Other large clothing venues also reported a definite shift, with Gap losing 11% of their store traffic but seeing a hefty 21% rise in internet revenue. It’s not just confined to the fashion outlets; electronics, toys and furniture sales are also up online.

The time is ripe for more retailers to take advantage of the at-home shopping trends, and the 56% jump in couponing proves that there are indeed customers looking for good deals. If you find the correct market, this could be the year to make it big.

Shipping cost continue to rise, however, so do your best to find a niche where you won’t have to stress about awful surcharges and up charges. If you are just starting up, you might want to wait on international expansion, and even try to geotarget based on shipping rates in your part of the country.

The gas prices show no signs of dropping anytime soon, so we can expect this trend in consumer preference for surf and shop to continue. Just make sure you plan your campaign carefully; competition for those online dollars is and will be fierce!

This directly after another large stockholder, Legg Mason, jumped in on Yang’s side of the fight late last week. It is widely speculated that either Icahn saw his chances of a successful board overthrow dwindling, and jumped at the chance to insinuate himself into the board, or else that it is a perfectly viable solution to him allowing him a guaranteed say in further negotiations and the chance to push for a deal with Microsoft from the inside.

The stockholders meeting on August first may be a trifle anticlimactic ( all those proxy cards, what a waste) but at least it’s over - for now. Knowing Icahn, there will be waves in the future.

Jonathon Miller is an intriguing candidate for a board spot, having left AOL under a cloud of rumor and conflict right as revenue started to rise. Ousted from Time Warner prior to a massive restructuring of AOL, Miller became a partner at Velocity Interactive Group, a venture capital firm. Yang must see something in the strategist to feel he would be a good addition to the Yahoo board, and Icahn seems agreeable.

Three seats will by no means give Icahn control of the board, but at this stage in the game perhaps he feels the tide has turned, and it is the best he is likely to get. Icahn has proven over and over that he is a force to be reckoned with, and it remains to be seen how much influence he will be able to wield once firmly entrenched within Yahoo’s inner circle.

Icahn controls close to 5% of the stock, and has every intention of duking it out until the stockholders meeting in August. His heavy campaign to get stockholders to vote his ticket and install a new board is premised on his assurance that he can personally broker a deal with Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer.

However, there is resistance from an unexpected quarter. Another major stockholder has entered the fray, this time on the side of Yang and the current board members seeking to stay seated.

Legg Mason Capital Management has a collective interest in Yahoo to rival Icahn’s, and they don’t want Icahn in control. In fact, the CEO of Legg Mason, Bill Miller, pledged support to the current board, and urged others to do the same.

Yahoo has been seen as increasingly desperate over the ensuing months, as negotiations with Microsoft became heated and the partnership with Google was being hammered out. Some investors were incensed at the refusal of Microsoft’s offer, though others remain staunchly convinced that an independent Yahoo makes for a more competitive market.

The partial merging of Yahoo’s ad market with Google’s raised some eyebrows, but it is still in limbo awaiting approval from the powers that be. Out of sight, out of mind! Is this the chance Yahoo has been waiting for?

With Legg Mason’s support, it wouldn’t take much more to tip the scale solidly in Yang’s favor, and ensure the seated board more time to entrench their positions.

In a reply to the latest Icahn / Microsoft offer, Yahoo turned it down almost immediately, citing the ‘one day only’ offer to be almost an insult. The Icahn / Yahoo battle reached new heights of hysteria in the latest exchange via letters to the stockholders - Icahn continues to maintain that Yang does not have their best interest at heart, whereas the current board responds that Icahn has no true idea what he’s doing.

In the middle lies the presumption that by partnering with Google, Yaho has managed to remain independent.

What is Icahn’s next move? He seems content for the moment taking potshots at Yahoo through various platforms, but his vision for Yahoo may turn out to be just that.

The Orion case settled earlier this year was a stride I the right direction when it comes to the trademark infringement via use of keywords in advertising and search results. A judge ruled that results could not be brought up for such keywords if it resulted in misleading consumers.

In startlingly accurate legalese, the settled case stated that trademarked terms must be excluded in search, and advertisers could not use the keywords to advance their own agenda.

However, in the suit with Google, a step backward seems likely.

