Online ad spend continues to grow

Online advertising in Europe is continuing to flourish, according to new figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The study found that last year internet ad spending grew at an average rate of 40 percent across 16 countries. By comparison, online ad spend in the US grew 26 percent over the same period. In 2007 the European online advertising market was worth EUR11.2 billion, up from EUR7.2 billion in 2006. Two-thirds of online ad budgets were spent in the big three markets of the UK, Germany and France, but some smaller markets - such as Greece, Spain and Slovenia - enjoyed very high growth rates. "Despite a slowdown in advertising spend on some traditional media, the rise of online advertising in Europe continues unabated," said Alain Heureux, president of IAB Europe. "Not only is the growth coming from some of the smaller markets which are seeing significant increases in their market value, but also from the more mature countries as companies move their advertising budgets online for the first time." For more on this story visit IABEurope.

Google still top of search engines

Search giant Google accounted for a massive 87.3 percent of all search queries in the UK in May, increasing its market dominance further. That's according to the latest data from internet research firm Hitwise, which said that Google's market share was up 9 percent from May 2007, although down very slightly from 87.69 percent in April 2008. Competing search engines have seen a corresponding drop in their market share over the past year: Yahoo's popularity declined from 8.58 percent in May 2007 to 4.09 percent in May 2008, MSN fell from 5.46 percent to 3.72 percent over the same period, and Ask tumbled from 4.96 percent to 3.07 percent. Google's share of the US search market is significantly lower, accounting for 68.29 percent of all US searches. Together, Yahoo and Microsoft account for nearly 26 percent of the US search market. For more on this story see VNUNet.com. (See elsewhere in this issue for more on search engine optimisation.)

E-crime no longer seen as high-tech

The world of e-crime has become low-tech, with drugs gangs and armed robbers now turning to the malicious use of technology for criminal activities. "It used to be considered that e-crime was high-tech crime but now there are much lower barriers to entry and, being very innovative, criminals have moved from armed robbery to drugs and are now exploring opportunities in e-crime," said Chris Corcoran, chief superintendent of North Wales Police and chairman of the e-Crime Wales Steering Group. Corcoran pointed out that the days of hackers being well-educated and IT-literate are gone, and now it has become much easier to commit crimes ranging from denial of service and phishing attacks to the sale of stolen goods on auction websites. "Those in business need to understand how vulnerable the vast majority of them are from rudimentary attacks, and how frequently they take place," warned Jason Hart, a director at security firm Cryptocard. "Most importantly, they need to understand that effective remedies to these issues do not need to be complicated, expensive or technically complex." For more on this story see VNUNet.com

Staff favour flexible working

Nearly one-third of European employees would consider resigning if their employers do not provide flexible working opportunities, according to research by communications firm Avaya. The research questioned 3,000 employees across the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia, and defined 'flexible working' as any situation where staff were not expected to work during set hours or from their desks, but could set their own flexible working hours and work from a location of their choice. More than one-third (35 percent) of European employees working for companies that do not offer flexible working believe their employer has the technology to make it happen but has chosen not to do so. Other findings show that 30 percent of senior managers felt that allowing flexible working improved their company's global competitiveness. Larger corporates were more likely to offer flexible working than SMEs. For more see Computing.co.uk. (See Issue 209 for more on home working.)

Dealing with information overload

SEO (part two): Top tips for visibility

Case study: Open Plain

Set up an intranet

Lansdowne Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, June 19
This day-long course is presented by the Irish Internet Association and delivered by Heraghty Internet Consultants. The event will demonstrate how to use search engine optimisation and marketing to drive customers to your website, how to improve search engine rankings and how to maximise your click-through rate from search engines. Both organic and pay-per-click search listings will be covered.

This site, backed by the UK government, is specifically aimed at helping small businesses and home users protect themselves while online. A dedicated section for SME owners offers plenty of advice on everything from writing a security plan and protecting servers to using encryption and preventing fraud. The site also features true stories of online crime, a blog on the latest security news, and a safety quiz to help you gauge how secure your online practices are.