Thanksgiving has come & gone, and holiday music has officially infiltrated the airwaves. Maybe this past holiday weekend has exhausted you, between the feast of the year and the wild morning after shopping spree. Here at Best of the Web, however, the long weekend has put us in a giving mood.

Call it holiday spirit. Call it good will. On second thought, don’t waste time calling it anything at all, because for the first time ever – and for one day only – we’re offering a 50% discount on all BOTW submissions!

This discount code is applicable for submissions to the Web, UK, and Blogs, and Local Directory at the monthly, annual, or Lifetime rates.  Submitting a listing to the BOTW Directory today is a fast and easy way to increase your online visibility and reach more customers at an all-time low rate.

Customers seeking more control in the appearance of their online marketing message can take advantage of this discount by sponsoring a BOTW category for only $24.95 per month with this code. Category sponsors are featured at the top of a relevant category of your choosing and alongside BOTW search results.

BOTW Local users can also reach more customers by upgrading to a Premium listing for a monthly fee of $4.95, or $49.95 at the annually-recurring rate. Now BOTW Local offers the opportunity to enhance a local business advertisement by including a business website and Google Places ID as well as links to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn profiles. Claim and build your Premium local listing today while the savings last.

To take advantage of this limited time discount, simply enter the code STUFFED50 when prompted during the submission process. Act now, because these are our lowest rates ever, and they’ll only last today!

In September 2010, a bill entitled the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) was proposed. It never reached a vote due to concerns that the solution it provided – essentially blocking websites that enabled piracy among U.S. Internet users – was too broad to avoid sweeping collateral damage.

In May of this year, a revised version of the bill was reintroduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) under the name Protect IP Act of 2011 (or S.968). The Protect IP Act is a reasonable idea on paper. The bill’s primary aim is to prevent intellectual property theft online. Doing this, however, requires government regulation of the Internet, particularly websites registered outside the U.S., which many consider an infringement of the First Amendment.

While the Protect IP Act in itself has stirred unrest among Internet users, it was even more recently revised to address concerns from the tech industry. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, also known as E-PARASITE) was introduced to the House of Representatives on October 26, and was granted a judiciary committee hearing yesterday. Unlike the Protect IP Act, SOPA calls for court approval for legal action taken against third party sites, and includes a safe harbor provision that will protect social networks and similar sites, assuming they comply with the removal of infringing material when notified of its presence.

The ramifications of SOPA could be harmful to U.S. interests; for instance, Google expressed concerns that blocking foreign sites would result in foreign countries blocking U.S. sites in return. Representative Maxine Waters’s (D-CA) concerns about SOPA mimicked those of Senator Ron Wyden’s (D-OR) regarding the Protect IP Act: that such legislation will have unforeseen consequences, such as ISPs using their right to block websites discriminatorily or unfairly.

Internet users will be unable to realize the ramifications of this potential legislation while it is under constant scrutiny and revision among lawmakers; however, users can stay informed about the Protect IP Act and SOPA through the resources provided through the BOTW Directories. In the Web Directory, there are listings for websites containing legal information pertaining to the Internet and its effects on intellectual property. There are also BOTW-approved sites offering Internet news and related information.

This week, Adobe announced changes in plans for mobile development. Surprising many, and disappointing consumers in particular, Adobe has officially halted all Flash development on mobile devices in favor of HTML5. Before his death, Steve Jobs stated that Adobe Flash was no longer a necessary plug-in due to the implementation of HTML5 with higher functionality.

It would appear that Jobs was correct, and that his predictions made in his public letter, “Thoughts on Flash,” have come to fruition, if not hastened by Apple’s rejection of Flash on its most popular devices. Contrarily, HTML5 has become the optimal solution for creating, viewing, and sharing content in mobile browsers. So far this approach has been accepted by long-standing supporters of HTML technology including Google, Apple, Microsoft, and RIM.

Despite Adobe’s attempts to implement Flash in mobile markets, the results have never been consistent or stable enough on any smartphone or tablet device to be considered successful. For instance, Flash caused regular browser crashing and freezing problems for the BlackBerry Playbook: meanwhile, when given the opportunity to fully integrate with tablets via the Motorola Xoom, the unreliable Beta version of Flash that Adobe provided proved unimpressive.

Therefore, although this change in mobile strategy on Adobe’s part is unexpected, the shift in focus should result in better application functionality and performance for both developers and mobile customers; however, Adobe has recently received a lot of criticism for its shortcomings in Flash development, and more recently for cutting 750 jobs, justified through claims of “restructuring.” As a result, consumer trust and Adobe’s credibility has been damaged, if not entirely lost, and Adobe stock shares have since taken a fall.

At this point, customers and developers alike are left in a state of uncertainty. Adobe will survive these pitfalls, but it will take time to realize the full repercussions of abandoning Flash in the mobile markets. Consumers can find information about all the latest news and developments regarding Flash and HTML5 through the approved listings in the BOTW Directory. Between sites providing comparisons of the biggest mobile platforms, features, and related consumer information, BOTW users have access to all the details necessary for choosing the perfect mobile device — and just in time to add to their holiday wish list.

For the first time in over a decade, Internet Explorer is responsible for less than 50% of all web traffic. The primary reason behind the drop in IE usage appears to be the fact that Safari accounts for just over 62% of all mobile traffic. This seems like a drastic leap considering that merely 6% of all web traffic now stems from mobile and tablet devices, but there are many factors that can push a browser from the top to the bottom of the deck in the fast-paced Internet community.

According to NetMarketShare, Internet Explorer still accounts for 52.6% of all desktop browser usage. Although Safari is not a popular desktop browser choice, making up only 5.4% of desktop web traffic, it maintains a presence in even its least popular demographic. This is more than we can currently say for Internet Explorer. The Microsoft browser’s absence in the mobile and tablet markets allow Firefox and Chrome to fall in line behind (albeit far behind) Safari with 21.2% and 16.6% of overall web traffic respectively.

This drop in numbers isn’t causing Microsoft to worry while it still holds the place of leading browser for desktops, and the release of IE9 has received primarily positive feedback. Regardless of its newly fashioned and streamlined appearance, faster performance, and HTML5 support, however, Safari remains the best browser for mobile computing in terms of speed and HTML5 compatibility. If Internet Explorer wants to reclaim its hold over the majority of web traffic, Microsoft will have to consider the mobile market.

Feel like joining the trend of using Safari as your default browser, or reading up on the latest updates to any of the four leading web browsers: Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, and Chrome? Users can find information about software updates that may bring about new features to their favorite web browsers through the reliable listings found in the BOTW Directory. There users will also find dozens of consumer information sites & blogs focused on this topic, featuring  customer and expert reviews about the latest web browser changes.