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Weekly internet update

The North East Regional Portal’s head of e-business, Pascal Fintoni, shares his take on the latest in the world of internet marketing…

In the news: According to figures released this week by the International Advertising Bureau, online advertising in the UK has grown from the countries smallest sector to the third largest in just 5 years.

Computer Weekly report that eBay are considering selling their internet phone subsidiary Skype after they deemed it to have failed to become an integral part of their business activities. It was hoped that the $3.1 billion acquisition would make communications between buyers and sellers easier, though this has not proved to be the case.

Hitwise has released information on the most popular websites and brands in the UK last year. There are few surprises in the most regularly searched-for brands, but the paper also features a breakdown by industry of the most popular websites - some interesting reading.

Online retailer Amazon has opened a new warehouse in Swansea according to the Daily Mail, and it is the size of ten football pitches! As the popularity of internet shopping continues its rapid rise, could such warehouses completely replace traditional high street shops?

Plug of the week: The shortlists for the very first North East Digital Awards [have been announced](http://www.northeastdigitalawards.co.uk/public/uploads/files/north east digital awards shortlists.doc), with judging due to take place at the end of April. Congratulations to all those who made the shortlists, the winners will be announced at a special ceremony and celebration on 15 May.

Story of the week: The domain name bond.com is to be auctioned off by domain name specialists Sedo, with a reserve price of $1 million according to Web User. Fresh from selling pizza.com, the 007-themed domain will join Sedo’s top ten most valuable list when the auction concludes on Thursday.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .