Webware

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.

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.

With just two weeks to go before Black Friday, online-coupon site FatWallet announced on Friday that it has launched a Black Friday page where Web users can track all the latest deals for the big shopping day.

Currently, the site lists all the latest Black Friday ads that have surfaced, as well as news and rumors surrounding the day. It also has information on Cyber Monday, the Web's big shopping day, which falls on the Monday after Black Friday.

Of course, FatWallet isn't alone in this space. Several companies, including BlackFriday.Info and DealTaker to name a few, are displaying Black Friday deals. Each site lists many of the same ads. A few of the resources provide updated news. FatWallet happens to be one of them.

If you're interested in finding Black Friday deals, check out our recent roundup of online resources that prepare you for Black Friday.

Yahoo has sold 1 percent of its stake in the Chinese-based business-to-business trading site Alibaba.com, the company said on Monday. Reuters first reported on the story.

In November 2007, Yahoo invested approximately $100 million in Alibaba.com when it went public on the Hong Kong Exchange. Writing in an e-mail, a company representative said that Yahoo's "sale of its shares in Alibaba.com is expected to generate pre-tax proceeds of approximately $150 million."

Although Yahoo has sold its entire direct stake in Alibaba.com, it still indirectly maintains ownership in the company.

According to Yahoo, it maintains approximately 40 percent interest in the Alibaba Group. "Alibaba Group owns approximately 70 percent of Alibaba.com," Yahoo wrote in the e-mail, "and as such, Yahoo continues to own an approximately 28 percent indirect interest in Alibaba.com."

Although its major holding is Alibaba.com, the Alibaba Group "also owns (Chinese Web sites) Taobao, Alipay, China Yahoo, and Koubei," the company wrote.

Yahoo's ownership interest in the Alibaba Group is, according to Yahoo, "an important long-term way to participate in the China market." It believes that through the Alibaba Group, it can solidify its position as a major investing partner with Chinese firms.

But that doesn't mean Yahoo will necessarily hold on to sites for too long. The company also wrote that it decided to sell Alibaba.com stock because its "1 percent direct IPO investment" increased so substantially that it felt compelled to sell it. Yahoo said that it "regularly evaluates its financial investments." If one of those investments seems profitable, Yahoo plans on selling the investment to yield that positive cash flow.

The housing market is showing signs of returning. According to a recent report, home prices have posted a small gain and economists are suggesting that the housing market might be stabilizing.

Realizing that, and especially considering that first-time homebuyers are trying to capitalize on the government's $8,000 credit, sellers might be more willing to sell their homes than they were last year. If you're one of those folks, you'll want to consult some services on the Web that will help you get the job done. From valuation tools to agent search services, you'll have everything you need to make a deal on your house.

But if your house isn't quite ready yet and you're looking for some design tips to make it more appealing to would-be buyers, check out this roundup I wrote recently helping you do just that.

Sell your home

Cyberhomes: Cyberhomes' main focus is home valuations. Simply input the address of your property and the site will tell you how much it believes it's worth.

But Cyberhomes does more than appraisals. The site also provides a listing of homes for sale in your area, where you can find "distressed" homes you might be able to buy on the cheap, and neighborhood information down to income and demographic data. It's a full-featured site.

Cyberhomes gives you important information on your neighborhood.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Domania: Domania can help you see how your home compares with others that have already sold, which is helpful since most homes are valued based on a number of factors, including recent sales in your neighborhood. It won't tell you the value of your home, but since real appraisals are completed by comparing nearby homes that are similar to yours, Domania should help you find the sweet spot for pricing your home. I was impressed by the sheer number of houses it listed on the site. You should find just about any home sold in your area.

Find out how much your neighborhood homes sold for with Domania.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Why pay list price? Especially now, when you're probably watching every penny? One of the best ways to get a deal on anything is to use a coupon. But instead of searching around the house for scissors and chopping up circulars, check out these 18 online services that give you what you need to save you cash on your next purchase.

Adpera It might not provide coupons in the conventional sense, but Adpera finds the best e-mail ads from retailers and displays them on the site. From designer sportswear to shoes and housewares, Adpera's selection is incredible. And searching for and finding deals is made simple with the help of a prominent search box at the top of the page. Adpera is basically one big spam folder. But instead of annoying you, it actually saves you some cash.

CoolSavings If you're looking for a full-featured site that includes both printable and online coupons from retailers on a wide range of disciplines, CoolSavings is for you. The site offers coupons for companies that you might have never heard of, and some that that are probably right down the street. The sheer quantity of coupons on CoolSavings is amazing. Unfortunately, though, CoolSavings' collection of free coupons isn't that helpful. In order to access the more sought-after deals, you'll need to sign up for the site. Once you do, you'll be happy: from personal finance to groceries, there are coupons for everything on CoolSavings.

Coupious is unique and worth using.

(Credit: Coupious)

Coupious Coupious is one of the coolest services in this roundup. A mobile app, it can be installed on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or Android-based phone. With the help of those devices' location services, it actively searches for businesses around your location and finds coupons while you're on the go. I've tried it on numerous occasions and have been amazed at its speed and relevance. Once you're ready to use one of the coupons it finds, you need only to click "Use now" and you're all set. And it's free.

CouponAlbum CouponAlbum is huge. That's the best way to describe it. Unlike some services that specialize in a particular area, CouponAlbum wants to be your one-stop shop for everything that's on sale right now. Whether it's software, toys, sporting goods, or food, the site has it all. And since it's updated weekly, you'll never run out of deals.

