55 percent plan to use their phones to find store locations, 45 percent will use them to research prices, 40 percent will look for product information, and 32 percent will hunt for discounts. In addition, 25 percent said they expect to buy a holiday gift using their phones.

The good, old Internet still rates as a top spot for holiday shoppers, with 22 percent saying they'll shop primarily online this year and 44 percent expecting to use a coupon they find online.

Online research is big for key purchases, with 39 percent saying they read reviews of stores or products written by other consumers and 34 percent indicating that such online reviews influence their buying decisions more than advertising.

The relationship between brick-and-mortar stores and their Web sites seems to be symbiotic. Among those questioned, 65 percent said they've purchased an item online after finding it in a store or catalog, while 78 percent said they've bought a product in a store after seeing it on the store's site.

"Consumers are turning to mobile, online and social media during their entire holiday shopping experience," Stacy Janiak, a Deloitte vice chairman, said in a statement. "Retailers should consider harnessing this activity to turn browsers into buyers with one-click access to coupons, promotions and purchasing tools. This year's leaner in-store inventories may also open the door for retailers to lure customers to their online channels where it is easier to access inventory, no matter where it is located."

Commissioned by Deloitte, the survey was conducted online by an independent research firm between September 24 and October 2 and included responses from 10,878 consumers.

Unlike when you stand over your coworker's desk, Microsoft's Bing search engine actually works better when you hover.

One of the key features of the would-be rival to Google is that when you hover to the right of a result, you can get a preview of what to expect. As part of an update this week, Bing's hover result will now feature more information including a thumbnail preview of the site in question.

Microsoft is using Wolfram Alpha to help power certain results, such as this search for the fat content of french fries.

(Credit: CNET News)

One of the ongoing challenges for Bing, besides just getting more people to use the site, is letting them know that the hover feature is there. Microsoft's research has shown it gets high usage from those who know about it, but also finds that lots of people don't know the feature is there. Microsoft has been experimenting with some different visual cues that might make it easier to stumble upon the previews.

The hover feature was developed by the San Francisco-based team that Microsoft acquired as part of last year's acquisition of Powerset. Powerset, which developed a semantic search technology, also powers Bing's index of Wikipedia.

Bing's fall update update also includes the first fruits of a deal with Wolfram Alpha. As part of that arrangement, certain health related searches, such as "how many calories in a hamburger" will now feature information from Alpha. Bing will also rely on Alpha for some math calculations, Microsoft said in a blog posting on Wednesday. Wolfram noted that Microsoft is one of the first customers for a commercial licensing program that was formally announced several weeks ago.

Other changes to Bing include improved local results for topics such as weather and events.

It's all part of a wave of updates Microsoft is making to Bing this week. On Tuesday, Microsoft said it is moving its MSN Video site under the Bing umbrella, with a new video page that can be used to watch videos from places like Hulu and elsewhere.

The company also announced some enhancements to Bing Maps, including the ability to use the mouse to alter a suggested route and have one's directions re-calculated.

The improvements come as Microsoft is looking for ways to stand out from Google as it tries to wrest share from its much larger rival. The software maker has seen a modest uptick but faces steep hurdles in trying to make more significant gains.

Experian Hitwise said Wednesday that Bing's share reached 9.57 percent in October. That's up from 8.96 percent in September, but still well behind Google, which had more than 70 percent and Yahoo, with 16 percent of the U.S. search query market.

While adding features is clearly important, trying to stay ahead in the search game can be quite a challenge. Just hours after Microsoft announced a deal last month to index real-time tweets from Twitter, Google announced plans to do the same.

Microsoft has also gotten some unwanted attention for one of its features--the Bing Cashback program--where users can get a portion of their online transactions rebated by starting off on Bing. A blog posting outlined a flaw in the mechanism that could allow people to get cash back without ever spending money via Bing.

That posting was pulled after a demand from Microsoft's lawyers.

Google's new SafeSearch page

(Credit: Google)

Google has long allowed parents a SafeSearch filtering setting that keeps kids from using the search engine to find inappropriate sites like those with explicit sexual images or text.

The problem was that kids could easily change those settings.

Starting Wednesday, however, the company is allowing parents to lock those settings to make it harder (though not impossible) for kids to bypass the settings.

