We’re Holiday Shopping Online With iPads for iPads

That said, all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.

A Big Digital Kiss to Britannica: Change — It Is Okay (Look It Up!)

Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky.

Tasty Geek: Nathan Myhrvold Takes His Modernist Cuisine to “Top Chef”

A side of patent troll pâté anyone?

Stock Trades Near 52-week High on Message That It's an All "New eBay"

Two years ago, eBay’s CEO John Donahoe promised Wall Street analysts massive changes to improve the company’s e-commerce experience. Today, he says it’s all “new eBay.”

News Byte

EBay Beats Street on Revenue, Profit

Helped again by its thriving PayPal unit, eBay today reported Q4 revenue of $2.5 billion, a five percent increase year-over-year, and non-GAAP income of $683.8 million, or 52 cents per diluted share. Analysts had been expecting 47 cents EPS on $2.49 billion in revenue, on average. The PayPal unit saw a 26 percent jump in total payment volume, to $26.87 billion, adding more than $5 billion in additional payment volume.

Nielsen Claims Microsoft's Bing Moves to No. 2 Search Slot Over Yahoo

In what will surely cause a firestorm of controversy in the search arena today, the Nielsen Co. is reporting that–for the first time–Bing has pushed past Yahoo in August to become the No. 2 search engine in the United States. That contrasts with the July report from comScore, which shows that Bing had an 11 percent share and Yahoo had a 17.1 percent share.

Exclusive: Is Yahoo Japan Poised to Switch to Google Search?

In what would be a stunning blow to the massive search alliance between Microsoft and Yahoo, Google is apparently zeroing in on a deal to grab the algorithmic search business for Yahoo Japan, said several sources. The agreement between Yahoo Japan–which is an independent company–and the U.S. search giant could be announced as early as today in Japan, sources said, and could be part of a larger deal between the two companies around mobile or other products. If they join together, the pair will control almost the entire market share of search in the Japanese market. Paid search is apparently not part of this deal at this time.

A Verizon iPhone in January? I’ll Believe It When I See It.

If Verizon iPhone stories are a dime a dozen, here’s 0.833333 cents’ worth. “Two people familiar with the plans” tell Bloomberg that Verizon will begin peddling the Apple phone in January, after AT&T’s exclusivity deal expires.

Nearly Two Billion Tweets a Month; Giddy Foursquare Mayors Suspected

Here’s a promising metric for Twitter and its newly launched advertising system: The microblogging service hosted nearly two billion tweets in May. This according to analytics house Pingdom, which says that number is about double what it was last December.

Here's What Analysts Should Be Asking About at Yahoo's Investor Day: The Microsoft Search Deal (And No Silver Bullets)

This morning, Yahoo is holding its annual investor day at its Silicon Valley HQ, starring CEO Carol Bartz and a panoply of top execs at the Internet giant. While this kind of dog-and-pony show is typical for companies–an effort to get all chummy with institutional investors and financial analysts and convince them that there is a grand scheme for the road ahead–what’s really at stake is a need to cover over the problems and play up the pretty, shiny new parts. But it’s probably more helpful for those in analog attendance to focus on some key issues that are present and accounted for right now and grill Yahoo relentlessly about them.

Nokia: 2010 Will Be Better–We Promise