CouponCabin When I'm looking to save a few bucks, one of my first destinations is always CouponCabin. Unlike other sites that throw any company's deal at you, CouponCabin sticks to major stores like Target, Walmart, GameStop, and a few others. All the coupons are up-to-date and new deals are placed on the site every week. And since you can search by company or category, you probably won't miss a single deal at the places you frequent.

CouponGood If you're an online shopper, CouponGood is a good first place to check before you decide to buy something. The site provides coupons for online companies exclusively. With the help of a simple design, it makes it easy to find any deal you're looking for. Simply input the URL of a company that you're considering buying from and the site will see if it has any active coupons available. Based on my testing, every site I searched for had at least one active coupon, ranging from free shipping to 20 percent discounts. And since the site's free, you'll only need to click a link or input a code at checkout to activate it.

CouponMom CouponMom is targeted at, you guessed it, mothers, but I'm not sure it's even worth trying out. The site requires you to sign up and promises big deals, but when I used it, I quickly realized it couldn't compete on any level with Coupons.com. It's an alternative if for some reason you don't like Coupons.com.

Coupons.com is a fine coupon service.

(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET Networks)

Coupons.com When you're getting ready to go to the local supermarket or grocery, go to Coupons.com before you leave. The site offers a variety of printable coupons on goods ranging from food to cleaning supplies and they're available for use anywhere the products are sold. I use Coupons.com each week and I save myself at least $10 in grocery costs during that time. It's an extremely useful site that's designed well and makes it easy to find coupons. It's a must-see.

This week Apple made a very small, but important tweak to the user rating system on its iTunes app store. It now shows which version of an application the user was running when they wrote the review. This has been applied retroactively, so that reviews written before the change will show which version the users had installed at the time they wrote it.

This is important on two levels, with the first being how transparent user reviews are. No longer do you have to wonder what version a user had installed when they said there was a problem, or broken feature. If you find several reviews chiding a bug that has since been fixed, it may lead you to dismiss them and make a purchase, which could end up bringing in more sales for both Apple and the developer.

It also doubles as a permanent record of application updates, that is assuming the user reviews make mentions of new or updated features. When an application is updated the developer can put out a list of what's been fixed, added, or removed, however Apple does not offer users a way to go back and review a change log. Sites like AppShopper.com have started to build an archive for this very purpose, and with this update this is the closest thing users have received.

In addition to showing you which version users had installed from the mobile version of the App Store, Apple has also built this into the latest version of iTunes. Here, as usual, iTunes users get an extra layer of depth compared to their mobile brethren in being able to sort the reviews by version number. Unfortunately, Apple does not let you skip to a specific version, it simply puts them in order, which forces you to skip through several hundred pages to get to the version you're looking for.

This is a promising sign of further changes coming to App Store reviews, but on the mobile side it's still a long ways off from offering some of the great sorting features iTunes users are able to get on the desktop.

App reviews on both iTunes and the iPhone's App Store now show which version fo the application the reviewer was running on. Click to enlarge.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Thursday's launch of a games trade-in program by Amazon.com has already begun to make waves in the games resale business. Shortly after the program was announced, competitor GameStop's stock took a dive, dropping nearly 14 percent by end of day Thursday.

As a follow-up to the announcement, GameStop's CEO Don Matteo went on the record telling Edge Online he had no faith in Amazon's model based on his company's earlier attempt at a similar program. Matteo was, of course referring to sister site TradeStop. Back in 2005 the site featured a similar offering, where users could get cash for games which the company would then turn around and re-sell on GameStop.com. The service also let people send in DVD movies and music CDs. GameStop discontinued the program at the end of 2005.

Strengths
Amazon is bringing something to the table that brick-and-mortar game resellers cannot easily match: Gamers who send in their used titles can spend their Amazon credit on things that aren't video games. For people who are selling games for a system they no longer have or use this is a clean break. It's also a chance for Amazon to make some extra cash when a user buys something that costs more than the credit they earned.

Another thing users may flock to is transparency. Amazon is showing users exactly what it will pay and has made this list able to be searched. Both GameStop and Game Crazy, two of the largest game resellers, offer no such feature on either of their sites. Instead you're limited to a list of hot games or promotional trade-in values, or you have to go into the store to find out the game values. Both companies will mail larger trade-in value lists, but the lack of an online system has led to users creating wikis to chronicle the ever-updating prices that can fluctuate by supply, demand, and retail price drops.

There's no special membership program. Both GameStop and Game Crazy have special memberships that its customers can join to get special discounts or receive a higher trade-in value for their games. Amazon doesn't offer this, which some may find appealing. Amazon pays everyone the same price in return for them logging-in with their Amazon.com account credentials. There's no annual fee, and the cost of shipping your games in is free.

There are no up-sells or pushy salespeople. You never have to talk to a human being in the entire exchange, which can be seen as a step up. Games retailers typically push paid membership programs, game pre-orders, and certain titles based on sales deals or events. For someone trying to offload their games and buy something new Amazon is letting you skip this.

Another high-level Yahoo employee has left the building: Valeh Vakili, director of U.S. sales operations, will join News Corp.'s MySpace as senior vice president of sales strategy and operations.

At Yahoo, Vakili was in charge of integrating the sales teams from acquired properties like Right Media into Yahoo's own; at MySpace she will be in charge of the social network's account management team. Vakili will remain based in New York. (MySpace's headquarters are in Los Angeles.)

Yahoo's "executive exodus" has been well-documented, with dwindling search share and a disastrous takeover bid from Microsoft dampening employee morale.

MySpace announced in July the hiring of five new vice presidents, two of whom came from Yahoo--but at the same time underwent company layoffs. Statistics firm ComScore reported in June that MySpace had, ironically, surpassed Yahoo as the biggest destination for display ads on the Web.