If you're anything like us, you've been neglecting your usual news diet over the last couple weeks. While we all know that neglect doesn't extent to ClickZ (perish the thought), we've put together the below summary of our recent stories on the year that was and what lies ahead in 2010 - just in case. Enjoy! 2010 Will Be a Decisive Year for Ad Privacy and Regulation by Jack Marshall The legal debate about behavioral targeting is likely to come to a head in the new year,

by Mike Krumboltz Over the holidays, you may have noticed friends and family members asking if such-and-such side dish was "gluten-free." And, you, perhaps perplexed, might have answered with this completely understandable reply: "What the heck is gluten?" Well, wonder no more. Here's the scoop on the latest in ostracized ingredients. Gluten is "a mixture of plant proteins occurring in cereal grains, chiefly corn and wheat, used as an adhesive and as a flour substitute.

As Facebook employees went back to work this week, they may have been smiling more (or at least less frowning less) than most other people returning from vacation. Their site performed admirably over the holidays, actually attracting record-breaking amounts of traffic. On Tuesday, we documented the fact that Facebook received more traffic than Google on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. That made it the most visited U.S. site for the first time ever. This afternoon,

After over a million downloads of WordPress 2.9 and lots of feedback from all of you, we’re releasing WordPress  2.9.1.  This release addresses a handful of minor issues as well as a rather annoying problem where scheduled posts and pingbacks are not processed correctly due to incompatibilities with some hosts.  If any of these issues affect you, give 2.9.1 a try.  Download 2.9.1 or upgrade automatically from the Tools->Upgrade menu in your blog’s admin area.

I've seen a ton of blog posts and articles regarding the unhip situation that is parents friending their kids on Facebook . It's all backwards. The truly socially tragic situation is when your kids friend YOU on Facebook. Recently, I caught my 11 year old daughter saying to her 12 year old brother, "Stop being a douchebag!" I was stunned. Naturally, I reprimanded, "Don't say that!" The retort: "You said it on your Facebook page." And the follow up: "What is a douchebag anyway?

The 2009 holiday online shopping season began with a 3% increase over 2008. But as the season progressed, so did the shopping. Soon, there was a 4% increase. And just when it seemed like that's as good as it was gonna get, a final point increase came in at the last minute. In the end, e-commerce was up 5% over the dismal 2008 shopping season, according to comScore numbers: For a look back on tracking e-commerce through the 2009 holiday season,

After beating Google for most web visits on Christmas Day , Facebook once again whooped up on Google on New Year's Day . Granted, the margin wasn't as large, but since Google is the clear winner every day, it's nice to see someone else wear the crown here and there. Facebook is a great way to connect with a bunch of people all at once. Update your status with Happy New Year and it goes out to your entire network - family, friends, coworkers - whoever you've allowed in.

Since 2006 I've written-up a review of the SEOptimise blog in terms of stats and analytics. As it's an interesting time to look back on how the site has progressed,

At the moment, the Zimbra homepage bears a "BUY ZIMBRA" button and a stamp reading "a Yahoo division." But according to a new report, a sale of Zimbra (and not just a Zimbra product) may soon take place, making "a VMware division" a more accurate statement. Kara Swisher wrote earlier today, "Yahoo is close to selling its Zimbra unit to VMware, according to several sources close to the situation. . . . Sources said the deal will be announced soon,

As 2009 came to a close, Google managed to get SEOs riled up for one last controversial topic. For some time, SEOs and web designers have been noticing that Google has not been showing local listings in search results for queries related to their businesses - even location-specific ones. Should SEOs and designers be worried about local listings? Comment here . As Matt McGee mentions in a Search Engine Land piece,