The Salvation Army has launched a new free iPhone application in an effort to improve its fundraising for its Red Kettle Campaign. Developed by Charity Dynamics, the Online Red Kettle iPhone app allows people to do their own fundraising campaigns on behalf of the Salvation Army. Virtual bell ringers are an essential part of The Salvation Army's annual Red Kettle campaign, and now our new mobile app enables these online fundraisers to make an even greater difference,

Yahoo is asking its users to come together this holiday season and make a difference through simple acts of kindness. The campaign, called How Good Grows, encourages people to do random acts of kindness and update their online status to get others to join in. The kindness.yahoo.com website allows people to post status messages that can be shared across their social networks )Yahoo Updates, Facebook, Twitter(.

Online spending for the first 33 days of the November-December 2010 holiday season has reached $16.8 billion, representing a 12 percent increase over the same time period last year, according to the latest report from comScore. The most recent week saw four individual days surpass $800 million in spending, led by Cyber Monday, which became the heaviest online spending day on record at $1.028 billion. Tuesday, November 30 reached $911 million,

Online retailer Overstock.com said today it has been ranked #1 for employee satisfaction in a Glassdoor.com survey commissioned by Forbes. The company received high ratings for its fun, relaxed work culture. CEO and Chairman Patrick M. Byrne earned a 92% employee approval rating, the highest of any retailer on this list. "This ranking is a very nice recognition for our company culture," said Overstock.com President Jonathan Johnson. "We focus on making Overstock.

Online advertising is considered a good way to target and reach consumers, but nearly two-thirds )63%( of Americans say they tend to ignore Internet ads, according to a new survey from Adweek Media and Harris Interactive. Among those who ignore Internet ads, 43 percent say they ignore banner ads the most and 20 percent say they ignore search engine ads the most. Smaller percentages say they ignore television ads )14%(,

eBay has released the results of its first U.S. Online Business Index )OBI(, a new report that focuses on small business owners views across a variety of topics. More than half )60%( of eBay small business owners surveyed said they are considerably optimistic about the future of their online businesses during the 2010 holiday season. Nearly three-quarters )72%( expect their total online sales to increase during the holiday months of October through December. Similarly,

Google said today it is offering a free $10 calling credit during the holidays to military families in an effort to help them keep in touch with their loved ones serving abroad. The Gmail Blog offers more details. These international call credits can be used to make calls with Google Voice or from right inside Gmail, and will provide families with roughly 30 minutes of call time to Afghanistan, 60 minutes to Iraq,

The FBI has introduced a free online tool aimed at allowing people to search a database of thousands of stolen artworks and contact the agency if the have information about the items. The tool called the National Stolen Art File has about 7,000 images in its database and allows people to search a variety of categories, including books, bowls, stamps, stained glass or enter keywords such as an artist's name, period date, or artwork title.

Zynga said today it has acquired Texas-based mobile game development company, Newtoy, makers of mobile games including Words With Friends and Chess With Friends. The Newtoy headquarters in McKinney, Texas will become The Zynga With Friends Studio. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. "The Games With Friends franchise is the best social game experience available on mobile today and we are excited to welcome the Newtoy team to the Zynga family," said Mark Pincus,

Billboard has introduced a new chart offering called the Social 50, which ranks the most popular artists on social networking sites. The Social 50 chart will track artists' popularity using a formula blending weekly additions of friends/fans/followers along with weekly artist page views and song plays on MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and iLike. Data from these sites is gathered and provided to Billboard by social music tracking service Next Big Sound.

The Seattle Police Department has started a new Twitter account to tweet information about stolen vehicles with the hopes of helping victims of auto theft recover their property sooner. When a car is reported stolen in Seattle, employees in the Seattle Police 911 Center will tweet the color, year, make, model, body style and license plate of the stolen car. Twitter followers who spot a car that has been tweeted as stolen on Get your car back can call 911.

Customer satisfaction with online retailers on Cyber Monday matched last year with 73.1 on the American Customer Satisfaction Index's )ACSI( 100-point scale, but overall satisfaction during the Thanksgiving holiday week and weekend was higher than in 2009, according to a new report from ForeSee Results. The figures are a composite of more than 130 scores for individual retail websites, which ranged from 42 to 88.

eBay said today U.S. mobile commerce sales increased 146 percent year over year on Cyber Monday. The company said mobile shopping peaked between 5pm and 7 pm PST. eBay said because of the growth in mobile holiday shopping it expects to generate more than $1.5 billion in gross merchandise volume in 2010, compared to $600 million in 2009. This holiday seasons strong growth speaks for itself: mobile is the future of shopping, and eBay is leading the way,

Hanes has launched a Facebook campaign today aimed at donating 500,000 socks to The Salvation Army for the holiday season. Described as a virtual holiday sock drive, the campaign asks users to like Hanes on Facebook and click Help Hanes Donate, and the company will donate one pair of socks with an overall donation goal of 500,000 pairs.

Online holiday spending for the first 29 days of the season has reached $13.55 billion, representing a 13 percent increase over the same time period last year, according to the latest report from comScore. Cyber Monday reached $1.028 billion in online spending, up 16 percent versus year ago, representing the heaviest online spending day in history and the first to surpass the billion-dollar threshold.

AOL's MapQuest has launched a month-long Free Gas for a Year sweepstakes for the holiday season. MapQuest will be giving away free gas for a year to 31 people, one winner, everyday, during December. Starting today, people can enter the sweepstakes at www.freegas.mapquest.com and fill out the Free Gas for a Year form. Each day at 3:00 p.m. ET a winner will be chosen and announced on the site. The last day to enter the sweepstakes is December 31 at 5:00 p.m. ET.

American Express said today it would allow its card customers to pay for virtual goods from Zynga using their reward points. Cardmembers enrolled in the rewards program cans use points to purchase Zynga game cards, along with a variety of virtual goods, such as FarmVille manors and windmills, Café World fountains and stoves, and YoVille roadsters and robots. Typing "Zynga" in the keyword search on www.membershiprewards.com brings up all virtual goods for use in Zynga's games.

U.S. online retail sales on Cyber Monday were up 19.4 percent over the same period last year, with the average order up from $180.03 to $194.89 for an increase of 8.3 percent, according to a new report from IBM's Coremetrics. Compared to Black Friday, Cyber Monday online sales were up 31.1 percent with the average order up from $190.80 to $194.89 for an increase of 2.1 percent.

Social web browser Flock has released a new Chromium 7-based version of its browser on both Mac and Windows platforms. Flock says its new 3.5 version offers greater ease of use and faster performance, likely in response to its recently launched competitor RockMelt. The company says it has reached an installed user base of over 9.5 million users globally and calls itself the social browser market leader.

Fifteen percent of social media users in the U.S. are more likely to buy brands that advertise in that medium, representing slightly more than 30 million people 13-80 years old, according to a new study by Knowledge Networks and MediaPost Communications. Social media site ads also drive brand exploration, with 25% more inclined to find out more about brands that advertise on social media sites. Among 13-to-54-years-old smartphone users who have apps on their phone,