Analyst Imran Kahn weighs in on the holiday shopping season. The not surprising answer: overall sales will be down. But online fares better. Plus Hitwise reports on the online winners on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. 

After getting slammed last year for its “Beacon” advertising program, Facebook is trying again with “Connect,” a similar service but with more user control over privacy concerns. And by pooling user preferences with partner sites, Connect also opens up some intriguing new revenue opportunities. 

The German publishing house Axel Springer Verlag bought a 10 percent share in Dogan Yayin Holding, the largest Turkish media group in a deal worth €47 million.

Facebook has just won an $873 million judgment against a Canadian spammer. And a new paid ad program for Twitter is further complicating the line between legit and bogus.

Online display advertising vendor AdBrite is switching from cost-per-impression to cost-per-click as a way of combating the economic downturn. 

Contextual ad company ContextWeb has launched new functionality that targets Spanish-speakers. It also hired former Time Warner exec Joe Kutchera.

Vijay Ravindran has been named senior vice president and chief digital officer of The Washington Post Company. 

The San Francisco Chronicle has increased the newsstand price for its daily print edition to 75 cents.

Six Apart, the blog software vendor behind TypePad and MoveableType, has launched the “TypePad Journalist Bailout Program” that gives free accounts to laid off journalists.

Whether running their kids to the soccer game, or running for vice president of the United States, moms have been getting a lot of media attention recently. So what’s the opportunity for mom-oriented Web sites and advertising online. We take a look in this in-depth report.

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The digital space for ‘moms’ sites in Europe is starting to grow. Here’s a look at the major players and their potential.

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New startup HandMeDowns.com calls itself classifieds for moms. It’s an aggregator where parents can buy, sell and give away the toys, clothes and strollers that their kids too quickly outgrow.

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Why is Gannett going after the “moms” category with MomsLikeMe? An interview with Gannett VP Peter Lundquist.

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Canada’s Yellow Pages Group will resell My Virtual Paper allowing advertisers to quickly convert print to online.

Revenue at Focus Media Holding, China’s leading digital-advertising company, is not what investor’s expected, showing weakness in the Chinese economy overall.

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Some surprising data: Blackberry users are big MySpace fans: 400,000 downloaded the MySpace app last week.

WebVisible, which provides tools to manage ad campaigns for local businesses, has acquired search marketer Adapt Technologies.

Media Swiss Group, operator of a number of classified platforms and since December 2007 80%-owned by Switzerland’s biggest media group Ringier, is about to expand into Serbia.