General Archived News
Dragons' Den
The second series of Dragons' Den, the series where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to secure investment finance from the Dragons... elite business experts, is due to be aired from 15th November 2005 on BBC2 at 8.00pm
Websynergi Design has worked with Rachel Elnaugh, the only female 'Dragon' on the show for a number of years developing her personal website and those of companies she has invested in from the Dragons' Den series such as www.grails.co.uk and www.lebeanock.com from the first series.
Websynergi Design have also designed websites for companies that have appeared
in the current series, such as http://www.cannyco.com (22.11.05)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/
Google sells $2.07bn of its stock
US search engine company Google has raised $2.07bn (£1.2bn) through its second share sale in seven months.
Google, which first listed on the stock market in August 2004, sold 5.3 million shares priced at $389.75 each.
The shares were sold to funds that track the Standard & Poor's 500 index because Google has replaced oil firm Burlington Resources in the benchmark.
Google is planning to use the cash from the sale to fight off stiff competition from rivals Yahoo! and Microsoft.
Price growth
A recent report found that four out of 10 web searches conducted in the US are now done using the Google search engine, giving the company a 42% market share in February.
That makes Google the world's most-used search engine and rivals have renewed efforts to eat into its market share.
However, despite the concerns, Google's shares have performed remarkably well since it listed on the stock market and have doubled in value during the past 12 months.
Courtesy of the BBC news online, April 2006
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OFT will examine online shopping
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to study online retailing to see if consumers are getting a fair deal.
The OFT said it wanted to establish whether current consumer laws was up to the job of protecting online shoppers.
Internet retail sales have grown by 350% in the past five years and about 130,000 businesses sell online.
Four representative "case study" sectors will be examined; electrical goods, music sales, airline tickets and online auctions.
These sectors have been chosen because they account for at least a third of all online spending.
Courtesy of the BBC news online, April 2006
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High Street woe as web sales grow
High Street stores will lose market share to their online rivals as more households take broadband internet connections, according to a report.
It said people will be spending £18.5bn a year on the internet which would previously have been spent in stores.
Online shopper numbers will rise 10 million to 25 million by 2010.
Electrical stores
With 66% of homes likely to have broadband access by then, Paypal suggested, online shopping would become quicker and easier.
"Over the past few years we have seen the internet gradually eating away at the high street," said chief executive Geoff Iddison.
"By 2010 we expect substantial sums that would have been spent on the High Street to have moved online."
The report warned that electrical retailers faced a growing threat from online rivals, with online stores set to take £4.6bn per year by 2010, a surge of 136%.
Food and grocery items are estimated to make up 30% of online shopping by 2010, up 235% on 2005.
Online sales of DIY goods are due to rise by 172% between 2005 and 2010, with clothing and footwear growing 160% over the same period.
Courtesy of the BBC news online, May 2006
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Retailers can look forward to a bumper online Christmas, it added, with 70% of internet users buying gifts online.
Average online spend among UK internet users will rise to £237, compared to £197 spent on the High Street.
But it warned that some high street retailers needed to improve their online offerings, while web-only retailers needed to convert people doing research on their sites into buyers
Nielsen's annual Christmas Shopping Online survey showed that women were three times more likely to buy a gift through the internet than men.
"There is little doubt that the behaviour of all areas of the internet population is encouraging for retailers this Christmas," said Alex Burmaster, Nielsen Net Ratings' European internet analyst.
"However, perhaps for the first time, it is the behaviour of women online that will dominate the success of the online Christmas."
BBC Business News online, November 2006.
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Monster security breach
Users of the US job website, Monster.com, have been tricked into releasing personal details after receiving an email encouraging them to download a bogus Monster job seeking tool. This was in fact a program that encrypted files on their computer and left a ransom note demanding money for their decryption.
The program used to access the Monster user data was a Trojan, commonly used to gain access to bank details, usernames and passwords. More than 8,000 new variants of Trojans are found each month, according to internet security specialists Sophos.
Symantec, the internet security organisation, explained that log-ins were used to harvest usernames, email addresses, home addresses and phone numbers which were uploaded on to a remote web server. This stolen data puts innocent users at risk of phishing and spam emails.
Symantec said users should always limit contact information posted to job websites and to use a disposable e-mail address.
