Webware

Telefonica Europe on Wednesday announced that it has acquired voice over Internet Protocol and telephony service Jajah for $207 million in cash.

Reports of the sale and its price had begun to circulate several days ahead of the official announcement. There were also rumors of an ongoing bidding war between Cisco Systems and Microsoft, which were competing with Telefonica for the sale.

Telefonica is a business division of a company most consumers know as O2. It counts some 48.6 million customers as part of its communications business. Jajah, which has several services for consumers, also has business offerings for small business and enterprise users. Jajah says these services will continue to operate as they did before, remaining unaffected by the acquisition.

Exchange virtual currency

(Credit: Currency Connect)

Beginning in the first quarter of 2010, social sites IMVU and MyYearbook will launch a virtual currency exchange allowing users from either service to exchange currency between the sites.

Currency Connect is billed as a "cross property virtual currency exchange" system similar to how you would change U.S. dollars into euros if you were traveling in Europe. Users simply swap their currencies depending on what site they are on. Overall this is not a bad idea as I still find it surprising that users pony up real money for virtual money that can never be taken out of a specific site.

But, it does make me wonder when a bigger payments vendor, like PayPal, will get into the game and offer more of a de facto universal virtual. It's all well and good that two large-ish sites have launched this effort, but it can't be long before other social sites like Facebook join the fray. And, ultimately the site or currency with the most users is likely to be the one with the most users.

This opens up an opportunity for other sites with large user bases such as Google and Yahoo to offer a currency program. If users are already joining multiple social-networking sites, there is no doubt that they are also using search engines and instant messaging.

On the technical side, the service uses a simple set of REST APIs that implement the various checks and balances of the system. Security is maintained through tracking methods and server-to-server connections, which will initially limit how many sites can participate in the service. Again, a larger online service might have an easier time deploying a fully distributed, trusted service that didn't require point-to-point connections.

It's clear that virtual currencies have become an important part of social networking and gaming infrastructure. But, sooner or later fickle users will change their allegiances. A currency exchange offers a palatable escape method but still doesn't ever let you turn your virtual currency back into real money.

(Via VentureBeat)

A snapshot of holiday sales.

(Credit: ComScore)

This year's online holiday-shopping season has topped $19.9 billion so far--a 3 percent jump over the same period in 2008, according to ComScore.

Online sales were bolstered last week when consumers spent more than $800 million on two separate days, ComScore said. On Thursday, for example, consumers coughed up $852 million.

Monday has the potential to produce the best day of this year's holiday-shopping season, which started November 1 in ComScore's stats.

ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said that Monday "represents our best opportunity to finally surpass that elusive $900 million spending threshold. The early part of this upcoming week should bring us the heaviest online spending days of the season before consumers refocus their attention on brick-and-mortar retail locations to finish up their holiday shopping."

Considering that 2008 wasn't the great year for holiday sales, online or otherwise, it is also worth looking back to 2007. From November 1 through December 14 in 2007, ComScore reported, consumers spent $22.67 billion online.

ComScore's 2009 figures included up through Friday, December 11. It will be interesting to see whether the extra three days could push this year's online sales figures anywhere near 2007's level.

The new report is the latest from the e-commerce-tracking company showing healthier sales than last year. A recent report cited strong Cyber Monday sales figures.

Updated at 7:15 a.m. PDT with 2007 online sales figures.

Local product search company Milo.com is upgrading its service with features made for holiday shopping procrastinators like me: If you're looking to buy a product in a given category, it will tell you what store near you has what in the category in stock. So you can drive down to the place and buy the thing you want right away.

Let's stipulate that the smart thing to do is to plan ahead and buy online, where prices are better, and you often can get free shipping, and you can skip the sales tax. Let's also understand that the world is full of people like me (procrastinators), people who don't like to wait for anything (impulse buyers), and, of course, the feelers, who need to touch a product before they buy it. Milo is for all of them and us.

Currently, Milo is a good tool for finding a specific product near you (for example, the Canon S90). The new feature, rolling out Wednesday, lets you search for a whole category (like "Netbooks") to see what's where. You can also now set price alerts, making it possible to know exactly when you should hop in your car to get the product you're looking for at the price you want.

New functionality on Milo.com lets you find nearby products in a given category.

(Credit: Milo)

Milo competes with Google Products' just-launched feature that will also locate products near you. However, Milo CEO Jack Abraham took pains to point out to me that Google has not, to date, been successful with structured search, especially in commerce. The search giant's previous foray in retail, Froogle, misfired. Google Products is better, though.

Abraham's comment to me from an interview a few days before the Google Products announcement, that "Google and Microsoft will be extremely interested in acquiring this," still rings true. Google does need help in shopping services. Microsoft has also shown an interest in acquiring its way into consumer commerce, recently by buying services like the air fare prediction service, Farecast.

Abraham also pointed out that while Milo has deep, real-time inventory data from a number of large retail chains, including Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, Nordstrom, and others, Google says it is testing the waters with Best Buy data. However, using the Google service reveals in-store data feeds from other chains as well.

In my testing of the two products, I had a better experience with Milo than Google when it came to in-stock information. But Google did a superior job finding products overall.

