New York - U.S. video game sales shot up 52% in November over the same period a year ago, climbing to $2.63 billion on strong sales of the Nintendo Wii and Activision's "Call of Duty 4" and "Guitar Hero 3," according to industry sales data compiled by NPD Group. [more..]

Mountain View, Calif. - Google announced this week that it is working on a Wikipedia-style online repository of user-submitted "knols," which the company said stands for "a unit of knowledge." [more..]

Reston, Va. - "Green Monday," a term recently coined by eBay to describe the second Monday in December as the heaviest online spending day of the season, lived up to its billing, according to new figures from market research firm comScore. [more..]

Redmond, Wash. - Nintendo has partnered with video game retailer GameStop, to offer holiday shoppers unable to find a Wii console in stock -- but willing to pay in full up front -- a rain check redeemable for a Wii in January. [more..]

Seattle - Calling it a "Thank you" for the 12 million copies of her "Harry Potter" books sold through its site, online retailer Amazon.com revealed that it paid nearly $4 million at auction to purchase one of only seven handwritten and illustrated copies of J.K. Rowling's "The Tales of Beedle the Bard." [more..]

Rockville, Md. - More than 1.3 million video game consoles were bought and sold on eBay in 2006, to the tune of $330 million, according to a report from market research firm Packaged Facts. [more..]

Taipei, Taiwan - GigaMedia, a Taiwan-based developer and publisher of online games, announced this week that it has invested in two Korean game developers, XLGames and Neostorm. [more..]

Raleigh, N.C. - Inlet Technologies, a developer of video encoding technology, has raised $3 million in new funding from existing investors, The News & Observer reported. [more..]

San Francisco - Ourmedia, a nonprofit, free video hosting and sharing firm, announced that it has merged with Outhink Media, a provider of services to independent digital media producers. [more..]

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Los Angeles - Recording artist Moby this week launched a website that will offer his music for free licensing to independent and student filmmakers to use in their noncommercial works, according to The Hollywood Reporter. [more..]

Los Angeles - Veteran metal band Anthrax has found a new lead singer with a little help from News Corp.'s MySpace online social network, where 31-year-old singer Dan Nelson initially contacted Anthrax guitarist Rob Caggiano, Reuters reported. [more..]

Mountain View, Calif. - Google this week introduced a version of its Picasa photo organizing, editing and Web hosting service optimized for Apple's iPhone. [more..]

Seattle - Zumobi on Friday announced the beta launch of its interactive mobile phone interface and mobile widget platform. [more..]

Falls Church, Va. - Video News Live has officially launched its online video news community, which allows people to watch and share user-generated content and mainstream video clips. [more..]