Once upon a time, retailers measured success by the number of people walking by in the mall, how many entered the store, the percentage they spent, and basket size. Now, a world of zeroes and ones has changed their perspective entirely. Social media is expected to be the star during the coming holiday season, with retailers pushing Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter content to get in front of consumers and affect either online or in-store purchases. Smaller Christmas budgets are expected, so the fight is on to garner as large a share as possible of a shrinking pie.

Of course, nobody would come out and say, "Social media is nonsense, and I'm not getting anything for my investment." So, when the likes of Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), JCPenney (NYSE: JCP), and Target (NYSE: TGT) say that social media is connecting them with their customers and leading to more effective campaigns and product launches, do take it with a grain of salt. What can't be ignored, however, is that they're committing more resources to social media marketing, even though it's still far too soon to tell if it will be effective.

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) hasn't been doing as well as its colleague Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI). Indeed, when it comes to the numbers, Activision, which is responsible for franchise hits Guitar Hero and Call of Duty, has its competitor beat.

But EA recently released an exercise system for the Nintendo (OTC: NTDOY) Wii that was highlighted at CNBC.com. The piece mentions the enormous marketing presence that is supporting EA Sports Active. You get a couple accessories with the software: a leg strap that is used like a controller to interact with the screen, and a resistance band to increase the effectiveness of the workout. Oprah Winfrey's trainer apparently assisted EA with the design.

At a mere $276 million, celebrity talk-show host and entertainment billionaire Oprah Winfrey could afford to buy Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC), which closed Tuesday at $5.91 per share and keeps on climbing to over $6.50 a share in morning trading. The story alone and the associated publicity would be worth at least that. Furthermore, she could at least make an offer and demand a meeting with the Federal Reserve Board to discuss the issue.

If her offer was rejected, she would still be able to generate millions of dollars of publicity and perhaps she might want to acquire the asset, in particular if the Fed is going to protect the acquirer from potential losses. She could really become an international mogul, the likes of which has not been seen. We all know that Oprah wants to do good. She is so giving, this could be the ultimate.

I could just see the headlines: Oprah Winfrey takes on JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and the Federal Reserve to rescue John Q. Public.

If Oprah Winfrey can cast a spell that turns thousands of housewives into literature critics and transformed underdog Barack Obama into the possible Democratic nominee for president, getting her followers to embrace an esoteric New Age philosophy should be a snap. Her latest endeavor, though, is going to need more bandwidth.

The talk show queen is getting into the business of enlightenment, offering a 10-week Web seminar with self-help guru Eckhart Tolle, author of "A New Earth," an amalgam of Buddhist, Christian and Islamic influences, according to USA Today. The book also happens to be the latest pick of Oprah's Book Club.

Last night's first webcast was one of the largest events in the history of the internet, attracting more than 500,000 people. "Unfortunately, some of our users experienced delays in viewing the webcast," according to a statement from Oprah's Harpo Productions. "We are working to identify the specific causes for the problems experienced and will work diligently to rectify them."

Seekers of enlightenment be forewarned, the path outlined by "A New Earth" isn't an easy one.

Oprah Winfrey is teaming up with Discovery Communications to create a new network, cleverly titled OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network.

The network will not carry her trademark Oprah Winfrey Show to start, but since Ms. Winfrey has the option of ending her deal for the show with the networks in 2010 and 2011, she could move the show there then.

Winfrey told reporters that "Eventually that will happen, we hope". Discovery will own half of the network, and Winfrey's production company will own the other half.

Oprah Winfrey moving to her own cable network would, if it does happen, send shock waves through the television industry and create additional problems for the already beleaguered networks. Similar to Radiohead's decision to forgo the major labels and release their album on their own, such a move would send a clear message to the networks: Cable is ubiquitous enough that top stars don't need you: We can do it ourselves and keep a bigger chunk of the money.

It's too soon to know what will happen. The new network could flop, but given Oprah's popularity, I seriously doubt that will happen.

BloggingStocks readers and AOL Money & Finance visitors have spoken, and below are the Best & Worst of 2007. (See the individual posts for full results.)

Company of the Year: Google, internet search provider turned diversified services giant, received 51% of the vote, beating such strong contenders as Apple and Coca-Cola.

Hottest Gadget of the Year: After all the hoopla surrounding the launch of the iPhone, it's no big surprise that it tops this category, with 47% of the vote, besting second place finisher the Nintendo Wii.

Dumbest Celebrity Feud: Rosie O'Donnell's squabbles with Donald Trump (and also with Elizabeth Hasselbeck) garnered 66% of the vote, easily beating out the back-and-forth between Britney Spears and her ex, Kevin Federline.

Hottest Car of the Year: The Cadillac CTS led with 43% of the vote, easily beating the BMW M3 and others in this category.

Dumbest Moment in Business: JetBlue's stranding of passengers on a cramped, grounded airliner for hours netted 51% of the vote.

