After six years of running the mobile advertising platform iAd, reports suggest that Apple will throw in the towel, by taking a step back and allowing publishers to take over the responsibilities of ad creation, sales, and the management of iAd.

In a move intended to spur innovation, Yahoo wants to give researchers more insight into how consumers interact with news about the latest Lexus RS 2016 model, Star Wars, Microsoft's transition to Windows 10 and updates to Bing and Google self-driving cars, among many other things. So the company is making 13.5 terabytes of uncompressed data available for use and review.

Google Maps will soon have the ability to analyze a user's driving habits, recent history, current location and other data to predict where the person might drive to next. In a nutshell, Driving Mode, an update to Google Maps for Android, will volunteer information as the person drives.

Expect Google engineers to experiment with new programmatic capabilities in 2016. That's the word from Joshua Spanier, marketing director of global media at Google, who wants to focus on geolocation, demographics, and dayparting, which are enabled by programmatic.

Facebook is partnering Oculus Rift with Microsoft's Xbox One. The head-mounted virtual reality display will require speed and power. At CES, the social network announced it would begin accepting pre-orders for the headset at $599, to get a jump on sales. For those without a compatible Xbox One or another computer that can support the sophisticated system, it could cost consumers another $1,000.

Apple confirmed the purchase Thursday of San Diego-based Emotient for its facial-recognition software to support advertising, media testing, audience response and research and other areas, according to its Web site. The technology reads emotions on people's faces and body language in images. The ability to tie that into intent will become priceless for search marketers.

Nearly one-quarter of consumers will return or exchange at least one of the presents they received this holiday season. The three top reasons may surprise marketers.

Google's Internet of Things platform and language, Brillo and Weave, announced last March have new partners. The relationships were announced Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016 in Las Vegas.

Global technology sales are predicted to fall 2% to $950 billion in 2016, according to the Consumer Technology Association, which puts on the CES tech show annually. The organization expects virtual reality sales in the United States to grow 440% to $540 million this year compared with last year, which means search marketers will have many more opportunities to explore creative advancements in advertising.

Those of us blessed with eyesight have many advantages when it comes to everyday life. Searching and experiencing the Internet is one. Until now it has been challenging for those lacking functioning vision.