With the consumer electronic industry still languishing, Sony (SNE) has little reason to be optimistic. In an interview with Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore, CEO Howard Stringer said he’s seen little sign of a recovery in Sony’s business. “From my viewpoint, that of Sony and its consumer electronics products the picture for the time being has not improved very much,” Stringer said. “There hasn’t been that turning point that many had hoped for. We are waiting for a signal that hasn’t arrived.”

“It appears that Amazon is gaining share the old-fashioned way,” ThinkEquity analyst Ed Weller noted last week, “by acquiring more and more customers…and selling more to each of them.” And judging from the nice gain in third-quarter earnings the company posted after Thursday’s closing bell, that would seem to be the case.

Net income for the period surged 69 percent thanks to a strong increase in sales. Analysts had been looking for earnings of 33 cents a share on revenue of $5.02 billion for the quarter. Amazon (AMZN) reported 45 cents a share, compared with 27 cents a share for the same period the previous year. Revenue rose 28 percent to $5.45 billion.

Once again, it seems Amazon has not broken out Kindle sales numbers in its report, though CEO Jeff Bezos did stress them in an earnings release. Said Bezos: “Kindle has become the #1 bestselling item by both unit sales and dollars–not just in our electronics store but across all product categories on Amazon.com. It’s also the most wished for and the most gifted. We are grateful for and energized by this customer response.”

Looking ahead to the key fourth quarter, Amazon is calling for revenue in the range of $8.125 billion to $9.125 billion. Analysts have been forecasting revenue of $8.13 billion. Given that the upcoming quarter includes the annual holiday shopping binge, Amazon may be looking at another blowout quarter.

Shares in the company are spiking on the news, up over nine percent to $101.90 as I write this.

And that’s exactly what consumers are looking for, according to Google (GOOG).

“We’ve seen quite an increase in queries for things like discounts and bargains and things like that,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt told “Meet The Press” this past weekend. “And we know that shoppers are using the Internet to get better pricing.”

Dear Friends; Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates sharing his fortune. If you ignore this, You will repent later. … When you forward this email to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (If you are a Microsoft Windows user) For a two weeks time period.

For every person that you forward this email to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00. For every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, You will be paid $241.00. Within two weeks, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a check.”

–Excerpt from the Microsoft giveaway hoax

My God … Bill Gates really is sharing his fortune. But not with folks who help out with that infamous Microsoft email “beta test.” He’s sharing it with consumers who use Microsoft’s Live Search engine to find and purchase products online.

Today, Microsoft (MSFT) will announce “Live Search Cashback,” a sort of search-engine loyalty program that rewards users with rebates on certain purchases of products found through Microsoft’s live.com Web search. “We want to earn your loyalty and reward it with cashback savings for your everyday online shopping,” Microsoft enthuses on the Cashback site. “We are ‘The Search That Pays You Back!’”

Cringe.

Like Microsoft’s hostile bid for Yahoo (YHOO), this new service is yet another effort to bolster its laggard search service, which has long been a very distant third in the search market. Question is, will it work? Gartner (IT) analyst Van Baker says maybe. “Assuming that the rebate amounts are enough to be appealing to people, which it sounds like they are, that definitely could attract a fair number of consumers,” Baker told the Seattle Post Intelligencer. “But what they may do is just go to that site when they’re thinking about buying something, and use Google the rest of the time.”