I swore I would never do it. My friend swore she'd never do it. And still, after months of fighting the urge, we both did it. We both spent money in-game in order to advance play. A mighty eagle, here, an extra life there. The question now is, where will it end? If Juniper Research is right, it may not end until we're both out on the street begging for change in order to buy Words with Friends tokens. Juniper says we )all of us, not just my friend and I( spent $2.

The average, large company in the US has 178 corporate-owned social media accounts. I'll let that sink in for a moment. Twitter has the highest number with an average of 39.2 accounts per company and Facebook is right in there with 29.9. Here's the full layout from Altimeter's new report: "A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation.

Statistics are a funny thing. 118% growth and 6.7 billion sound like great numbers. But let's take a look at how things really add up. This chart from eMarketer shows some amazing growth in the mobile commerce market. Look at that 118.8% increase in 2010. Sounds great, until you realize that prior to 2010, mobile commerce didn't really exist. It was just people using the internet access on their phones in order to buy something. The dollar hop from $3.5 billion to $6.

QR codes are popping up everywhere. Not long ago, these mysterious patterned squares could be found in an occasional magazine or on a mailer. Now you can find them on grocery displays, packaging, even on bus shelters. More QR codes must mean more people are using them! Right? Sort of. A new study from Chadwick Martin Bailey shows that people are scanning, but they don't know what do with the results. Here's a visual from Marketing Charts : I'm part of that top line, too.

When I was a kid, holiday toy shopping for my mom meant cracking open the Sears Wish Book. She'd chose the items from our lists, call in the order and everything would arrive on the doorstep a few days later. No need to step inside a toy store at all. Times haven't changed all that much. Today, parents are still avoiding the aisles by doing a large amount of toy shopping online. Even when they don't buy online, the internet is influencing their decisions on what to buy.

Today we ponder the question, if people stopped loading videos on the internet right now, how long would it take to watch everything that's already been submitted? These are the kinds of things that keep me up at night. It's like calculating how long it would take me to watch every minute of every DVD I own. I don't know that either feat could be accomplished in the time we have on this earth. According to Nielsen , 166.

People say they want something new and different, but the truth is, we gravitate toward old, familiar images and brands. Sometimes these brands return with a clever, modern update )Can you say, "Old Spice."( Other times, it's just the mere reminder of why we loved them in the first place that makes us a fan all over again. Forbes has just released their list of brands they expect to make a comeback in 2012 . Let's take a look and see if you agree.

I spent my New Year's weekend watching a Project Runway marathon. At least once per episode, I saw a commercial for a website called JustFab.com. In it, a group of women are the office, they're all looking at the same computer monitor as they "ooh" and "wow" and their eyes are dilating and they're getting all excited. Obviously, you're supposed to think they're looking at content that isn't work safe, but it turns out it's all over shoes. Personally,

There are lots of rumors flying this morning about a potential, hefty price drop in iPad 2 when the iPad 3 comes to market. On the surface, this doesn't seem like news at all. It makes sense to discount older versions of technology in order to make way for the new, but how low will Apple go? That's the big question. It all stems from a report that claims Apple is going to release two versions of iPad 3,

Facebook, Twitter, Google+, it's hard to imagine there's a company out there who isn't using some form of social media to reach their customers. Hard to imagine, and yet it appears to be true. Take a look at this chart from eMarketer. More than half of the organizations surveyed said they were either doing nothing or just getting into social media. Only 16% said it was fully integrated. Really? What's everyone waiting for? eMarketer has the answer to that question,

New Year's resolutions. Love 'em, hate 'em, you can't hardly live without them. Even if you don't write them down or announce them to the world, they're there. We can't help ourselves. There's something about the start of a new year that makes us all decide it's time to be better, smarter, richer, thinner or happier. I can't help you with the thinner or happier part, but here are 5 New Year's resolutions that could make you a better, smarter,

I spent much of my Christmas holiday trying to clear a virus off my son's computer. It was the worst one I'd ever seen. Like a monster from one of those Syfy original movies, it kept growing and mutating, blocking every move I made to try and destroy it. How did he get the virus? Good question. The usual suspects come to mind; file sharing, clicking on suspicious links, hanging online with an unsavory crowd. Turns out getting a virus, or worse,

About a week ago, Myspace took a big leap forward but hardly anyone noticed. It's part of their new owner's push to become a "leading social entertainment destination" and you gotta give them kudos for trying. Myspace is, after all, one of the classics in social media so I'd hate to see them go down without a fight. This new round is all about the music. In its heyday,

We just looked at the dollars, now let's hear from the customers who spent their holiday dollars online. ForeSee has just released the results of their Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index and overall, it's looking good. They ranked the Top 40 E-Retailers and came up with an average index number of 79. 80 is considered excellent. Prior to 2009, the scores averaged 75, which means consumers are now happier in their online shopping experiences.

Yesterday, we talked about the rise in the Consumer Confidence Index and today we're seeing the proof in the online pudding. comScore checked in with every, single e-commerce site, then tallied up the holiday shopping numbers . Compared to the same shopping weeks last year, 2011 came in 15% higher. And here's a chart that lays it all out for you in black and white. Okay,

GoDaddy CEO Warren Adelman got a Christmas card from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. It said simply, "welcome to my world." It all began when GoDaddy announced that they were supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA. The act calls for a block on any domain that allows the posting of materials protected by copyright. Sounds reasonable, until you realize that Facebook could be blocked if someone posts a celebrity photo that is owned by one of the big licensers like Getty.

The Consumer Confidence Index is up for the second month in a row, rising to 64.5 in December from 55.2 in November. The survey, which was conducted by random sample by Nielsen for The Conference Board, showed an improvement in both current conditions and hope for the new year. The Present Situation Index increased to 46.7 from 38.3. 16.6% said the business conditions are "good," up from 13.9%.

In 2011, small business owners in Singapore set up shop on LiveJournal and completed transactions worth $72 million USD. They call them "blogshops" and there are over 50,000 of them currently running on the social blogging site. Livejournal recently released a statement about their success and it is pretty amazing, mostly because it's a singularly Singaporean phenomenon. They say the businesses are mostly small,

Last night, after the gifts were opened and the holiday glow was being to wear off, I saw a TV commercial for Wal-mart that shook me to the core. Wal-mart opens at 5 a.m. on December 26 for the the biggest, blow-out, post holiday sale ever. I had instant Black Friday flashbacks. Seriously? 5 a.m.? I used to be a big post holiday shopper, but like 44% of the people Consumer Reports polled, I can't deal with the crowds.

Do you know what confuses me? Advertising. I don't understand why these little boxes with product names show up on web pages I visit. And I really don't understand why people interrupt my TV shows with short videos about cars and food and cleaning products. What's the point? If only there was someone who could explain it all to me! Oh, wait! Now there is!