To change the settings, the parent will have to log into his or her Google account and enter a password. Once the settings have been changed, the Google search engine will change in appearance to indicate that it's locked. The new page will have large balls in the upper right corner so that parents can see from across the room that their kids are on the safe search page.

The settings, which places a cookie on the machine, must be configured for each browser the child uses. If you set them only for Internet Explorer, for example, they won't restrict access from Firefox, Chrome, or other browsers. Also, according to a Google representative, the child can get around the settings by using the private browsing feature that is now built into the latest versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome. So, while this will keep kids from accidentally using Google for inappropriate searches, it will not deter tech-savvy kids who are determined to bypass the filters.

As I've said in other posts, filters are never a foolproof way to keep "tweens" and teenagers from inappropriate content. There are always ways to get around them, including using a different machine or mobile phone. Filters are effective for keeping young children from stumbling onto disturbing Web sites and they can be a deterrent to somewhat older kids who might have a momentary or casual interest in looking at material that their parents wish to block.

With all filters and controls, it's important for parents to think about how you use them to help teach your child to exercise self-control and critical thinking so that, eventually, they can safely use the Web without filters or adult supervision. Also, for very young children, say 5 and under, its remains a good idea to be with the child while he or she is online. Tools like Google's SafeSearch are helpful, but they are no substitute for close parental supervision, especially with young children.

Qtrax missed another deadline.

The would-be ad-supported music service once again failed to meet a self-imposed launch date. The company said barely two weeks ago that it would roll out in Australia and New Zealand on November 5.

For most start-up services, launch delays are embarrassing, but not unexpected. For Qtrax, this is only the latest installment in a year-long run of embarrassing misfires, lawsuits, unpaid bills and broken promises.

Within the halls of the top recording companies, Qtrax's setbacks have begun to take a heavy toll on the company's already battered reputation. To make matters worse, the ad-supported model has lost a lot of credibility in the music industry after the collapse of Ruckus and SpiralFrog. Several of the other top competitors in the sector, including Spotify, Imeem, and iLike have begun gravitating towards other revenue sources.

"Qtrax is an absolute disaster," said one music industry executive who asked to remain anonymous. "It's an embarrassment."

What's noteworthy about the most recent Qtrax setback is that typically Allan Klepfisz, the company's founder, will do damage control with the media. This time, however, a music-sector heavyweight is out in front.

"It's a difficult environment to get capital in this industry," Jay Berman, a Qtrax adviser and former chairman of the Recording Industry Association of America told The Financial Times this week. Referring to Qtrax's claim that the company hopes to raise $50 million and Qtrax said last week that it has a deal with Baidu, one of China's top search engines, Berman said: "Is it ambitious? Yes, it is. Is it doable? Yes."

Klepfisz declined to comment. Berman could not be reached for comment.

Berman was once the recording industry's top lobbyist and according to my music source he used his clout to help Qtrax secure licensing deals with the top labels. A year ago, New York-based Qtrax announced that Berman, who has offered consulting services to several digital music companies including Project Playlist, was added to the Qtrax advisory board.

"Every time something happens with Qtrax, Jay has to get on the phone and calm everybody (at the labels) down," said the music exec.

But the source said Qtrax, at this point anyway, is in no danger of losing its access to the labels' music. He said it has paid and the labels will most certainly accept Qtrax's money. "Why wouldn't they?" he asked. "But they haven't exactly created a lot of good will in the business or enthusiasm for their product.

"Qtrax hasn't instilled a sense of confidence that they can actually make something of what they have," the exec continued. "The only reason the (recording) companies have given content to them is because of Jay. If Jay didn't get on the phone, Qtrax wouldn't have its deals."

What the exec is referring to, specifically, are things like Qtrax's history of failing to pay vendors. Oracle filed suit against the company earlier this year and several companies have won judgments in New York courts against Qtrax. The latest came two weeks ago when Monarch Capital Fund won an award of $133,000 against the company.

According to court documents, Qtrax agreed in March to pay off a $200,000 debt in installments. Monarch told the court that after paying $70,000, Qtrax stopped making payments in May.

