Wednesday Internet Digest

ADS:
* Online display ads US: 115.2 bn in November (-7% mom) (NetRatings AdRelevance)

SEARCH:
* Technology: Univ of California establishes Reliable, Adaptive and Distributed Systems Lab, funded by Google, Microsoft, Sun ($7.5m); Yahoo! establishes Research Center in NYC
* Vertical: Google ads music listings
* Market shares US: 5.1 bn queries in October (images 328m), Google 48%, Yahoo! 21.8%, MSN 11.3%, AOL 7.2%, Ask 2.6% (NetRatings)
* Click fraud: Think (formerly CGI) acquires Litmus Media (detection system)

COMMERCE:
* Holidays US online: peak day Dec 12, $556m (comScore); sales Nov 1 – Dec 16 $15 bn (+23% yoy; comScore)
* Comparison shopping: Experian (= GUS) acquires PriceGrabber.com, $485m

CONTENT:
* HowStuffWorks attracts funding from Carl Icahn (‘tens of millions’)

WEB 2.o:
* User-gen content: Wikipedia quality rivals Encyclopedia Britannica (Nature survey), plans 2 versions (stable reveiwed version and live version), plans registration for contributors, starts fundraising
* Podcasts: Washington Post enters (ad-supported)

COMMUNICATION:
* Meebo (web-based IM, with AJAX) attracts $3.5m funding from Sequoia

OS, BROWSERS, OFFICE:
* Word processing: Writely.com (= Upstartle) adds PDF conversion (first premium service)

CORPORATE:
* IPO: Buy.com plans 18.9m shares at $11-13