I’ve got a lot of very, very important things on my mind today…like turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and football. Oh yeah, plus I have two days off from work and the after Thanksgiving holiday shopping season is about to kick into high gear.

But before I start stuffing the bird, here are just a few work-related things that I’m very thankful for this week in no particular order:

Ben Edelman
Love him or hate him (especially if you’re Zango), this guy is totally dedicated to the anti-spyware cause. He’s never without data – lots of it - and his work always makes for an interesting read. Check out his newest research on Zango.

Industry Acknowledgements
It’s nice to see those in the performance marketing space that are doing well (and doing good) publicly acknowledged for their achievements. Last week, super search affiliate Vinny Lingham’s company incuBeta was the recipient of the prestigious Top Technology 100 Award for Overall Winner in the Small/Medium Business Category in South Africa. This is the fourth award incuBeta has received this year in South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States (Lingham’s Clicks2Customers won the 2006 CJU Horizon Award for Global Vision). Congratulations.

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping
Surveys about who’s going to be shopping online when and how much they plan to spend are almost as exciting to me as actually doing the spending myself – I said almost.

That means I have lots to be enthusiastic about. Advertising.com says that more than 50 percent of its holiday-survey respondents plan to spend as much or more than they spent online during the 2005 holiday season. They also plan to go online early, with nearly a third of respondents planning to begin their online shopping before Thanksgiving.

Then there’s the Cyber Monday vs. eDay battle that’s brewing. And see what the National Retail Federation has to say about holiday spending and shopping.

Anyway you slice it, it looks to be a very merry holiday season for those marketing and selling goods online.

Community Spirit
I applaud the recent outspokenness of blogger Scott Jangro for not tolerating bad behavior in the affiliate marketing space that attempts to belittle and degrade those with differing opinions. Jangro stood up before against CJ’s LMI initiative and helped make a difference.

This time Jangro called out a well-known industry figure for allegedly creating an anonymous website that attacks the creator’s long time industry nemesis. Supposedly, it was all in fun and humor. I’m not going to get into the specifics here as I don’t want to fuel this any further.

I’ve known about this particular situation for more than a month as have many others who also opted not to write about it. I chose not to get into the fray because I didn’t feel that sufficient evidence existed to condemn anyone. Plus, I thought that calling attention to the offending website might be even more painful for the subject. Instead, I passed the information on to our resident gossip columnist - the Spider - and moved on.

And while I think that I was right not to hastily point fingers, I admit I was wrong not to enlighten our readers to the fact that Revenue, like Jangro and others, does not condone or accept this type of malicious behavior in any form.

It’s okay to dislike someone in our little community. It’s fine to disagree. And it’s even good to voice that disagreement over specific issues in public forums and message boards or on a panel at a conference. I think that’s healthy and can lead to interesting debate and possible change.

However, it’s just morally wrong to put up a website (anonymously at that) which personally attacks another. It’s mean and hurtful and I know that this industry as a whole is not about that kind of behavior. I’m certain of this because I’ve personally experienced the helpful folks who have kindly shared vast knowledge and experience with me over the years. Most of the people in this arena are savvy business people that want the space to grow and flourish, not spiteful ones looking to ruin someone else reputation.

The site in question has been taken down. I hope people will forget the messages it contained but I also hope people will remember and think twice about doing business with anyone in this business who condones, tolerates or participates in spreading such hurtfulness.

Now put on your elastic waist pants, ingest some tryptophan and have a very Happy Thanksgiving. lisap@revenuetoday.com