Over the past three weeks, I’ve been to SES London 2010, OMS 2010 in San Diego, and SMX West 2010 in Santa Clara. As The Grateful Dead would say, “What a long strange trip it’s been.”

I’ve reported most of the top stories from those three events:  Read more... (738 words, 2 images, estimated 2:57 mins reading time)

• 1,500 attendees watch Avinash Kaushik, Google Analytics Evangelist, kick off SES London 2010
• Bryan Eisenberg shares 21 secrets of top converting websites at SES London 2010
• Jim Sterne tackles social media metrics at SES London 2010
• Sneak previews of Online Marketing Summit 2010 and SES San Diego

With ChaCha’s vast database of questions and answers, it was only a matter of time before the data was mined for market research. ChaCha has released a study conducted by Frost & Sullivan, which attempts to delve into the dangerous and murky minds of teenagers and young adults in order to gain perspective on brand preferences.

“Teens rely on their mobile devices as their primary media and they ask ChaCha over a million questions each day providing insights on their brand attitudes and actions,” says Scott Jones, CEO of ChaCha. “Along with the search query and answer string, ChaCha also has insights into other metrics related to the end user-including demographics, location, and device type.”  Read more... (574 words, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

It’s no secret that Google had a strong fourth quarter to end 2009. Their earnings last week showed it and we’ve already seen it in a report from Efficient Frontier.

Taking a look at two more quarterly reports, from Adgooroo and SearchIgnite, we see more of the same. Google continues its dominance in search advertising.

Adgooroo

SearchIgnite

Despite Bing’s steady gains in search query share since launch, they don’t seem to be capturing the hearts of advertisers. From speaking with advertisers, the problem seems to be AdCenter, which is frustrating on many levels for those with bucks to spend.  Read more... (167 words, 2 images, estimated 40 secs reading time)

The Conference Board has released data showing online job listings rising by 255,000 last month. The average monthly increase of jobs for 2009 was just 60,000.

“Employers’ modest increase in demand for labor in the second half of 2009 is a nice way to end what has been a very challenging year,” said Gad Levanon, Senior Economist at The Conference Board.

Online job listings still remain below average. While the total number of vacancies last month was 3,642,000, the average for 2008 was 4,481,000.  Read more... (380 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Indeed is a job search aggregator. If you conduct a job search on Indeed, it will pull opportunities posted to a variety of job boards including Career Builder, Dice, etc. as well as corporate sites.

Today, they’ve revealed the fastest growing job opportunities for 2009.

1. Twitter
2. Cloud Computing
3. iPhone
4. Facebook
5. Corporate Social Responsibility
6. Blogger
7. Pediatrician
8. Hospitalist
9. Social Media
10. Speech Language Pathologist (SLP)

With high unemployment rates in the past year, many have chosen to look at new careers. This list may help you find a new path if you’re struggling to find work.

eBay is seeing a big payoff for getting into the mobile game early. Their iPhone app has been downloaded by 6 million users and they see 175,000 visits a day via mobile apps.

This year, half a billion dollars of transactions were made on eBay via mobile. And it’s not just “safe” inexpensive items as people are trying out the apps. Mobile eBay purchases included designer handbags and a $75,000 1966 Chevrolet Corvette.

“Mobile is changing the way people shop this holiday season,” said Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay marketplaces. “We see consumers taking advantage of that freedom to find great holiday gifts and deals without sitting at their computer or being stuck at the mall.”  Read more... (178 words, estimated 43 secs reading time)

If you want to avoid the malls, find a good deal or are snowed in, then doing a little holiday shopping online is the way to go. And, boy, did you go there last weekend.

comScore showed a 13% increase for the last weekend before Rudolph guides the jolly man’s sleigh. Coremetrics showed a 24% jump for Friday and Saturday and a 20% jump for Sunday.

Still doesn’t explain why you still left 38% shopping to complete this week….

The Google Retail blog has been good at passing along juicy little nuggets of data regarding the holidays. The latest does not disappoint. And it explains why you can’t find a parking space at the mall.

As of this past Sunday, the average shopper had 38% of their shopping left to complete. Perhaps, the East Coast snowstorm didn’t help. Then again, you could have at least researched gift ideas while curled up on your couch and roasting chestnuts on an open fire.

But noOOooo. 14% of you haven’t even started researching. 17% haven’t even bought a single gift.  Read more... (116 words, estimated 28 secs reading time)

comScore has released updated data for the 2009 online holiday shopping season. The trending increase in spending has continued, largely along the same numbers we saw last week:

Analysts expect “Green Monday,” the biggest online shopping day of the year, to occur today, December 14. It’s possible that the one day total could surpass $900 million. If that happens, it will be the first time in history.

Keeping our fingers crossed….

Seniors have been one of the fastest growing demographics on the Internet for awhile. New data from Nielsen Online shows that 6 million more seniors are surfing the web than there were five years ago.

So, what are they doing while hitting the interpipes? Let’s just say email is not dead. Oh, and grandma likes to keep track of what you’re doing on Facebook. Especially since you lost your phone manners to texting a long time ago.