Google, Inc.

Menlo Park, Calif. -- Facebook on Thursday announced the launch of a video feature for its photo-sharing app, Instagram. The new feature, which allows users to share video clips lasting up to 15 seconds, is seen as a direct shot at Twitter, which acquired short video start-up Vine last year.

Similar to photos, the Instagram videos will show up on a user's profile and will be available immediately on both Apple’s iOs platform and Google’s Android devices.

CHICAGO, Ill. — Mercent, a leading technology company that enables retailers to reach and convert more shoppers online, has signed a strategic partnership with Shop.com, the e-commerce arm of Market America. 

This latest partnership expands Mercent’s portfolio of online shopping destinations supported by its SaaS platform and offers leading retailers the ability to market and sell to millions of consumers on the Shop.com third-party marketplace.

NEW YORK — Sociomantic Labs, digital advertising solutions provider for e-commerce marketers, has hired Charles Pitzer as the company’s VP of sales for North America.  

Pitzer has more than 25 years of sales experience, 14 of which have been concentrated in media with a focus on online advertising. He joins Sociomantic from Criteo. Previously Pitzer held positions at Specific Media, Advertising.com and IDG Communications.

AUSTIN, Texas — RetailMeNot.com, a U.S.-based digital coupon website, has upgraded its free Android coupons app to include location-based offers for thousands of retail locations at hundreds of general shopping malls nationwide.

As of this writing, the first of hundreds of new gTLDs — the suffixes to the right of the dot in domain names — have begun to be approved for release on the Internet. In an international move that hasn’t been widely publicized in the U.S., ICANN has been sifting through some 2,000 applications for new domain name suffixes, alternatives to the dozen or so we’ve all become familiar with, such as .com, .net and .gov.

MINNEAPOLIS — Colder weather and more conservative shoppers contributed to a drop in Target's first quarter 2013 profits, but the company's underlying business remains healthy, executives said Wednesday morning in a conference call with investors.

"While we are not satisfied with this quarter's performance, we remain highly confident in our strategy," president, chairman and CEO Gregg Steinhafel said during the call.

AUSTIN, Texas — Tabbedout has teamed up with Google to offer Google Wallet as a payment source in the Tabbedout app for Android. Consumers will now have the opportunity to pay from their smartphones, using their Google accounts, at thousands of Tabbedout locations. 

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, a leading specialty coffee and tea retailer, is leveraging wireless technology to retain existing customers and encourage new ones to come into their stores. 

The company will test wireless charging with Power Matters Alliance at select Los Angeles locations and plans to deploy wireless charging with PMA in dozens of California stores this quarter, with the aim of expanding nationally and internationally shortly thereafter.