When Google's current director of product management arrived at his desk this morning, he did so for the last time, according to a new report. Keval Desai is supposed to be leaving Google in order to start a position at Digg. Desai - who's been with Google for about six and a half years - didn't exactly do unimportant work. In fact, he led the development of AdWords, which is one of the search giant's most recognizable products, and was also a force behind TV Ads,

Newsweek columnist Dan Lyons is prone to writing (and saying, if you've been fortunate enough to be entertained hearing him speak in conference hall as I have) outrageous things. We wouldn't expect anything less of a man who writes a faux blog dubbed The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. So I braced myself when I read his latest column " Google This! " in which he describes the evolving business models and modern warfare tactics of Google and Microsoft, or Google Vs. Microsoft,

eZanga is spreading holiday cheer in a big way this year. So far they've donated thousands to the following: M.O.T. Big Ball M.O.T. Senior Center Toys for Tots Fulfilling wishlists for local kids and seniors Do you have a "Search Gives Back" story to share? Contact me here and let me know.

Bing has released its top queries for 2009 . The late King of Pop tops the list, followed by a popular social network and a pandemic disease.

Over at Focus.com, they've graphed out some juicy data collected by the National Retail Federation and comScore showing that Cyber Monday is not the biggest online shopping day of the year. Not yet, at least. Every year, the biggest online shopping day of the year becomes earlier and earlier. In 2000, it was December 18. Last year, it was December 9, a Tuesday. Most of the biggest days of the past 9 years have landed on Mondays. If this trend keeps up,

If a French court has its way, eBay will soon have to fork over $2.6 million. The fine stems from a ban on the sale (or purchase) of LVMH goods, and actually ties to a case that ended in eBay being told to pay LVMH $61 million. LVMH, which is the entity behind luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Tag Heuer, and De Beers, won a major case against eBay in June of last year. LVMH claimed to be concerned about the sale of counterfeit merchandise,

by Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Leftover turkey soup recipes (Searches increased by 4,183%). Yes, there is a reason to keep the carcass â?" it makes for a hearty soup . Minarets (+1,925%). Apparently, the Swiss are not fans . Soul Train Awards 2009 (+867%). The music award show is back this year, and Beyonce ruled . Cyber Monday sales 2009 (+527%). Yes,

Google has launched a new Deals page , almost two months after Ask.com unveiled their new Deals site. Google's Deals page features the 900 retailers included in Google Checkout. The Deals site ain't pretty either: You can access the Google Deals site at www.google.com/checkout/deals.html Meanwhile, Google is taking on Yahoo! in Times Square. You might remember Yahoo! is offering free Wifi in Times Square .

Thanksgiving was last week, and I thought about doing a post to thank the people who contribute to Wordpress core, since this is a group of people I’m thankful for on a daily basis. I started a draft, and then realized that with 2.9 in beta, we’ll have a release announcement sometime in the next few weeks (barring unforeseen complications, etc), and all the core contributors will be thanked then. Though I think it’s worth giving thanks every day for the people who make WordPress possible, I don’t like to clutter up anyone’s feed readers with repetitive posts, so I decided to wait until today for my post, and to focus solely on the other group I’d planned to include: support forum volunteers.

Forum volunteers don’t get a lot of flashy attention. There aren’t flame wars about whether or not the support forums should be commercial instead of free and community-run. There generally aren’t big arguments and debates over whose point of view is the right one. What the forums do have is amazing volunteers who give their time to help other WordPress users and developers learn. People who only know a little answer easy questions that maybe they’ve only recently learned the answers to themselves. People with more expert skills help troubleshoot larger issues. If someone offers advice that could be better, others will add their solutions to the mix. Of all the WordPress users I’ve met in person, not one person got started without visiting the forums. In many cases, people turn to the forums even before the Codex. In the support forums, I see a lot of what is best about our community, and almost none of that which is not.*

Without further ado, here’s my thank you to the volunteers who make the support forums work. Without them, we would be less than what we are today. I’m listing people by their Wordpress.org usernames, since that’s how you see them in the forums.

Official WordPress.org Support Forum Moderators

These are the people who’ve officially got your back and have been active in the past few months. See them at a WordCamp? Buy them a beer! Otto42,  jeremyclark13, MichaelH, samboll, Chris_K. MichaelH suggested we also recognize Moshu, Podz, Kafkaesqui for past meritorious service.

The Honor Roll
These people are not official moderators, but their knowledge and activity levels have caught the attention of those who are. A big round of thanks to these folks for selflessly sharing their knowledge with other WordPress users.

Most active volunteers, nominated by more than one official moderator for recognition (for the reasons given):
alchymyth – “Overall knowledge”
apljdi – “Overall knowledge and programming skills”
t31os_ – “Programming skills”
whooami – “For her security responses” “Knows her stuff”

Generally active volunteers, nominated by official moderators for recognition:
esmi, ClaytonJames, numeeja, stvwlf, buddhatrance, songdogtech, alism, alchymyth, Ipstenu, RVoodoo, jdingman, kmessinger, ArnoldGoodway, Shane G., figaro, jonimueller, blepoxp, cais, mfields, designdolphin, doc4, greenshady, mercime, mrmist, bh_WP_fan , henkholland, krembo99, jdembowski, pboosten, adiant, andrea_r, GDHosting, Gangleri.

Some newcomers who’ve been getting active:
a_johnson, equalmark, WebTechGlobal, kymac.

And an additional shoutout to plugin authors who take an active role in moderating threads regarding their plugins, again nominated by official moderators for recognition:
scribu, GDragoN, sivel, MikeChallis, GamerZ, alexrabe, arnee, sociable, takayukister, hallsofmontezuma, joostdevalk, filosofo, roytanck, donncha, Hiroaki Miyashita, manojtd, froman118, error, Viper007Bond, alexkingorg, cavemonkey50, azaozz, aaroncampbell, isa.goksu, flipper, joedolson, redwallhp, eight7teen, orenshmu, WebGeek, Otto42, toddiceton, the_dead_one, mywpplugin, MattyRob, markjaquith, TobiasBg, Txanny, elfin, jolley_small, stastoc, anmari, micropat, frekel.

One more time, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who contributes to the support forums at WordPress.org.

As we close out 2009 and get closer to 2010, it would be great for us to start thinking about some ways we could make it easier/more rewarding for people to be involved in the forums and other aspects of the open source project. I’ve started a forum thread to discuss some ideas with the thought that we can try a couple after the holidays and see what takes.

* I say almost because let’s face it, we all get caught in the traps of trolls sometimes, and patience can be hard to keep when someone is a jerk. So a reminder to all who use the forums: be nice to the people who are trying to help you!

P.S. While I’m at it, here’s another tip/request. Search the forums for your problem before posting; if it’s already been answered before (often more than once), you’re kind of wasting people’s time by posting it again without trying the previous solutions first. Please respect the time of the volunteers by searching first (and mention in your post what you’ve already tried).

comScore is releasing its first round of data for the 2009 Christmas shopping season, and the news is much better than last year. Last year , online shopping on Black Friday was up only 1% from the year previous, coming in at $534 million. Well, this year online shopping on Black Friday came in at $595 million, up 11% over 2008. Spending in November so far is up 3% compared to last year.