Clarification: Earlier reports by a number of other publications indicated that Qtrax's deal with Baidu wasn't completed. Qtrax does indeed have a signed agreement with the Chinese search engine, Qtrax said Wednesday afternoon.

A copy of the most recent judgment against Qtrax, which was accused of defaulting on a debt.

(Credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET Networks )

Ticket scalping has been a hot topic in the music industry for years, causing a lot of uproar and complaints among music fans.

The sad fact of the matter is that lots of parties in the music industry try to sell secondhand tickets for a markup. Ticketmaster owns a premium resale service called TicketsNow. It also owns a resale exchange, TicketExchange, which lets any individual (including scalpers) buy or sell a ticket. Even artists and managers frequently take their allotments and sell them on broker sites for a markup, as The Wall Street Journal has reported.

Worst of all is the fan club scam, where fans pay for the right to get in line for presale tickets--but joining the club doesn't necessarily get you a ticket before the scalpers have snapped them all up, as Keith Urban fans in Nashville recently discovered.

I can't get too angry, though. I haven't bought a ticket from a scalper in years, and I've never gone through a ticket broker. I get good seats well after they go on sale and can usually get into sold-out shows. And they almost never cost me more than the original retail price.

It's not magic: it's Craigslist. I wait until a few days before the show, then run a search for the band I want to see. Inevitably, I find a few people who bought a ticket then had an irresolvable conflict. These are normal people--not scalpers, just fans like you and me--and they almost always settle for what they paid, or even less. If I'm not happy with the price, I move on--there always seem to be more sellers, especially the on day of the show.

You can't get tickets to this Friday's Pixies show through the official site for the venue, STG Presents, but there are plenty of tickets at fair prices on Craigslist.

This month alone, I've scored floor seats to Steely Dan well after they were gone from Ticketmaster's site, and a pit ticket to Friday's Pixies show, which is entirely sold out. I've had such good luck that I'm considering abandoning Ticketmaster and other ticket sellers completely. The seats are better, they're the same price or cheaper, and I'm usually helping a fellow fan out of a jam.

There are ticket brokers and other professionals gumming up the ads on Craigslist, but you can scope them out pretty quickly--they often list ticket prices as $1 (because they're actually selling lots of tickets at different prices) or have some other giveaway like an overly generic headline ("Great seats") or obviously inflated prices. Regular fans tend to list the exact seat number in the ad and a price that's pretty close to what they paid.

There will always be some demand for professional ticket brokers; people who want to impress an important business client with great seats don't want to wait until the last minute and risk striking out. And for some shows, fans would rather sacrifice a body part than sell their tickets--I'm thinking of the early shows on the 2007 reunion tour by The Police, for instance. But for many shows, Craigslist is a far better deal than the professional sites. Which makes me wonder how long they'll last.

Microsoft said on Tuesday that it is merging its video search efforts with its MSN Video site into a new page that will bear the Bing moniker.

Bing Video, Microsoft said, will serve as a site for watching everything from viral videos to full-length TV shows and video, drawing on content deals with sites such as Hulu, CBS, MySpace, DailyMotion, and YouTube.

The new Bing Video page replaces MSN Video and includes both video search as well as content from sites such as Hulu and CBS.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft notes that video is now a mainstay of the redesigned MSN home page and says MSN will continue to create original programming, such as its "Last Night on TV" effort.

The branding remains a challenge though, as evidenced by a video from Microsoft's Rob Bennett talking about the changes. The video, embedded below, features a "view more on MSN Video" link that, when clicked on, takes a user to the new Bing Video site.

The new Bing Video page is part of a series of changes Microsoft is making as part of a fall refresh of its search site. Earlier on Tuesday, Microsoft made some enhancements to Bing Maps, including the ability to use the mouse to alter a suggested route and have one's directions re-calculated.

The company said to expect more announcements later this week.

Disclaimer: CNET News is published by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS.

(Credit: Intel)

Intel is doing its part to help people with sight or reading disabilities enjoy the written word.

The company announced on Tuesday the debut of the Intel Reader, a handheld text-to-speech device that can read any printed text aloud to those who are blind or have difficulties seeing or reading.

