ArticleSnatch Blog

Okay, I understand that we're all trying to "give a jolt" to the economy. But I was still surprised today when Lycos provided a list of Christmas gift ideas two days before Thanksgiving Day. Aren't we all supposed to wait until Black Friday?

Nevertheless, for shoppers who like planning ahead -- or for online retailers and etailers looking for what will be hot this holiday season -- Lycos just announced its ninth annual list of the most popular toys and video games, based on web search activity.

(For a complete list and commentary of the Lycos Top Toys and Video Games of 2008, go to the Lycos 50. You can also voice your opinion on this year's list, and weigh in on weekly Internet trends and pop culture on the Lycos 50 Blog or follow the Lycos 50 on Twitter.)

It shouldn't come as a shock that Apple's iPod holds the top spot as the #1 most-searched for toy this holiday season. But this year, the Apple frenzy includes hot-searched items like the iTouch and iPod Nano.

Harry Potter, at #11, makes a fifth consecutive appearance in 2008, with Harry Potter games, books and DVDs dominating Harry Potter-themed searches.

New in 2008 is KOTA, the Triceratops Dinosaur (#15), generating more search interest than Fisher Price's New Elmo Live (#19). Meanwhile, not so hot in 2008 are Hannah Montana-related toy items, which made a big splash in 2007, but fail to make this year's list.

Spongebob Squarepants (#14) takes over as the top licensed character-themed toy of 2008. Spongebob was last seen on the Lycos Top Toy list in 2005. And when it comes to dolls, Barbie (#6) continues to reign, extending her run on the annual Lycos list of Top Toys and Video Games to nine consecutive years of appearing in the Top 10. But there's not enough data on Caribou Barbie to see if that will be a big hit this year -- let alone in 2012.

Gaming consoles see a big resurgence in search popularity in 2008, with the Nintendo Wii (#10) capturing the most search interest, generating 25% more search activity than the Xbox 360 (#12) and Playstation 3 (#13). Also seeing a resurgence in 2008 are old school classics like Monopoly (#17), despite the current housing market.

Five of the top 25 toys in 2008 originate from the popular world of anime including Naruto (#3), Pokemon (#4), Dragonball (#5), Inuyasha (#7) and Gundam (#16). Meanwhile, one new toy making the 2008 list may be unfamiliar to most adults, but if search activity is any indication, expect the Bakugan Battle Brawlers (#24) to be flying off the shelves this holiday season.

On the video game front, the massive multi-player game RuneScape (#1) scores big with web users for the fourth consecutive year as the most-searched video game of 2008, while Final Fantasy makes its first appearance on the list since 2005, with Final Fantasy XIII (#3). Also racking up points online, making first-ever appearances on the top video games list, are war-themed games including Call of Duty: World at War (#9) and Gears of War 2 (#14), while Guitar Hero World Tour (#8) and Wii Fit (#15) are the most popular Wii-themed games based on web searches in 2008.

Also new in 2008 are Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games Fable 2 (#17), Fallout 3 (#18), Street Fighter IV (#10), Dead Space (#19), Far Cry 2 (#22) and BioShock (#25). This also marks the fourth consecutive year the Madden football-themed games fail to make Lycos's Top Toys and Video Games list.

As for me, I don't do any Christmas shopping until the very last minute. That way, I don't have to figure where to hide presents where my three kids (or wife) can find them before December 24th. Yep, when I say "last minute Christmas shopping" I mean last minute shopping. You'd be surprised how simple decisions are on Christmas eve.

Yahoo! Live, a live streaming video product build on Brickhouse, will stop broadcasting December 3, 2008. In a statement on the Yahoo! Live blog, the Keith Thornhill said:

Our mission here on the Brickhouse team is to quickly develop product ideas that can add value to Yahoo! as a whole. To do this effectively we constantly evaluate our early-stage products and sometimes have to make the hard decision to move on, in order to continue exploring new territory and developing new products.

I, for one, will always hold dear a Yahoo! Live memory from this past summer. My family had (finally) just gotten a Nintendo Wii and my daughter and I live broadcasted our earliest Wii Sports matches.

On the other hand, I won't miss the creepy people who had less than the best intentions with live streaming.

Live Search's buzz search product, xRank, has launched a new feature. It's called xTreme movers and it shows you what's gaining popularity the fastest.

I headed over to the site to check it out. Today's quick mover is Wii, as in Nintendo's super-fun gaming system.

As you can see, a graph shows you a visual representation of how the term is growing. To the left is a list of the top terms that are trending up.

What do you think of xTreme Movers? Let us know in the comments.