Google did a better job of deciphering my queries to find what I was looking for. It also found more stores that carried those products. However, Milo knew who actually had the products it found. When Google would tell me, "call for availability," Milo would actually tell me if products were in stock. In terms of utility, I'd rate the services about even.

Google Products knows where the product you're looking for is supposed to be, but not if it's actually there.

(Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)

Milo's Abraham says he'd like to layer in data from smaller stores than just the big chains. The company may build a module for hooking into Quickbooks Point of Sales for that.

Milo can make money by tapping into in-store pickup programs (where the customer pays for the product online, and collects it from a local store). Abraham is also looking at a coupon program that would connect the experience of finding a product online to the act of picking it up in a retail store.

One feature I'd like to see: A mashup with traffic data that tells me not just which stores near me have the product I'm looking for, but which one is closest to me in terms of driving time.

Abraham told me Milo's traffic is growing extremely quickly, at 70 percent month over month, and that the company is taking the "beta" label off its service Wednesday as well. But while Milo has solid service and a start-up's nimbleness and focus, it also now has a scary new competitor. Milo's got to extend on its product quickly to keep it ahead of Google. "I always expected Google to do this eventually," Abraham told me after the Google Products announcement. "I just didn't expect it to come yesterday."

Related: Can we share a moment of silence for LicketyShip?

Those who say that Twitter is nothing more than a place where people share inconsequential experiences in their lives might want to listen up. Dell told Bloomberg on Tuesday that it has earned an estimated $6.5 million in sales of PCs, accessories, and software, thanks to promotions on Twitter.

Dell's vice president for the company's online unit, Manish Mehta, told Bloomberg that over the past three months alone, the number of people who have started following Dell's tweets has risen 23 percent. The company's DellOutlet account, which is home to most of the vendor's sales announcements, currently has almost 1.5 million followers. But unlike some companies, Dell has made Twitter an integral part of its operation. Bloomberg reported that "more than 100 employees send out the tweets" to customers.

"It's a very vibrant channel for us and it's growing aggressively," Mehta told Bloomberg, referring to Twitter. "It's not just our reach and growth that has progressed, it's that it's happening globally."

Mehta told Bloomberg that its Twitter accounts are followed by people in 12 countries. Brazil users alone spent $800,000 in the past eight months, he said.

Google is turning its sights squarely on the local ad market, with plans to promote its local business listings in storefronts around the U.S.

Stickers bearing Google's logo and a QR code have been distributed to 100,000 of the most popular businesses in Google's Local Business Center database, and starting this week consumers will be able to use code-scanning applications on modern phones to look up the Google listing for that particular restaurant, store, or dry cleaner. The stickers will be prominently displayed in store windows of participating businesses, and represent a shot across the bow of companies like Yelp which offer similar branded services.

Google's Local Business Center allows pizza joints and dress boutiques to place listings on Google Maps with basic information such as hours and location and also get access to data about how Web searchers are hitting their profile, such as the ZIP code from which searches originate, said Michaela Prescott, head of geomarketing at Google. Over 1 million businesses in the U.S. have listed themselves with Google, she said.

Much has been made of Google's interest in courting the big-name advertisers of the corporate world, but the company is also very interested in the mom-and-pop stores of the world, which fit nicely into its strategy of delivering targeted advertising to specific niches. Later this week, Google plans to hold an event in San Francisco for small business owners in hopes of educating them about the services that are available on Google.

The company analyzed which local listings were generating the most activity, and declared those to be "Favorite Places on Google," and therefore eligible for the sticker promotion. Shoppers who happen by the store can scan the sticker to bring up the business' Place Page with listing information as well as reviews, photos, and links to sites with more information about the business.

Prescott said those links will include reviews hosted by Yelp, perhaps the most well-known local listing, and reviews on the Internet. Yelp also distributes window decals to local businesses that reassure visitors that "People love us on Yelp!" (whether that's true) in hopes to promoting the site as the place to look for local reviews. Updated 8:45 a.m. - A Google representative later clarified that while several review sites will be aggregated, Yelp is not one of them.

Google has taken the concept a step further, however, in the use of the QR codes to link to the Place Pages. Owners of smartphones with a camera (Google specifically said that iPhone, Android, and most BlackBerry owners would be supported, but others may work as well) and QR code scanning applications will be able to launch this information in their phone's browser.

So why is Google getting into the decal business? "I think it comes down to (the fact that) mobile is fundamentally different; it is about connecting the person to the physical place," Prescott said.

Obviously, lots of people search for local information on Google, but this program gives Google a way to capture eyeballs that aren't sitting in front of a desktop or laptop PC, promoting its mobile sites and therefore driving additional traffic to ad-supported sites. Expanding its local presence also allows Google to sell even-more targeted ads to other companies, since they know they'll be advertising to people in a position to take advantage of their services.

Google has been ramping up its local presence for quite some time, but seems to be experimenting with different strategies these days. It recently suspended a trial of a program called "Local Listing Ads," which was designed as a simple entry into Google that didn't require the business to manage a regular AdWords campaign.

