Monday, December 14th was dubbed “Green Monday” because experts predicted it would be the biggest online shopping day of the year.  They were disappointed when sales dipped by 1%.  Imagine their surprise when Tuesday became the first day in history that online sales reached 900 million dollars (913 to be exact).  This means that the overall increase of online shopping is 4% from last year!

Here’s the breakdown, courtesy of Search Engine Watch:

We wish you a happy and successful Holiday season!

You can watch our entire elf dance at JibJab.

Rising search terms "gift cards" using Google Insights

Gift card searches are hot again this year.  Of course gift card searches are always hot keywords this time of year (as seen below), but it has been highlighted by companies’ low inventories due to the recession (and their preparation for the worst).  If your company offers gift cards, it’s a great time to capitalize on these keywords for your Pay-Per-Click advertising campaigns.  If your company does not offer gift cards, it might be a good idea to get them.  Increased December traffic is also important to factor into your SEM budget.

2004-Present "gift card" search spikes

Sources: Nathania Johnson of Search Engine Watch & Google Insights

Happy Holidays from Google (via Google Press)!

47 Airports will be featuring free Wi-Fi for the Holiday season, ending January 10th, thanks to Google.  Google is teaming with Boingo Wirless, Airport Marketing Income, Advanced Wireless Group and others to provide this free service for all the flustered travelers of the season.  

“We’re very happy to extend our Holiday Wi-Fi gift to the millions of people who will spend time in airports over the next few months,” said Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience at Google. “We know that this is a very hectic travel season for people, and we hope that free Wi-Fi will make both traveling and connecting with friends and family a little bit easier.”

It is sure to make the people who have to travel over the Holidays for business happy as well!

Here is a list of airports where the free Wi-Fi service will be available.

-source: google.com/press