"Never disclose sensitive details such as your social security number, passport or driver's license numbers, bank account information to prospective employers until you have established they are legitimate," said the firm.
BBC news online, 21st August 2007
West Midlands retailers are missing out on much-needed Christmas business by not setting up a website and trading online, according to a new report from Barclaycard Business.
Its research showed that 70 per cent of businesses questioned in the West Midlands do not currently trade online and are missing out on lucrative Christmas sales as millions of shoppers shun the high street to shop online.
The research comes from the first Barclaycard Business Retail in Detail Survey - an annual survey of more than 1,000 retailers across the country.
The aim of this new survey is to build a comprehensive picture of the nation's high street and to gauge the views of retail owners in the UK today.
The survey also gives an insight into the potential benefits to a retailer of trading online. It found that of those retailers in the West Midlands who were able to accept business over the internet, half (50 per cent) had seen an increase in their business over the last 12 months.
To investigate the motives for trading online the research looked at why so many retailers in the West Midlands were still not trading over the internet and benefiting from the new online marketplace.
It found nearly one in five retailers in the West Midlands (18 per cent) cited the cost of setting up online as a barrier to implementation and more than one in five (21 per cent) responded that they didn't have the technical expertise to get started.
Barclaycard Business commercial director Bill Thomson said: "The growth of online shopping over the last five years has opened up a lucrative new revenue stream for retailers in the West Midlands. "However, it is clear from our research that many retailers are not yet benefiting from this new income by making their goods and services available online.
"Our research shows that many retailers in the West Midlands perceive setting up online as a costly exercise.
"In fact the opposite is true. Starting to trade online can be extremely quick and cost effective; a move that can deliver new business which will quickly repay any initial costs."
Birmingham Post online, December 2006
The UK has become Europe's biggest online shopping market, overtaking Germany, research firm Mintel has said.
UK shoppers spent 9.79bn euros (£6.7bn; $12.2bn) online in 2005, compared with 9.71bn euros in Germany, Mintel said.
Competition between internet providers has lowered the cost of fast broadband services, making it easier for consumers to shop online.
Total internet sales in Europe rose by 51% to 40.2bn euros in 2005. Mintel expects that figure to triple by 2010.
"Mintel is confident that online sales of goods will grow strongly over the next few years as this channel matures," said senior retail analyst Neil Mason.
Mintel said there was plenty of room for growth in online spending, with sales made over the internet making up 2% of total European retail sales.
Companies are expected to benefit as online security becomes tighter and consumers become more comfortable with shopping over the internet. Last month, search giant Google launched an online payments system which aims to compete with auction giant eBay.
BBC News online, July 2006.
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Rachel Elnaugh
Rachel had an entrepreneurial spirit from an early age, selling home made gifts and cards from her dad's shop. After leaving school she worked her way up from Office Junior to become a tax consultant at the world's then leading accountancy firm Arthur Andersen, advising top-flight entrepreneurs like Sir Terence Conran. Then at 24 she left to set up her own company Red Letter Days which as market leader pioneered the UK's £200million experiences industry, selling gift experiences such as balloon rides and shark-diving. Websynergi Design are continuing to work with Rachel Elnaugh on future projects.
http://www.rachelelnaugh.com
Google offers personal searches
Google Custom Search Engine, as the tool is known, allows users to choose which webpages to search.
Users can also customise the look of results, how web content is prioritised or add paying adverts to the results.
Focused search
Groups using the program include climate science site RealClimate.org that searches a subset of the web it believes is scientifically credible.
The custom engine on the organisation's website only searches pages that have been scrutinised by climate scientists and are deemed to provide "solid and reliable information". 
The custom engine will help users to find their chosen information more quickly.
Users wanting to make use of the tool log on to a Google "Co-op" page where they can specify a list of websites to search.
The search engine can be set up to search the entire web but emphasise the chosen sites, or search only the specified pages.
The custom application can also be used to create a search engine that just focuses on a person's own site.
Cashing in
Users can also specify whether or not the tool uses the Google AdSense program to generate advertisements from search terms.
Advertisers pay Google every time someone clicks on these adverts. "We want to make it easy for anyone to create a search engine about all of their favourite topics," said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google.
BBC News online, Oct 2006
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