And it also recently introduced a service that lets businesses put coupons in the Local Business Center that smartphone owners can redeem from the screen of their device, rather than having to clip them out of a newspaper circular.

My GQ pose would be more convincing if I was wearing a watch.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

I've been told more than once that skills learned from video games don't really translate to the real world. To those who have told me this, I can only say: neener-neener-neener.

More and more companies are offering customers the choice to customize the products they buy. Vans, among others, allows you to create your own shoes. Heck, I've even seen a build-your-own-toy-lightsaber kit that I really wanted to buy for my son.

But this is a new wrinkle to me.

(Pause for inevitable laughter.)

The folks at ShirtsMyWay have set up a process in which for about $75 and a few minutes of your day, you can design your own men's dress shirt. Why is this thrilling, exactly? I'll tell you why. Have you ever noticed that roughly 99 percent (anecdotal research on my part) of all clothing stores are devoted to women's apparel?

Seriously, if you're a guy, you've got like maybe four colors and two styles of dress shirt to choose from. I'm not quite the average male, I suppose, but I know I would be more inclined to wear a dress shirt without the threat of death if I got to have some say about what my shirt looked like.

This is where those video game skills come in handy. The process goes roughly like this: you go to the ShirtsMyWay site, and you choose from 25 different fabrics. That's just the first part. Via the site's very user-friendly interface, you will then decide on just about every aspect of your shirt's creation.

It reminded me a lot of playing The Sims. ... Read more

Earlier this week, I showed you how to create holiday shopping lists, so you know what to buy when you hit the stores this holiday season. But what if you want the gifts? Today, I'm taking a look at some services that allow you to create your own wish list for the holiday season. Some of those tools you might have used before, others are a little less known. In either case, you can tell your friends and family what you want this holiday season.

Before you check those services out, try out CNET's own holiday wish list. It's full-featured, well-designed, and based on my experience, provides an extremely useful option if you're looking for a holiday wish list.

Get a wish list

Amazon Wish Lists Amazon's wish lists are some of the best-known in the space for good reason: the site makes it quick and easy to add just about any product to your wish list.

While browsing Amazon, you can add any product on the site to your wish list by simply clicking the "add to wish list" option to the right of the page. In my experience creating wish lists on Amazon, I've been quite impressed. The information can be accessed by anyone, they can quickly buy the product for me right from the wish list, and the product is sent to my address once paid for. Amazon's wish list feature is easily one of the best services in this roundup. That is mainly due to that "end-to-end" offering. Everything from finding the product to buying can be completed on the site.

Amazon Wish List is one of the best services around.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

GreedyMe Although it allows you to add content from anywhere across the Web to create your own wish list, GreedyMe just doesn't provide the kind of experience you'll find from a service like Amazon.

When you try out GreedyMe, you'll find a suspect site design. It's a little tough on the eyes. Once you get past that (it might take awhile), you can create your wish list. To do so, you'll need to either add content to your wish list by linking to another site or by inputting product information manually. When you find a product you want, the site analyzes the link, lets you input a description, and choose an image to be displayed. It's a relatively quick, simple experience.

If you plan to share your wish list with someone else, you need only to provide them with a link to your GreedyMe page. Unfortunately, the site won't track when you receive the item, so you'll need to input that manually after you receive it. GreedyMe is a so-so service. Consider it a last alternative.

GreedyMe has a suspect design and some sub-par features.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just a memory, the holiday season is in full swing. For those of us who like to be organized when we hit the stores, creating a shopping list is really the best way to go.

Unfortunately, though, there aren't many services that do a great job at creating those shopping lists. Too often, they provide very simple functionality. Realizing that, I've compiled a handful of services that do perform well for anyone looking to get organized this holiday-shopping season. In this list, you'll find a few sites and a few iPhone apps to check out.

Let's get started.

Get your shopping on

Amazon Shopping List Not to be confused with the company's Wishlist, Amazon's shopping list helps you keep track of all the products you want to buy.

Overall, Amazon's Shopping List is useful. It's not the best service in this roundup, but it if you're looking for simple, one-click experience, Amazon's tool provides it. That said, I should note that you can't simply add any product on Amazon to the list. Unfortunately, I could only find items that could be added in the grocery, beauty, gourmet food, and health and personal care pages. Even then, not all the products listed in those categories were capable of being added to the shopping list. It was a little disappointing. But if you're a heavy Amazon customer who shops in those categories, try it out. If not, there are some better services out there.

My Amazon shopping list needs more products!

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Boxedup Boxedup is one of my favorite services in this roundup. It makes it quick and easy to find products anywhere from the Web and add those to a shopping list.

When you start using Boxedup, you'll need to download a Boxedup button that's added to your browser (I was using Firefox, which it works well with). From there, simply go out to any online retail site and click on the Boxedup button when you want to add the item to your shopping list. Upon doing so, it's added to your Boxedup list for later viewing. You can also add items to your profile right from the Boxedup page, but to be quite honest, that's not how the service was designed and that functionality is a little suspect. Regardless, having the option to add content to your list from just about anywhere on the Web is fantastic. Boxedup works quite well. Check it out.

Boxedup helps you add content from just about anywhere.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)