mThink

The affiliate marketing industry is already being burned by BS intellectual property law suits in the form of Essociate’s patented claim to have invented affiliate network technology, but in this week’s ridiculous I.P. news we hear that Apple is likely to have to pay $1 billion to obtain the "iPad" trademark in China.

comScore released figures this week showing that Cyber Monday now extends through the entire week. The week ending December 2nd showed $5.96 billion dollars in consumer spending online. The holiday season to date – from November 1st – has seen $18.7 billion dollars spent, a 15% increase over 2010.

Google is planning to dominate online purchasing. In the last few weeks we have seen several moves that, taken together, give a clear sense of how Google is intending to take money away from every network, every portal and every major competitor. Google no longer wants to be the "search" part of the buying funnel. It wants to be the buying funnel.