Rachael Ray went from scraping together the rent as a candy counter girl to a multi-millionaire with her own talk show, cooking show(s), magazine, and books that have sold more than 4 million copies. She's also spawned a lingo all her own. (EVOO for Extra Virgin Olive Oil has entered the popular vernacular). All this in a little under ten years.

How cool is that?

Love her or hate her, Rachael Ray, she of the perky smile and Girl-next-door demeanor, gets major points for translating her love of cooking into a multi-million media empire. People can't seem to get enough of her "regular gal" persona. But her bubbly personality masks some serious business savvy.

Using her mentor Oprah Winfrey as a blueprint, Ray has expanded out of the kitchen this year into many other avenues. Her one-hour daytime talk show, The Rachel Ray Show, is patterned after the perennially popular Oprah Winfrey Show, and was the only syndicated daytime talk show launched in 2007 to be renewed. Her Food Network shows continue to be among the most popular on the channel.

She also cooked up some lucrative endorsement deals with name brands such as Dunkin Donuts and Nabisco -- now owned by Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT). These media venues help feed her magazine (Every Day with Rachel Ray) and cookbook sales.

These are like the cherry on top of the $16 million Ray took home this year, according to Forbes magazine. By some estimates, Ray's net worth is touching $100 million, but that's hard to verify. One thing's for sure, this gal doesn't need to get out of the kitchen; she's proving that she can stand the heat.

Be sure to check out more Money Winners of 2007.

Remember how they used to say that the sun never set on the British empire. The same goes for talk show queen Oprah Winfrey's empire.

In an era when most media conglomerates struggle, Winfrey has the midas touch, which is why her endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may have a huge impact on the election. Her continuing presence at the pop culture zeitgeist is nothing short of remarkable.

Ratings for "The Oprah Winfrey Show" remain strong. When she got 100 plus members of the Osmond clan on her program on November 12 following the death of patriarch George, she scored her best ratings since the prior January, according to Broadcast and Cable. During the week ended November 25, Her protege Dr. Phil McGraw earned a 5.5 rating, trailing Winfrey's show, which got a 5.7, but her ratings included Thanksgiving while his didn't, the trade publication says.

We recently took a look at the Best & Worst of 2007 in sixteen categories and asked you to vote for your favorites, as well as sharing the reasons for your picks and any other contenders we may have overlooked. And voting is off to a strong start, with more than 100,000 votes in each category so far.

Some categories have shaped up to be close races. Chuck Prince, Bill Ford, and Bob Nardelli each have a little less than a third of the vote for Best CEO Departure of the Year. Britney Spears and Michael Vick are neck and neck as the Celebrity Most Likely to Lose It All, while Lindsey Lohan's relatively low profile recently has garnered her just 6 percent of that vote. In the Most Shameless Attempt at Cashing in on '15 Minutes', Sanjaya Malakar has a slim lead over Howard K. Stern/Larry Birkhead, but poor Chris "Leave Britney Alone!" Crocker has gotten no respect with a mere 6 percent of the vote. McDonald's has a small lead as the Hottest Chain Restaurant, thought Chipotle isn't far behind with more than a quarter of the vote. And while the iPhone has the lead now as the Hottest Gadget of the Year, it and the Nintendo Wii have been trading places as the front runner.

This week, another group added their support to a merger between the two satellite radio companies: XM Satellite Radio Holdings (NASDAQ: XMSR)'s and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI). A quintet of organizations representing rural Americans presented a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) head Jonathan Adelstein. An excerpt from the letter read:

"This merger is clearly in the best interest of rural consumers because it would allow a combined company to expand upon its existing services with increased efficiencies and at the same time provide rural listeners with more diverse programming and lower pricing ... [the merger] will make satellite radio a more viable option for rural consumers ... even in the most remote areas."

Indeed, a combination of the two companies could bring all 4 major sports, Oprah and Stern, and John Cougar Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen tunes, virtually commercial free, to households distanced from terrestrial broadcast towers.

Originally announced on February 19, 2007, this partnership continues to be closely scrutinized by the FCC as well as the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). The latter organization effectively represents the combined company's would-be competition, weakening the argument that the satellite-radio merger stifles competition. But I digress before I slip into a monopoly wormhole.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

It's been three weeks since our Money Face-Off feature ran here at BloggingStocks and on AOL, offering you the opportunity to share who you though had the financial edge in a series of twenty head-to-head match-ups. So I thought I'd take another look and see how things have worked out.

It's hard to pick just one big winner. In terms of the largest lead over a rival, Ivanka Trump easily beats Paris Hilton with 89% of the vote. Others holding big leads over their opponents include Tiger Woods, Warren Buffett, Steven Spielberg, and Rupert Murdoch.

In terms of receiving the most votes, the clear leader is the Oprah Winfrey vs. Martha Stewart match-up, with just short of 150,000 votes. Other big vote getters were Tiger Woods vs. David Beckham, Rudy Giuliani vs. Michael Bloomberg, and Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs. In terms of the liveliest discussions in the comments, the winners are Oprah Winfrey vs. Martha Stewart, Erin Burnett vs. Maria Bartiromo, and Bono vs. Angelina Jolie. Also check out the comments for the J.K. Rowling vs. J.R.R Tolkien, Tiger Woods vs. David Beckham, and Ivanka Trump vs. Paris Hilton posts.

