The North Face and the National Park Foundation, the official charity of national parks in the U.S., said today they are participating in the launch of Facebook Deals. Beginning today, The North Face will donate $1 to the National Park Foundation for every individual who checks in at one of Americas nearly 400 national parks or a North Face retail location. The campaign will continue for one year and will result in a donation of up to $150,

Online shoppers plan to spend more on holiday gifts this year, with 66 percent indicating they will spend over $500, according to a new report from PriceGrabber. Last year, more than half )59%( of shoppers spent $500 or more on gifts. This year, the average amount that holiday shoppers plan to spend on gifts is $845. According to survey data, the average 2010 holiday shopper will make 57 percent of their holiday purchases online,

The Ad Council has launched the Internet Safety Coalition, in an effort to educate teens about how to be smart about what they post and share online. The Internet Safety Coalition members include big names such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, AOL, Comcast, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, MySpace and MTV Networks, among others. Based on research and feedback from teens,

The UK online display advertising market for the third quarter of 2010 showed strong gains compared to Q3 2009, according to the latest report from comScore. UK Internet users received more than 221 billion display ads during the third quarter, marking a 34 percent increase compared to a year ago. Following the ad recession that occurred from late 2008 through most of 2009, we are now seeing a strong resurgence in the online display ad market, said Mike Read,

Social shopping website Groupon has launched a new Groupon Browser App powered by Conduit. The Groupon Browser App alerts users no matter where they are online, when new deals are available. Using location-based targeting, the app works directly in the browser and shows users Today's Deal. The app allows users to share deals with others via email, and social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

Electronic Arts said today it has signed a five-year agreement with Facebook under which Facebook Credits will become the exclusive payment method for EA games on the social networking site. As part of the agreement, EA will receive the same 70 percent revenue share for Facebook Credits as is standard for all developers on Facebook. Pet Society and Restaurant City from Playfish, a division of EA, are two of the most popular games on Facebook in terms of daily users.

Yahoo and Samsung have expanded the availability of Yahoo Connected TV to 26 countries in Europe, bringing the total to 39 countries globally. Yahoo Connected TV on Samsung televisions allow people to access video content on YouTube, view headlines and videos on Sky News and Bild news, view photos from Flickr, find travel deals on Teletext Holidays, shop on eBay, play games from PlayJam, create a personal channel of music videos on Putpat,

Amazon.com has introduced a new way for sending its gift cards to people on Facebook. People can now connect to their Facebook account on Amazon and create a personalized gift card that will be sent to the recipient's Facebook Wall. We think our customers who use Facebook will be thrilled that weve made gift-giving more social, said Michal Geller, director of ACI Gift Cards, Inc., the exclusive issuer of Amazon.com Gift Cards.

Online retail spending reached $32.1 billion in the third quarter, up nine percent over the third quarter of 2009, according to a new report from comScore. The growth rate represents the fourth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth after a year of flat or negative growth rates. Retail e-commerce growth in the third quarter remained solid at 9 percent, a fairly positive indicator for the upcoming holiday season, said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. However,

Amazon.com has released its annual 2010 Holiday Toy List, which features this year's most popular toys, video games, sporting goods, electronics, music, movies and books for kids. The online retailer has introduced free two-day shipping , or a $10 credit towards a future purchase for Amazon Prime members, when they use a MasterCard to buy $75 or more in eligible items from the Holiday Toy List.

AOL has rolled out a newly redesigned homepage with more of a focus on video and local content. The redesign includes local news headlines for the first time and moves video closer to the top of the homepage. AOL has added day part-programming, different content at different times of the day. Day-part programming includes: Morning: The top stories of the day. Daytime: Breaking news updates, and entertainment news. Evening: A summary of the days news.

AOL said today it is selling four of its office buildings it no longer uses and two undeveloped pieces of land on its Dulles, Virginia campus to CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust for $144.5 million. AOL said as of today it has approximately $750 million of cash on hand. A part of AOLs strategy during our turnaround has been to dispose of non-core assets, said Artie Minson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial and Administrative Officer.

The Federal Communications Commission )FCC( has reached a record settlement of $25 million with Verizon Wireless over what it calls mystery fees the carrier charged its customers over the last several years. The payment is the largest in FCC history and the settlement ends the agency's ten month investigation into the overcharges. In addition to Verizon Wireless's payment, the company will refund a minimum of $52.8 million to some 15 million customers.

Amazon.com said today it will launch a Kindle app for Windows Phone 7 sometime later this year. The Kindle app for Windows Phone 7 includes new features, such as personalized book recommendations on the app home screen and the ability to send book suggestions to a friend from any book in your library without leaving the app. When you buy a Kindle book, we make it easy for you to get your books on all of the devices you want to read on your iPhone, iPad,

To highlight the importance of reading, book publisher Scholastic has launched You Are What You Read,a social networking site for readers. Users of You Are What You Read create a profile by listing five books that had the biggest impact on their lives, and connect with readers through shared Bookprints, as Scholastic calls them. Users can login to You Are What You Read via Facebook or Scholastic.com accounts.

The U.K. Internet economy contributed $159 billion )£100 billion( in 2009, representing 7.2 percent of U.K. GDP- more than construction, transport, or utilities, according to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group )BCG(. The report indicates this share is likely to grow about 10 percent annually, reaching 10 percent of GDP by 2015.

The iconic Empire State Building )ESB( has made a move into social media with the launch of a Facebook Page and a Twitter account. On Facebook, people can post comments, share their photos, view images taken by others, purchase tickets and receive news about the building. On Twitter, people can follow the ESB Observatory for real-time updates. Via Facebook and Twitter , people can stay updated on future events, including the building's 80th anniversary,

Online photo service, Kodak Gallery has released a new free application for the iPad. The Gallery HD iPad App for Kodak Gallery is aimed at helping users upload, browse and share photos stored on the Kodak Gallery directly on the iPad. Kodak Gallery continues to leverage technology for customers to view, store and share their photos through this innovative new app," said Victor Cho, General Manager of KODAK Gallery, Eastman Kodak Company.

Yahoo has launched Yahoo Mail Beta, which the company boasts is twice as fast and offers more social networking connectivity from directly within the inbox. Users can opt-in to try Yahoo Mail Beta. The new mail service allows users to view and share updates from Twitter and Facebook without having to leave the inbox. An automatic slideshow feature allows people to see photos and videos from sites like Flickr, Picasa, and YouTube from within their email messages.

Airline Virgin America said today it is moving its operating systems into the cloud with Google Apps and will use Gmail as its email provider. Virgin America said the move to Gmail will improve its productivity for its more than 1,700 employees and it will help to streamline its IT infrastructure. Google answers our data, connectivity and security needs better than any other system.