When news came out that Bing went down for half an hour, I personally didn't give it much thought since I wasn't using it that time. And then the Bing search blog posted an explanation for the downtime the same time that the news about it is starting to spread. And then that's it. But looking deeper into the meaning of things and believing in the saying that there's a purpose for everything, it got me thinking yes,

This is an additional post in my series on managing several online identities . This post looks at the 3 ways to be logged in different account on one site with FireFox. CookiePie CookiePie is a Firefox extension that enables you to maintain different cookies storage in different tabs and windows: Download and install the tool; Use the tab's context menu to enable CookiePie and login to any site on this tab; Open a new site, go to the same site and login again.

Well, it's been quite awhile since we heard of any Google acquisition. I can't even remember what was the last company it bought. But anyway, Christmas comes early for Appjet Inc., which runs Etherpad an online collaboration tool as they have just been acquired by Google , possibly to beef up  - Google Wave. Appjet's Etherpad is an online collaboration tool that lets users import Microsoft Word docs, web pages, PDFs and text files. Once imported,

Amazon.com has introduced a "Textbooks Trade-In" program, which allows people to exchange used textbooks in return for an Amazon gift card. Users can search for the book on Amazon they want to trade and view how much credit they will receive in the form of a gift card. If the offer seems reasonable, users can print a pre-paid shipping label and put the book in the mail.

Another sign of the importance a certain search giant places on Google Wave came today as the acquisition of a company called AppJet was announced. AppJet offers a product that mirrors certain aspects of Google Wave, only since it's been around for a little longer, may have one or more legs up. Here are some of AppJet's vital stats: it was founded in mid-2007. It's received about $715,000 in funding to date.

After putting real-time and streaming quotes to its financial site, Google is again at it, this time adding real-time, self-updating financial news stream to Google Finance, the hopes that financial workers would turn to their financial services site to give them the edge in the market. Google Finance will feature news stories minute by minute, all throughout the day.

We're well into the holiday season now, in terms of having sites ready for holiday sales. That said, it's never too late to improve your site. Your sales may depend on it. There are lot of key ingredients that go into the recipe of a successful e-commerce site: marketing, analytics, customer service, prices, competition, and the list goes on. Somewhere in there is design, and more importantly, usability. With said holiday season in full swing,

Some people tend to shrug their shoulders when presented with options. Others know exactly what they want. For this second set - or at least the members of the second set who work for advertising agencies - a new Video Targeting tool from YouTube promises to be of great use. A post on the YouTube Blog explained,

Google has ended a two-month test of simplified local listings designed to help small businesses target ads to geographic searches. The program, called Local Listing Ads, was offered free during the trial period. The sign-up period is now closed and ads will stop running by the middle of the month. According to a Google statement, the company is using data from the trial period to improve its small business offerings in general and expects to release an enhanced version soon.

Posted by inflatemouse This post was originally in YOUmoz , and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc. In late October Forum One Networks put out a white paper titled "Online Community and Social Media Compensation." I applaud their efforts, but, I think they create an unrealistic view of the job space in online media . One,