(more) Headlines Week of December 12, 2009

• Google Goes After Social-Network Search With Facebook, MySpace: NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Google lifted the curtain today on a host of new features that incorporate time and place into its search results, including the coming integration of Facebook and MySpace status updates into search results.
• Santa Claus is Coming to Facebook to Infect Your Computer With Koobface [ALERT] Oh, scammers, you know no shame. In an effort to exploit holiday cheer, a new malware attack poses as a Christmas greeting on Facebook, but actually installs the nasty Koobface worm on users’ computers. The worm spreads as infected users post the greetings to the walls of their friends, who then in turn get infected when they check out the supposed greeting.
• Hotels check out social media: The inn crowd is desperately seeking more friends. As in other industries, social networks like Twitter and Facebook are proving effective and inexpensive marketing tools for hotels. Through them, hotels offer exclusive deals and try to build consumer connections to their brand. There are more direct business benefits, as well. One is driving traffic directly to a hotel’s web site. If customers book rooms there as opposed to a third-party site like Hotels.com, the hotel company captures all of the room revenue. A third party’s cut can be between 10 and 25 percent of a booking.