American Airlines asserted that “Google’s ‘Sponsored Links’ may instead redirect [searchers] to: (i) websites of airlines that compete with American Airlines; (ii) websites that sell air travel not only on American Airlines, but also on a variety of airlines that compete with American Airlines; or (iii) websites that are entirely unrelated air travel.”

This caused American to file the suit, but Google objected, stating that all they did was allow other companies to stock their product on the same shelf as American. American contended that it was more like slapping identical labels on them.

Nonetheless, even after a judge refused Google request to throw out the lawsuit, the case has been settled quietly and without fanfare.

So how far can competitors go? Does Google simply not care about copyright infringement as long as they can keep revenue coming in by encouraging a bidding war? As it stands, companies must fight just to get the keywords that specifically describe their company by name.

There is simply a lot more leeway than most would like to see, and suing the bidder only solves the problem short term. SuingGoogle keeps coming up as an option to crush the problem at it’s source, but seems futile.

The Viacom plaintiff so far seems to be the only one making a dent, but in reality their case against Google for copyright infringement in the matter of unauthorized YouTube content differs substantially from the advertising claims.

Google is being much more manageable - perhaps because the issue here is not their bottom line? When it comes to YouTube, hand over a few user records and bye-bye Viacom. Problem solved.

Perhaps American Airlines just couldn’t resist what Google put on the table to make them go away.

For four days at the beginning of June that was all you heard about - then nothing. Rumor was that sales were falling. But on the whole, the indignation over the audacity of Time Warner’s move wore off pretty rapidly.

I don’t get it. We had untold years of phone charges ( you all remember how grandma would not call from Wisconsin to wish you Happy Birthday until after 9:00 ) and now that long distance is no problem through the availability of inclusive plans and unlimited options, cell phones have picked up the ball and run.

With the divorce of standard phone service from the internet by way of high speed Ethernet and broadband connections, unlimited usage has become the standard. Time Warner bucks the newfound tradition by insisting that heavy users should pay a premium for going over a predetermined limit, and low level users should be getting a break.

Now the ISPs have come up with a new way of measuring your usage - download / upload amounts.

This is going to hurt companies like Netflix, Apple iTunes, etc. You will have to factor in the up charges from your provider for going over the ‘cap’ to the charges for the downloads themselves.

This may be our very salvation however - nothing like having some very ticked off major companies on your side… If they are threatened, the problem may be solved automatically.

What does this mean to SEO?

Wow, page download time just became a HUGE factor!! - and goodbye, useful widgets…

I’m still waiting for the test update!

Yesterday comScore reported that internet viewers watched 12 billion videos online in May 2008. That’s up 45% from last year! Google laid claim to a full quarter of the traffic, with 4.2 billion, of which YouTube accounted for $4.1 billion.

Hulu (NBC / FOX) made a bit of a dent, however - YouTube did slump a little in the polls and Hulu took up the slack, which amounted to nice if tiny slice of the market share. Microsoft and Yahoo! Sites account for most of the rest of the pie.

Nonetheless, when it comes to Google Video, the giant is towered over by its own progeny. YouTube is still the most popular way to search for videos, outstripping MySpace and Hulu still - although that may not be so for much longer.

YouTube had 12.6 million unique visitors in May, compared with Google Video (7 M) and Yahoo Video ( 4.2M) The sharp spike from April made YouTube the fifth most gaining property on the web.

Some have gone to say YouTube is more influential now than even MTV, but considering that the average length of a video online is around a minute and a half, I’m not sure we’re talking about the same demographic here.

YouTube is a hotbed at the moment, due to Viacom’s lawsuit against Google over copyright infringement. Google was ordered to hand over user logs, causing a flurry of concern about privacy issues.

Viacom backed down a hair and agreed that substitutions of an anonymous code were acceptable to shield user identity in the material handed over. Viacom had filed the $1 billion suit claiming that over 1.5 billion views of video clips on YouTube were of some 160,000 pieces of unauthorized material.

Guess some of that MTV material is popular on YouTube too! Along with SpongeBob and stuff off of Comedy Central. Viacom is out for blood, and we shall have to see who pays the ultimate price; Google, YouTube or the users themselves.

In the meantime YouTube users can now combine add local search options to their viewing experience, leading to a rise in ‘prank videos, but really opening up the market for instructional videos from local stores, particularly in the sports and hobby field.