score

Microsoft says it's ending a business agreement with a publisher that had violated the company's affiliate guidelines by changing the default search tool in users' browsers to Bing under the guise of offering a separate service.

A report posted by Advertising Age (registration required) raised eyebrows yesterday when it pointed to a site called Make-my-baby.com as being the third largest advertiser on social networks, citing ComScore's third-quarter search report as the source.

The tool (now down), which facilitated a simulation of decorating a virtual baby, would require users to install a browser plug-in in order to … Read more

Farkle is an old dice game in which two or more players each roll five or six dice, with various scoring methods determining the winner. Tam11's Farkle is a free software version of the venerable game, which also goes by many other names. You can play Farkle alone or online via the developer's free Lobby application. Since you don't need the Lobby to play Farkle, we opted just to install the game.

The Farkle interface is a simple, colorful affair displaying virtual dice, a scoreboard for up to six players, scoring rules, and a chat screen that … Read more

Online stores scored record sales this holiday season, but it's not just low prices and a tentatively improving economy that may have brought in the buyers.

Though customer satisfaction with the top 40 online retailers dipped 1 percent this year, scoring 78 out of 100, that number still proved much higher than in prior years, according to survey results released yesterday by ForeSee Results.

Among the online businesses tracked in ForeSee's E-Retail Satisfaction Index (U.S. Holiday Edition), Amazon, Netflix, QVC.com, Avon.com, LLBean.com, Newegg.com, and Apple.com were highest in customer satisfaction, each scoring … Read more

Computer hardware is hot among holiday buyers this season, according to data out yesterday from ComScore.

As online buyers scoop up iPads, e-readers, laptops, and other portable devices, computer hardware is ringing in the holidays as the product category showing the most growth for the season so far, a 25 percent increase compared with last year.

Lower prices on flat-panel TVs is spurring growth in consumer electronics, helping that category grow 22 percent among online buyers over the same period last year, says ComScore. Books and magazines are also proving to be a popular gift item, up 21 percent from … Read more

Bing's share of the search engine market crept up a bit in November, while Google and Yahoo both were relatively flat, according to the November U.S. Search Engine Rankings from ComScore.

For the month, Bing saw its share of the U.S. search market inch up 0.3 of a percentage point, the same as it did in October. Google and Yahoo both lost only 0.1 of a percentage point. A drop like that would be meaningless to most companies, but especially to Google, which still holds a commanding 66.2 percent chunk of the search engine … Read more

Online retailers rang up more than $1 billion in sales this past Cyber Monday, according to data released yesterday by ComScore.

Adding up to a 16 percent gain in sales over the same day last year, Monday's cybershopping spree was the heaviest online spending day in history, said ComScore, and the first to cross the billion-dollar mark. Overall, the start of the holiday season has brought good cheer to online retailers. More than $13.5 billion was spent online from November 1 to 29, a gain of 13 percent from last year.

The growth in Cyber Monday sales was … Read more

This year's Black Friday saw a healthy rise in online sales, according to stats out today from ComScore.

Cybershoppers collectively plunked down $648 million online on Friday, a gain of 9 percent over the same day last year. Thanksgiving, a day where people typically spend more time filling their bellies than emptying their wallets, saw a solid 28 percent rise in cybersales from last year, hitting $407 million.

Overall, the online holiday shopping season has been robust so far, according to market researcher ComScore, with $11.64 billion spent at e-commerce outlets from November 1 to 26, a gain … Read more

So far this year, online holiday shopping is up. And market research firm ComScore believes that trend will continue.

According to ComScore, consumers spent $9.01 billion during the first three weeks of November, representing a 13 percent gain over the $7.95 billion spent during the same period last year.

For the months of November and December combined, ComScore is forecasting $32.4 billion in online spending. Last year, consumers spent $29.1 billion during that two-month holiday shopping period. ComScore also said that from January through October, online consumers spent $109.9 billion, representing a 9 percent gain … Read more

October saw business as usual in the U.S. search engine market with Google and Bing both grabbing slightly more share and Yahoo losing a bit, according to data out yesterday from ComScore.

Google kept its top perch with a 66.3 percent chunk of all searches, a gain of 0.2 of a percentage point from September. In third place, Microsoft's Bing captured an 11.5 percent share of the market, up 0.3 of a percentage point. And Yahoo saw its share at 15.6 percent, down 0.2 of a percentage point from the prior month. … Read more