Techmeme: Online retailers mine transaction data to discourage returns, a growing problem (Shelly Banjo/Wall Street Journal)

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December 26, 2013, 12:45 PM

Top News

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:

Dogewallet announces Dogecoin theft, a dubious milestone for the new cryptocurrency that started as a joke — Millions Of Dogecoins Stolen In Apparent Heist — Much robbery, so anger, etc. Users of the functional joke currency are reporting emptied wallets.

More: doges.org, SiliconANGLE, The Verge, ReadWrite, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Tech in Asia, Mashable, The Next Web, Mediaite and Business Insider

Tweets: @daweiner, @cshirky, @fmanjoo, @tmfbiggles, @dcbigjohn, @samir and @russellbrandom

Jenny W. Hsu / Wall Street Journal:

Taiwan fines Apple $667K for influencing carriers' iPhone pricing, can face additional $1.6m if it fails to comply — Taiwan Fines Apple for iPhone Price-Plan Meddling — Island's fair-trade body says Apple told mobile-service providers how to charge for handsets

Shelly Banjo / Wall Street Journal:

Online retailers mine transaction data to discourage returns, a growing problem — Rampant Returns Plague E-Retailers — Sellers Suggest Sizes and Redirect Discounts to Break Bad Habits — Free shipping and lenient return policies have given online retailing a huge boost.

More: Marketing Pilgrim and SlashGear. Tweets: @notaxation

Farhad Manjoo / Wall Street Journal:

Snapchat shows us we all may want a more erasable Internet — The Internet doesn't necessarily have to keep our digital effluvia around forever. Do we want it to be erasable? — The Internet doesn't necessarily have to keep our digital effluvia around forever, and Snapchat has proved it.

More: BGR and MacDailyNews. Tweets: @fmanjoo, @stevesi and @hunterwalk

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Google punishes Rap Genius in search ranking for SEO practices, founders seek resolution — Google Destroys Rap Genius' Search Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam, But Resolution In Progress — Google hit back hard today after it learned lyrics site Rap Genius had been using dubious SEO tricks to attain top spots in search results.

Hannah Karp / Wall Street Journal:

Scores of Music Services Stream Into Crowded Field — Many of the New Models Will Focus on Genre — The number of music-streaming services is set to explode next year, as record labels have warmed up to the idea of renting consumers access to a vast collection of tunes, rather than selling them individual albums or songs.

Tweets: @zseward

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Plain Vanilla Games, Maker Of Ultra-Hot Trivia App QuizUp, Raises Another $22 Million From Sequoia — Plain Vanilla Games, the company behind ultra-hot trivia app QuizUp, has raised a $22 million Series B Round of financing. The financing was led by Sequoia Capital, with participation …

More: Betabeat, VentureBeat and The Next Web

Tweets: @semil and @caseynewton

Thanks:@chrisvelazco

Shelly Banjo / Wall Street Journal:

Surge of online orders causes fulfillment, delivery delays, frustrates customers on Christmas — Shipping Delays Left Many People With Little to Put Under Tree … Many shoppers are blaming online retailers for stealing Christmas. — Companies from Amazon.com Inc. to Kohl's Corp …

More: GeekWire, UPS, BetaNews, The Verge, Corporate Intelligence, Gotta Be Mobile, IntoMobile, Business Insider and InvestorPlace. Tweets: @eholmeswsj

Dan Rowinski / ReadWrite:

The Majority Of Porn In The United States Is Viewed On Smartphones — If you needed any more evidence that the era of ubiquitous computing is upon us, here is one stat that shows us how prevalent smartphones and tablets have become to the daily lives of people everywhere …

More: Pornhub Insights, Quartz, Motherboard, Gizmodo, BuzzFeed and Forbes. See also Mediagazer

Adam Harrington / CBS New York:

Target Denies Report That PINs Were Stolen In Data Breach — NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Target on Tuesday denied a report claiming that personal identification numbers were also stolen in a data breach that affected up to 40 million credit cards. — A Reuters report Tuesday quoted …

More: Gotta Be Mobile, SlashGear, CNNMoney.com, BGR, NBCNews, TwinCities.com, TIME, Krebs on Security and ABC News. Tweets: @netik

Kana Inagaki / Wall Street Journal:

Sony, Panasonic Call Off OLED TV Tie-Up — TOKYO— Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. have decided to call off a tie-up in developing production technology for big and ultrathin televisions, underscoring the challenges of bringing the next-generation TVs to the mass market.

More: asia.nikkei.com, VentureBeat, The Verge, TechRadar.com, Engadget and Reuters

Rich Calder / New York Post:

Silk Road's Ulbricht claims that bitcoins are not subject to seizure by federal law — Feds stole my $33M bitcoins booty: Silk Road ‘pirate’ — The Internet “pirate” accused of running the notorious illegal-drug-peddling Web site Silk Road claims that the feds are the real buccaneers …

More: TechSpot, SiliconANGLE, Forbes, International Business Times, Associated Press and The Register. Tweets: @coindesk

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