I’ll have to admit that this is the first Christmas shopping season where I’ve yet to complete my shopping – been way too busy and there’s been way too many gadgets that I’ve wanted for myself. With that said, it looks like BradsDeals.com and Yahoo! Shopping are trying to find a way to make the next 60 (or so) days of this shopping season and beyond that much easier for all of us online shoppers.

BradsDeals.com, the leading website for shopping deals and advice, and Yahoo! Shopping, the #1 comparison shopping site are expanding their commitment to providing consumers with the best deals this holiday season. This year they are building upon their successful partnership on with “60 Days of Deals!” where each day through January 5, 2011, Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Deals and BradsDeals.com will showcase one exclusive offer from a major retailer.

“Our editorial team (at BradsDeal.com) is tracking sales and coupons for the season’s must-have items at nearly 1500 retailers. A ‘BradsDeal’ is what happens when we match one of those valuable coupons with a deeply-discounted sale item.”

With Yahoo! Shopping involved, over 20 million people have access to these 1500+ deals. Take the hint, don’t be lazy and check it all out. I know that I will.

[ Links: BradsDeals.com, Yahoo! Shopping ]

In a deal that was all but sealed going into the weekend, seems like Yelp’s CEO Jeremy Stoppleman has abandoned that prior deal with Google.

Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppleman walked away from the deal this weekend just as it was reaching the later stages of negotiation. TechCrunch speculates that another company may have approached Yelp for a strategic deal that would urge Stoppleman to back away from the Google deal.

Yelp is a website that allows members to review local businesses from local nightlife, shopping centers to restaurants and religious organizations. Users can submit reviews and ratings on their experience for other curious shoppers to see. Yelp is available in The United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, which offers location services to find places near you.

Half a billion dollars… and he walked away. If the “other company” involved can throw around more money, it only leaves Microsoft since Yahoo is still hurting and losing value per day; and current conditions definitely count out AOL Aol.

Let’s see what happens.

[ Related Links: Neowin, TechCrunch ]

Dealnews.com [ site here ] is how I start my day. The site collects not only which Apple iPhone apps are free that day or which sales are going on at that moment – some sales are 24-hour only and by the time I read all of my e-mail, I just don’t see them until it is way too late – but in preparation for the Christmas shopping season, Dealnews is collecting any/all of the Black Friday (November 27th) ads available as they come to light [ view here ]

In short, I love Dealnews.com. Combined with the fact they also collect coupons and coupon codes, online sales and specials, you just need to bookmark Dealnews.

[ Dealnews ] [ Dealnews Black Friday ] [ Related: RTL Deals ]

I’m a chronic deal finder and honestly, it is sometimes a very boring, tedious and above all, a very solitary event. Sitting behind a computer, click, click… click. Yeah… what happened to the days when you went out, shared what you liked, got advice on the spot from your relatively outspoken friends and got instant feedback on what you liked, didn’t like.

If you’re anything like the majority of the shoppers now, you’ll probably have to go back to the bell bottoms that your friends somehow convinced you to buy way back… oh wait. Maybe that’s just me. Anyway, bad fashion decisions aside, Friendshopper.com wants to bring back that feeling of camaraderie and the joy of bringing folks together when they shop together, something that is sorely missing from the online shopping experience.

But that’s not possible without a very robust framework that allows for bookmark sharing, item sharing and communication in real time.

Now, to the important bits. This isn’t like Kaboodle which had the social shopping bit “tacked on” – it’s there but it’s not the same. Kaboodle is about as social (to me) as showing you my want list on Amazon.com. Via the FriendShopper.com bookmarklet – look ma, no installs! – and some clever tech, you can decide what’s private and what you will share with other FriendShopper.com members/friends. And in the next coming month, Josh Bochner, the CEO of FriendShopper.com has let me know that a few surprises are in store. An Apple iPhone app and Facebook integration are both forthcoming.

And some other surprises too

With that, I really like FriendShopper.com. It allows me to get instant feedback from my friends, see what they’re looking at while we’re talking, instantly share images and links and finally get rid of that solitary confinement feeling when I’m sitting here behind my desk shopping online.

If only FriendShopper.com also did blogging tools too… oh well. Just another tool to use in shopping online and trying to save that buck or three in this economy.

[ FriendShopper ]

Photo Credit: Image via Morguefile.com member Alvimann.