As for the face-off posts here that got the most attention, the clear winner is Erin Burnett vs. Maria Bartiromo, with more than 13,000 hits. Lindsay Lohan vs. Britney Spears and Oprah Winfrey vs. Martha Stewart also attracted lots of readers.

Results for all the face-offs follow below, but keep in mind that the voting is still open. It's not too late to add your vote or let us know what you think.

It's been a week since our Money Face-Off posts ran here on BloggingStocks, and less than that since the Money Face-Offs were featured on the AOL welcome page, and the response has been terrific. Many of the face-off polls have had more than 50,000 votes, a couple of them approaching 100,000.

The biggest response came to the Oprah Winfrey vs. Martha Stewart match-up. So far, about 75 percent of respondents feel that Oprah is the more successful media magnate. Not that much surprise there, as Oprah's fans are legion. Interestingly, though, of the twenty-some comments the post has received, most of them are pro-Martha.

Another clear leader is Bill Gates over rival Steve Jobs. About three quarters of poll votes have gone his way, despite all the buzz recently about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and the popularity of its products. Maybe readers are just happy that Gates is stepping down. Let us know what you think.

Alan Greenspan seems to be everywhere these days, promoting his new book, including Comedy Central's The Daily Show and NPR's Fresh Air. In our match-up of the current and former Fed chairs, Ben Bernanke vs. Alan Greenspan, more than 70 percent of respondents have voted for Greenspan. Comments to the post are mixed, but seem to me to focus on Greenspan, whether pro or con.

This post is part of our Money Face-Offs feature. Let us know who you think comes out ahead in this head-to-head match-up, and check out our other Money Face-Off posts.

Celebrities -- they're more than superior human beings, they're money-making machines. If these celebrities were stocks, which would be the shrewd buy?

One sure sign of celebrity is first-name recognition, and today's contestants have certainly reached that pinnacle. Oprah and Martha are brands known worldwide, Oprah for compassion and wisdom, Martha for style and elegance.

Martha Stewart's brand is still tainted by her 2004 insider trading conviction and her stretch in Camp Cupcake. Before then, her growth from model and stockbroker to America's favorite lifestyle celebrity was impressive. After authoring the bestselling book Entertaining in 1979, she transitioned to television with her hit show Martha Stewart Living, for which she gathered several Emmys. In 1987, she inked a lucrative deal with déclassé retailer Kmart as a lifestyle consultant, to help it break into higher price-point retailing. In 1990, with Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) she launched Martha Stewart Living Magazine. The zenith of her career came in 1997 when she took herself public. The IPO for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO) made her a billionaire.

Suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick's best chance at public redemption lies with Oprah Winfrey. At least that's the conclusion of Detroit Free Press columnist Drew Sharp, who makes a convincing argument that "now that pop culture dictates news judgment, it's only appropriate that a pop culture diva quite possibly holds the key to Michael Vick's NFL future."

Vick should take Sharp's advice. If Vick goes on Oprah, his handlers would no doubt encourage him to cry, talk about "finding Jesus" and encourage young people to make smart decisions. Unfortunately for Vick, the road to redemption starts with the talk show queen. Vick will have to spend the next few months apologizing until the American public is sick of seeing his face.

The question for Vick's handlers is where to go after Oprah.

Will he try to reach NFL fans through Walt Disney Co.'s (NYSE: DIS) ESPN cable network or News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox?

What about the morning shows? You can bet that ABC, General Electric Co.'s (NYSE: GE) NBC and CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) would kill to land an interview with the disgraced athlete. "Dateline" and "60 Minutes" are probably working on stories about the evils of dog fighting. The story also continues to be the gift that keeps on giving for Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE: TWX) CNN, Fox News channel, and MSNBC.

But I am not sure that all of the apologizing in the world can save Vick's NFL career. People understand that young, rich athletes misbehave and occasionally break the law. But Vick's behavior was so heinous that it defies explanation.

For those of you who just aren't sated by the daily one-hour program, the monthly magazine, occasional feature films and made-for-TV movies, and the radio content available at XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR), you'll be relieved to hear that a one-stop shop for all things Oprah is in the works.

Oprah Winfrey's privately held company, Harpo Inc., released a statement indicating that construction has started on a store carrying Oprah merchandise. The boutique will be located catty-corner from the Harpo Studios building in downtown Chicago and will be one story and 4,500 square feet. Many details, including an opening date, have yet to be worked out.

The queen of the entertainment world already sells some products through an online store. Oprah fans can pick up a $14 iPod cover with the Oprah logo, DVDs, and African apparel and artwork. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that these and other Oprah-related merchandise will also be available in the retail store. Know a co-worker or friend that's expecting? The $36 'O Baby' velour jogging suit could be the perfect gift.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.