Shares of online retailer Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) are trading a bit higher this afternoon after being upgraded today by Susquehanna Financial.

Susquehanna Financial analyst Marianne Wolk raised her rating on the stock this morning to a "positive" from a "neutral" rating and put a $100 price target on the company. The stock is currently trading up 1.7% on the day to $76.91, up $1.28.

Did you know that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided to take bloggers to task for a new form of advertising? The FTC is in the process of updating its "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising" for the first time since 1980. What does this mean?

Well, the FTC is going to crack down on "word-of-mouth marketing." This type of marketing consists of advertisers paying bloggers to review their products. And by "pay" we mean the bloggers get free product samples, gift certificates for shopping sprees, cash, or a year's car loan. Yes, this is what some of the advertisers have paid bloggers for their "reviews."

Goldman Sachs has upped its share price estimate on Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) to $486, an increase of 17%. The analysts cite both search query growth and improvements in emerging markets coverage as the reasons for giving a nod to the dominant player in the online search business. The higher estimate implies that Google still has plenty of room to grow, which leaves plenty of upside for investors.

On a per-share basis, Goldman Sachs pushed its earnings forecast for the search giant 2% higher for this year – to $21.30. Per-share earnings estimates for 2010 were increased to by 8% to $23.36, and the 2011 estimate is now $27.02 (up 12%).

Last week it was announced that the long-anticipated separation of AOL from Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) is set to happen before the end of the year -- then what?

If all goes well, AOL will set its own course sustaining what's left of its internet prominence, after falling from what was once internet dominance before its merger with TWX, and the continuous contraction of its dial-up subscriptions.

AOL still attracts more than 100 million Internet users to its online content portal, which includes BloggingStocks, so the adventure will continue. And, an AD-venture it is sure to be.

The same is true for Time Warner, the world's largest media conglomerate with operations spanning film, television, cable TV, and publishing. It will have an AD-venture of its own.

Online auction giant eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) is going to be reporting its first quarter earnings today following the market close, and analysts are looking to see the company show 33 cents per share for the quarter.

eBay has been working hard to weather the current economic storm, but has a lot of work ahead of it.

The industry standard in journalism, The New York Times, is revisiting the issue of charging for online content.

New York Times (NYSE: NYT) Chairman Authur Sulzberger, Jr., told a Stony Brook (N.Y.) University audience Thursday that the company is considering "incremental" charges for website users, while keeping most of its site free, Bloomberg News reported.

Journalism in the United States is hurtling toward a new era. The trouble is, no one in the craft knows whether the new period will represent the start of a new golden age... or a brave new world.

There are breathtaking technologies, platforms, and distribution channels that hold the promise of bringing news, news analysis, information, and more, to countless new markets and to new audiences. This holds the promise of increasing knowledge, learning, public input and citizen awareness -- as well as publishers' online revenue streams.

Shares of online auction giant eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) have dropped sharply today, pushing the stock down to lows not hit in seven years.

The stock, which has dropped over 20% so far this year, is down 8% on the day to $10.54. One of the big reasons why the site has been struggling has been the lack of confidence among buyers stemming from rampart counterfeiting that has been taking place on the site.

Shares of the Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO) are trading in the red this morning after the company reported that its fourth quarter profit dropped by a massive 77%. Net income came in at $2.01 per share, verse $8.71 per share in the same period last year.

As I noted in the earnings preview yesterday, the company's flagship newspaper and its magazine division (Newsweek Magazine) have been hit hard with losses in advertising revenue, and both had a dismal 2008 year. The company's newspaper division lost $14.4 million in the fourth quarter and had a $192.4 million operating loss for the entire 2008 year. Its newspaper division had a slight profit of $10.9 million in the fourth quarter, but on a full year basis it posted a loss of $16.1 million.

Tomorrow morning before the bell, The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO) will have its chance to impress Wall Street when it reports its fourth quarter numbers.

Going into tomorrow's announcement, analysts are expecting the company to show earnings on the quarter of $8.17 per share. Should the company hit this estimate, it would be a decline of 16.5% from its reported $9.79 during its fourth quarter 2007.

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), which competes with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) AOL, reported Q4 stats after the bell on Tuesday. They were pretty dismal, but expectations were bea t. Revenues dipped by 1%, and earnings per share on an adjusted basis were $0.17. According to Wall Street's view, Yahoo! was only supposed to earn $0.13. A four-penny beat on the bottom line is a pretty good thing.

Or is it in this case? I would argue it's no big deal. I mean, we are talking about Yahoo! here, and there's a new CEO on the job, Carol Bartz. She replaced the disaster known as Jerry Yang. Considering that there's a new regime, you can't really rely on this beat as a proper indicator for what's to come.

CBS (NYSE:CBS) has watched the success of Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) YouTube and Hulu.com, a creation of NBCU and wants in on the action.

According to the FT, to create its portal, "CBS has added content from partners including Sony, Endemol, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayor and PBS, to TV.com, the site it acquired in the $1.8bn takeover last year of CNET Networks, the technology web site operator."

Jack Welch used to say that it was not worth being in a business unless you can have the No.1 or No.2 spot. CBS may disagree to its own peril.

The broadcast company may feel that people are willing to go to any number of site to view video. That is probably not true. According to comScore, CBS is not in the top ten video sites visited by consumers. Most of the other big media companies are on the list. That means CBS would have to jump over a number of its competitors to be viable in the online video business. Those competitors are not likely to sit on the sidelines and allow another party into sector.

CBS has been one of the least successful media companies over that last year, especially based on it stock price. That may be because it has been slow to create an Internet strategy. Now it is adopting the position that "if we build it, they will come." It doesn't work that way.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

News reports are emerging that the search for a Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) CEO is coming to a close.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Among candidates still under consideration is Carol Bartz, the former chief executive officer of Autodesk. a publicly traded company that builds design software used in engineering." But that is purely a guess.

The issue over who is chosen is not as important as what the person does in the first few months. Perhaps the primary goal would be to keep key executives from walking out the door. Because no one has articulated what the internet portal's long-term plans are there is little reason for people who can get other jobs to stay.

The first option for the company might be to sell its search business to Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Redmond may no longer be interested, and Yahoo! would be giving up its one strategic asset--that it is No. 2 in search behind Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). Without that, it is just another website.

We all know that the current economic slowdown was bound to hurt holiday spending, and today we get news of just how much an impact it had on online shopping, as comScore announced that shoppers spent 3% less this year compared with 2007.

The report was based on spending between November 1 and December 23, and showed that consumers spent $25.5 billion online, compared with $26.3 billion in the same period last year, another clear signal that people are cutting their spending because they are worried about the economy.

A bright spot in the report did show that Cyber Monday, the Monday immediately following Black Friday, was the second biggest day ever for online spending, with an increase of 15% in sales from last year, to $846 million in sales.

While most retailers were looking at dismal holiday shopping seasons this year, online retailer Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced that it had its best holiday season in history.

Early indications are showing that retail sales figures could be down as much as 5.5 to 8% during this year, as rising unemployment and general concern over the economy has led to most consumers tightening up their spending this year.

Amazon, which has probably actually been benefiting from the current economic slowdown, saw massive sales on December 15, which is typically the company's strongest day of the year. This year it saw sales of 6.3 million and shipments of 5.6 million units on the 15th, its strongest day in history.