Strong holiday sales of Wii and Nintendo DS portable game device allowed Japan’s Nintendo to more than double its quarterly operating profit and to raise its outlook ahead of market expectations.

read more

More: continued here

The Nintendo Wii can help develop surgical skills according to Kanav Kahol and Marshall Smith of the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

The two have found that surgical residents performed better during simulated surgery after playing on the Wii console. They say its due to the console’s "Wimote" control system, which allows players to direct on-screen action using a wireless remote that is sensitive to acceleration in three dimensions.

read more

More: continued here

Apparently the Queen of England has become a fan of Nintendo’s Wii console.

The British tabloid The People reported that the 81-year-old became interested in the Wii console after seeing her 25-year-old grandson Prince William play a game.

read more

More: continued here

Even with recent problems with its Xbox Live online service Microsoft had strong holiday sales of its video game console and kept its lead over competitors Nintendo and Sony.

read more

More: continued here

Yahoo! Search Blog discusses the new technology they’ve come up with. They say that making a blog involves collating pictures, links, maps, etc and that sometimes there’s "the hassle of digging up that supporting content… the most painful part.

So, to help bloggers address these pain points, we built Yahoo! Shortcuts for Wordpress — a technology that sits in the background and finds and offers content to help build out your post in real-time."

According to them the shortcuts can be helpful by setting you free from finding additional content and integrating it, and this would allow you to focus whole-heartedly on the writing part.

You can download the the Yahoo! Shortcuts plug-in here

It gets into action as you type, and "it will begin to find terms in your post such as company names and tickers, locations, news and product names — and, with no additional effort, integrates a roll-over or preview badge into your post." They cite an examples: "Crater Lake" brings up a map of Crater Lake to answer the "where the heck is that" question and "Citigroup" calls up a dynamic finance chart of the company’s stock performance. Similarly "…The product Shortcut (e.g. Nintendo Wii) displays the latest product reviews and price comparisons from retailers across the web via Yahoo! Shopping."

They say further that "Now, under Creative Commons licensing, we’ll recommend Flickr images based on the key themes of your post, with proper attribution to the original author of the picture included." A complete list of shortcuts has been made available by them here.

Photo Credits: Yahoo!

They say that they’ve made these capabilities to give the publisher control, it’s up to the publisher to select or reject the recommended content. Here’s a link to the tutorial or you can even learn about it at Yodel Anecdotal There’s also an offer from them, that the first 500 bloggers to install and use the plug-in will get some cool t-shirts."

Comments

Tags: Yahoo, Wordpress

More: continued here

The scarce Nintendo Wii ranked as the most searched-for item during the holidays, while Ugg boots drew the most luxury item queries.

If and when the Wii game console begins to be produced in sufficient numbers, it will slip from the top of queries made on search engines, especially around the holidays.

For now, analysis firm Hitwise has determined the Wii has been the top item searchers wanted to find, through the week ended December 8th. Uggs and Ugg boots followed it in searcher interest, with the iPod and the Nintendo DS filling in the top five most sought items in search.

Uggs outpaced Coach among luxury items, while Barbie led Build A Bear and American Girl in toys. Searchers apparently committed the unpardonable sin of looking for “Legos” instead of “Lego bricks,” the toymaker’s preferred pronunciation of the building toy.

In electronics, everything else chased the Wii. Digital picture frames, Nintendo DS, and Xbox 360 pulled plenty of searcher attention as well.

“Special consoles designed for children are also popular this year, with increased searches for products like the Leapfrog Leapster TV system and the Radica IM Me Wireless Text Messaging device,” said Heather Dougherty, director of research at Hitwise.

Search Engine, Holiday, Retail, Nintendo Wii, Ugg Boots

follow me on Twitter

More: continued here

The droves of Black Friday shoppers are just warming up. Last week, traffic to websites specifically dedicated to America’s Other Holiday was up 145 percent, dominated by new visitors and young women.

Hitwise reports that for the week ending November 17, 2007, visitors to Black Friday websites like bfads.net and BlackFridayAds.com were mostly (61%) women aged 25-34. Visitors in that age group were the highest in general, comprising 37 percent overall.

What’s also interesting is that these sites are attracting a majority of new users rather than return users. Overall, 61 percent of the traffic going to these sites were first-time visitors. BlackFridayAds.com received the highest number of new visitors with 73 percent, and BlackFriday.GottaDeal.com enjoyed the most return traffic with over 47 percent.

“As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, consumers are taking advantage of the information available on Black Friday websites to prepare shopping lists before setting their alarms to take advantage of the deals this weekend,” said Heather Dougherty, director of research at Hitwise.

“Retailers should monitor the Black Friday websites to see which promotions are driving discussion and excitement among shoppers to make sure that they have those products prominently placed on their websites and in stores.”

Hitwise also reveals that the most-searched-for products this year look a lot like the most-search-for-products last year. Shoppers this season are still hunting for iPods and Nintendo Wiis first and foremost.

Black Fridaye-commercemetrics

More: continued here