Small Businesses See 10 Percent Increase on Cyber Monday

Consumers Buying from Smaller Online Retailers Too

Network Solutions, a leading provider of small business web services, announced today that its more than 7,000 e-commerce customers saw a collective 10 percent year-over-year increase in sales on Cyber Monday, the highly anticipated start of online holiday shopping. While retailers across the country reported slow same-store sales, smaller online entrepreneurs enjoyed a jump in holiday sales this year, with more consumers shopping online in greater numbers.

As many brick-and-mortar shop owners struggle with increased costs and shrinking in-store sales, small businesses with e-commerce sites are augmenting their revenues with online sales. As more consumers search Google first to find bargains and products, local small businesses with properly marketed Web sites are benefiting from national exposure. According to a report from iProspect and Jupiter Research, 62 percent of searchers click on a link within the first page of results. Having an e-Commerce Web site and using search engine optimization tools from Network Solutions, small businesses have secured new audiences to increase holiday sales.

“With small businesses across the country struggling, Network Solutions’ is excited to see that our e-commerce customers are benefiting from greater exposure,” said Scott Ableman, Chief Marketing Officer at Network Solutions. “Whether you own a small shop or work out of your home, having a professional web site is an economical way to build sales during tough times.”

Ex-Googlers Launch rentBits.com - Vertical Search for Rentals

rentBits.com today announced the beta launch of its rental search engine, offering renters one place to find available rental homes, condos and apartments.

rentBits helps users make sense of the millions of bits of rental housing data and information that reside on the web. Using advanced search technology, rentBits crawls the web to provide users with an index of single family home, condo and apartment for rent listings from major rental sites, associations and property management websites.

In addition to improving the online search experience for rental properties, rentBits also offers:

• Intuitive and clean search design
• No login requirements
• New rental search technology
• Comprehensive listings
• Speed and accuracy
• Daily listing updates

The rentBits executive team brings search and advertising expertise to the online rental space. Dan Daugherty (CEO) and Tim Moynihan (COO) come from Google and Dariusz Rakowicz (CTO) has extensive experience developing technology and search platforms for the hotel industry.

"While at Google, we learned to develop products that were simple to use, free for users, and clean of annoying advertising," says Dan Daugherty, President and CEO. "rentBits has all of these qualities and this beta release is just the beginning. We will continue to innovate so we can provide the best rental search experience for our users."

rentBits' business is advertising-based and provides a platform for property managers, real estate investors and agents to reach renters while they are actively searching for rental properties.

For more information, or to search for a rental home or apartment, visit http://www.rentbits.com/. Read about or comment on updated rentBits news and observations in the rental industry at rentBits' corporate blog at http://www.rentbits.com/blog.

Google's Goal: Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal

Creates renewable energy Research and Development group and supports breakthrough technologies

Google today announced a new strategic initiative to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal. The newly created initiative, known as RE C, will focus initially on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies. RE C is hiring engineers and energy experts to lead its research and development work, which will begin with a significant effort on solar thermal technology, and will also investigate enhanced geothermal systems and other areas. In 2008, Google expects to spend tens of millions on research and development and related investments in renewable energy. As part of its capital planning process, the company also anticipates investing hundreds of millions of dollars in breakthrough renewable energy projects which generate positive returns.

"We have gained expertise in designing and building large-scale, energy-intensive facilities by building efficient data centers," said Larry Page, Google Co-founder and President of Products. "We want to apply the same creativity and innovation to the challenge of generating renewable electricity at globally significant scale, and produce it cheaper than from coal."

Doubts cast on DoubleClick deal

The chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been urged by two senators to subject the proposed acquisition of DoubleClick by Google to in-depth examination.

Google wants to buy the internet advertising giant DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, but the deal has been held up while the FTC examines whether it could violate antitrust laws. Now Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah and Senator Herb Kohl, a Democrat from Wisconsin, have both called on the FTC to seriously look at whether the deal could hurt competition on the internet.

