Top Story

• Confident Web users good for business
  Internet users are feeling more confident in their Web abilities, and that's good news for online marketers. People are spending more time online, and marketers can assume those people have the basics down. eMarketer (12/8)

	How secure is your customer data? Information leaks, not external hacks, cause the majority of data loss. However, most data loss prevention solutions do not distinguish between internal and external threats. When each leak can result in multi-million-dollar losses, it's time to be sure your clients' data is thoroughly protected. Read Prevent Data Loss and Comply with PCI to learn how to neutralize internal data loss threats.

Online Retail Trends

• Let your avatar try clothes on for you
  A MyShape.com executive hopes customers soon will be able to try on clothes while shopping online, using 3-D avatars with their measurements to get a precise fit. The executive plans to use digital video that also would take into account shoppers' posture and expressions. StorefrontBacktalk (12/7)

• Work together to weed out fraud
  There are several technological options to help online retailers fight fraud, but those retailers also need to band together to weed out the criminals from the legitimate customers. This article offers some suggestions for combating online fraud. CRM Buyer (12/6)

• Using physical attributes to power online-video search
  California-based VideoSurf is developing technology that uses facial-recognition software to allow online-video viewers to zoom directly to a certain scene without watching the whole video, according to this report. Another firm, Digitalsmiths in North Carolina, uses facial recognition along with other vision software to help companies that want to make their Web videos easier to find. International Herald Tribune (12/7)

New Media & Technology

• Are branded applications doomed?
  Marketers are having a difficult time luring Facebook users to their branded applications. But some experts criticize failed applications as being not particularly useful or socially minded, or linked closely to one-off campaigns. Adweek (12/8)

Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by Shop.org SmartBrief readers in the past week.

• How to write the perfect subject line (iMedia Connection)

• The stupidest gifts this holiday season (Reuters)

• Online retailers pull out all stops for Cyber Monday (ClipSyndicate)

• Google offers free tool to help online retailers (InternetRetailer.com)

• Holiday retail sales buoyed by Cyber Monday's success (NYTimes.com)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

Companies in the News

• FiftyOne eases way to going global
  FiftyOne, a division of E4X, is helping retailers go global by making it easier on the buying and selling ends. With its service, international shoppers don't have to log on to another Web site to pay, and retailers have to deal with only domestic billing and shipping. STORES magazine (12/2008)

• Online gift retailer in midst of great holiday season
  GettingPersonal.co.uk, the online retailer that sells diaries, calendars and other personalized gifts, is seeing substantial growth in the weeks before Christmas. In November, the company saw a 33% increase in online visitors compared with the same month the previous year. "One of the best things about these results is that we're converting the Web site visits into sales," co-founder Giles Harridge said. Manchester Evening News (U.K.) (12/8)

Interactive Advertising

• Top 100 global marketers for 2007
  Procter & Gamble, Unilever and L'Oreal placed at the top in Ad Age's 22nd annual Global Marketers report based on 2007 ad-spending data. General Motors Corp., which over the years had been a fixture in the top three, slipped to fourth place and was the only one of the top 10 to reduce ad spending last year. Advertising Age (tiered subscription model) (12/8)

Legislative & Regulatory

• Obama sees broadband expansion as part of economic recovery
  In a radio and Web address over the weekend, President-elect Barack Obama promised a broadband expansion during his administration. Pointing out that the U.S. ranks 15th in the world in terms of broadband adoption, Obama said "every child should have the chance to get online, and they'll get that chance when I'm president." Broadcasting & Cable (12/7)

Shop.org Spotlight

• Most standard shipping offers for Christmas delivery expire by Dec. 19, according to eHoliday study
  People buying gifts online this holiday season should consider not only the shopping days, but the shipping days before Christmas. According to the 2008 Shop.org eHoliday Study, conducted by Shopzilla, two-thirds of online retailers said the deadline to place orders for ground shipping with delivery by Christmas is on or before Friday, Dec. 19. But time is of the essence as more than one-third of retailers' ground-shipping deadlines will expire on or before Tuesday, Dec. 16. Read more here.

• Retail container traffic falls for 16th straight month
  Year-over-year cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports fell for the 16th straight month in November, leaving 2008 on track to be the slowest year since 2004 as the U.S. economic downturn continues, according to the monthly Port Tracker report released by NRF and IHS Global Insight. Read more here.

SmartQuote

What great changes have not been ambitious?" --Melinda Gates, co-founder of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation