Google

Surveys can be double-edged swords. On the one hand, the tools required come with obvious, glaring setbacks. Many of the tools required to conduct surveys properly don't come cheap. Cost (and cost justification) is just one of your headaches, however. The other ones can be decidedly more fatal. Implemented incorrectly, they can hurt the user experience. Even when they're implemented correctly, the surveys themselves sometimes serve too many masters.

Rounding up the year's best tips to help you optimize your business.

Optimizing Google+ Local pages can pay big dividends for retailers that want to increase visibility on search engine results pages, according to a new aggregate case study from my firm SIM Partners. Furthermore, the ubiquity of Google for local searches is growing according to a report from MDG Advertising. Consider the following:

After saying earlier this year that it wouldn't give up its anti-Google advertising campaign, Microsoft is upping the ante by selling "Scroogled" T-shirts, hats and coffee mugs this holiday season. Like the rest of the campaign, created by former Hillary Clinton operative Mark Penn, the eight items for sale in Microsoft's online store target Google for what Microsoft feels is its unfair invasion of user privacy in the pursuit of profits. Here's some of what Microsoft is selling:

Ad Age takes a look at one of the first Google pop-up locations in Manhattan.

Google is opening showrooms in six U.S. cities, promoting its latest products and stepping up retail efforts against Apple and Microsoft as the year-end holiday shopping season gets under way. Called Winter Wonderlabs, the outlets feature products such as Nexus 7 tablets, Chromebook computers and Chromecast video-streaming devices, the company said on a new website Monday. Consumers can order the gadgets online after looking at the wares. The stores also feature a large snow globe that lets shoppers take videos of themselves, complete with fake snow.

I attended Learning 2013 earlier this month, hoping to gain insights on how we at Direct Tech can provide top-notch training to our software users. It was an impressive event with more than 170 sessions, a keynote speech by Hillary Clinton, interviews with thought leaders, and unique insights from the likes of Jane Pauley and George Takei. I came away from the conference with many pages of notes, but my most memorable "learning" came from someone who didn't speak a word: U.S. General Colin Powell, as quoted by the event host, Elliott Masie.

Over the last few years, we've conducted hundreds of thousands of user testing sessions documenting the frustration consumers face while navigating e-commerce stores. Through our research, we've found that there are three main reasons shoppers abandon their carts: difficulty with checkout process; shipping surprises; and lack of trust in a secure transaction. We've also found a number of ways to counteract these reasons to help ease consumers through the checkout process and, most importantly, to boost your bottom line. 

In an effort to make it simpler for consumers to simultaneously browse its print catalog and research and buy from their mobile devices, Sharper Image embedded a “Buy  Now” capability into its holiday preview catalog. The catalog is chock-full of electronic, recreation, fitness and travel products, and was sent to 4 million households and businesses on Nov. 4.

According to Google, 88 percent of millenials will shop for the holidays on their mobile device, compared to 76 percent of all smartphone users. Mobile Commerce Daily reports that one in three millennial smartphone owners plan to make a purchase on their smartphone this holiday season, up 28 percent year-over-year.