The two senators wrote: "While we have not reached any definitive conclusion regarding this issue, we urge that you only approve the merger if you determine that it will not cause any substantial lessening of competition with respect to internet advertising." Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick is only one episode in a recent scramble by the big internet companies to grab a piece of the lucrative internet advertising sector. For information on other digital products and services visit www.broadbandnational.com

MySpace and Google join forces

Internet search engine giant Google has teamed up with the popular social networking site MySpace, it has been announced.

MySpace will now be able to access Google applications, Google announced at a party it threw for software developers on Thursday night in Mountain View. Discussions about Google's OpenSocial platform began between the two companies over a year ago.

The move is seen as a strategy to try and combat the growing influence of Facebook, the second-largest social networking site in the world after MySpace. Google chief executive Eric Schmidt is quoted in USA Today as saying: "This is really the next step in the evolution of the web.

"We're ultimately in the business of people being happy online, and this helps do that." Microsoft recently paid $250 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook, which values the social networking site at $15 billion.

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in his dorm room at Harvard.

Google talks to phone giants

Internet search engine giant Google is reportedly in talks with both Sprint and Verizon about putting its software on mobile phones.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that talks between the companies are at an advanced stage. By entering into the wireless world, Google would have a new arena for its advertising. It already holds a dominant position in the lucrative sector of online advertising. Avi Greengart, an analyst for Current Analysis, told Reuters: "If Google is going to make a splash, it's going to have to say (to operators) 'offer our phone and we'll share the revenue'."

According to the report in the Wall Street Journal there will be an announcement in the next two weeks that "GPhone" software will be available to consumers by mid-2008. However, others have said that a deal with mobile operators is still a long way off. Use of other carriers' mobile networks is key to any Google wireless plans.

Internet Privacy Urged By Google

The Internet search engine giant Google has told the UN that it should help guard the privacy of internet users by setting up global regulations.

Google's privacy chief, Peter Fleischer, told the Guardian that unless universal privacy restraints are set up, people will lose faith in the internet and its development will be adversely affected. Mr. Fleischer is due to address a conference of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) in Strasbourg later today. He is to request that Unesco push for internet privacy standards that span the globe.

He told the paper: "Three-quarters of the countries in the world have no privacy regimes at all and among those that do have laws, many of them were largely adopted before the rise of the internet. "It's said that every time you use a credit card, your details are passed through six different countries."

Meanwhile, Google has announced that it is to sponsor the Lunar X prize, which will award £30 million for landing unmanned machines on the moon and making them carry out specific tasks.

Yahoo! comes out on top in user satisfaction

A recent user satisfaction survey conducted in the U.S. resulted in Yahoo! beating out its search engine rival Google.

In the University of Michigan's American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ASCI), Yahoo! gained three points to end up being rated 79 out of 100. Google on the other hand slipped three points from last year to end up with a score of 78, marking the first time it has slipped below a rating of 80 since 2002.

Larry Freed, chief executive of ForeSee Results, which sponsored the survey, said: "Even more important than Yahoo's first lead over Google is the trend of their scores moving in opposite directions. "Since the ACSI is a leading indicator of financial performance on the macro scale and at the company level, we may see a real turnaround for Yahoo! in the next year." The website with the largest increase in customer satisfaction this year was Ask.com, which garnered a rating of 75. AOL.com was the website that saw the biggest fall in customer satisfaction, sliding more than nine percent to 67.

The ASCI measures the performance of over 200 companies annually.

Government Rejects Internet Device

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has rejected a new device that several computer companies claim could beam the Internet over unused television airwaves.

According to the regulatory body, the device was not accurate enough in telling which television airwaves were unused, which could have ended up causing interference. However, the companies behind the device, which include Microsoft, Dell and Google, are convinced that it is accurate.

A representative of the coalition of companies, Edmond Thomas, said: "We intend to work with the FCC in order to identify the discrepancies in their tests with the tests we've done." The FCC has stated in the past that it would like to develop a way to send high-speed Internet over the unused television airwaves, known as white spaces.

By using white spaces, the Internet could be brought to those in rural areas and create more innovation. As a rule the use of white spaces is not popular with television broadcasters, as they fear interference. Recently, the FCC also ruled that all wireless carriers must allow their customers access to roaming for a reasonable cost.