The Atom-powered device uses a high-resolution camera to capture images of any printed text, which it then converts into digital format to read out loud. The Reader can be used as a standalone device to snap pictures of text. But paired with Intel's Portable Capture Station, which can hold the Reader in place, the device can grab huge amounts of text, such as an entire book, according to Intel.

"We are proud to offer the Intel Reader as a tool for people who have trouble reading standard print so they can more easily access the information many of us take for granted every day, such as reading a job offer letter or even the menu at a restaurant," said Louis Burns, vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Health Group, in a statement.

A check at some of the retailers selling the Intel Reader revealed its base price to be $1,499, with the Portable Capture Station an additional $399.

Weighing one pound, the Reader is the size of a paperback book. The tactile buttons and voice-operated menus that control the device have been designed so sightless people can use it, Intel said. Individuals with poor vision can also zoom in or out of the display and increase the font size of its text.... Read more

Kindle book buyers can now read their books right from their PCs without having to buy a Kindle reader.

Amazon onTuesday made available its new Kindle for PC, free software that lets Kindle customers read their e-books on tablet PCs, Netbooks, notebooks, and other personal computers.

The software can be downloaded from the Kindle for PC page. The quick installation sets up the reader application, prompting you to log in and register with your Amazon account or create a new one. After logging in, you can download books that you've already purchased at the Kindle store or click on a link to buy new ones.

Microsoft had demonstrated the Kindle for PC software at its Windows 7 launch event in New York last month.

(Credit: CNET News/Lance Whitney)

Kindle for PC offers many of the options you'll find on a Kindle reader. You can increase or decrease the size of the font and change the width of the page and words per line. You can navigate from one page to another by clicking on the Next or Previous Page arrows or by using the scroll wheel on your mouse. You can jump to a specific page, such as the cover, table of contents, or last page read, and bookmark a specific location for future reference. You can also read notes and highlights created on your Kindle device, but you can't create them on Kindle for PC yet.

People with a Windows 7 multitouch PC can zoom in or out of a page by pinching it with your fingers.

Amazon has also tapped its Whispersync technology to automatically save and sync bookmarks across multiple devices. So you can read a book up to a certain page on your Kindle device and then automatically jump to that same page on your PC to resume reading where you left off.

"Kindle for PC is the perfect companion application for customers who own a Kindle or Kindle DX," Ian Freed, vice president, Amazon Kindle, said in a statement. "Kindle for PC is also a great way for people around the world to access a huge selection from the Kindle Store and read the most popular books of today even if they don't yet have a Kindle."

Amazon plans new features for the next edition of Kindle for PC. The company said it will offer the ability to create notes and highlights, search for words or phrases in your books, and click on an image to zoom in or rotate it.

With the launch of Kindle for PC, Kindle books can now be read on Kindle readers, the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and personal computers. Kindle for the PC is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, and XP. A Mac version is coming soon, promises Amazon.

Google's Caffeine initiative to perk up search results is leaving the sandbox.

First revealed as a "secret project" in early August, Caffeine is intended to speed up search results and improve their accuracy. Google's Webmaster Central blog at the time described Caffeine as "the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions."

A Caffeine Web page had been set up as a developer preview test site asking people to try out the new feature and offer their feedback. But as spotted by Mashable.com, the developer information has been taken down and replaced with a note from Google, pegging Caffeine a success and briefly describing the next phase.

Based on the success we've seen, we believe Caffeine is ready for a larger audience. Soon we will activate Caffeine more widely, beginning with one data center. This sandbox is no longer necessary and has been retired, but we appreciate the testing and positive input that webmasters and publishers have given.

Caffeine won't change the look or feel of Google's popular search engine but will work under the hood to improve its performance, reportedly delivering faster, better, and more flexible results. Though Google continually tweaks its search engine, Caffeine represents the first major enhancement to its search indexing since 2006.

No word or response yet from Google on when Caffeine might actually go live.

In a late August interview with WebProNews, Google engineer Matt Cutts said that the feedback on Caffeine had been very positive.

And in a forecast of Google's latest move, Cutts also said he wouldn't be surprised if Caffeine were gradually opened up one data center at a time. Then once Google is satisfied with the new search indexing, Caffeine should spill out into more and more data centers.