Web giants aid SMEs

Google has joined forces with several major firms, including BT and PayPal, to introduce an initiative designed to provide free Web sites with .co.uk domain suffixes, reports Computing.co.uk.

The Getting British Business Online (GBBO) campaign seeks to help the 1.5 million UK small to medium enterprises that do not have a Web site, despite the UK being one of the most advanced digital economies, with 40 million online citizens.

Google says many businesses have not set up any form of Web site or online presence because they perceive it as complicated and costly, while others do not see the benefits of moving online.

Taking advantage of the proliferation of money transfer services in Kenya, such as Safaricom's M-Pesa, Zain's Zap, and Yu's yuCash, Intrepid Data Systems has unveiled a real-time online payment service called iPay, says The East African.

The service incorporates both M-Pesa and Zap modes of money transfer to enable customers to buy and sell goods and services across the region via their mobile phones, a move that will be welcomed by M-Pesa's nine million and Zap's 400 000 subscribers.

“Today, more than 15 million Kenyans who own mobile phones have instant access to mobile-based tools. Our idea was to package M-Pesa and Zap into an online transaction processing system that would allow online merchants, service providers and other groups to receive real-time payments via a secure platform,” states Intrepid MD Steve Nyumba.

Faneuil Hall Marketplace has beat out shopping centres in Chicago and San Francisco to win Google's Street View contest, making the historic plaza one of the first pedestrian malls to get the 360-degree mapping treatment, states The Boston Globe.

The photographs will be taken later this year by Google's Street View Trike, a three-wheel cycle that has cameras and sensors to gather images that are stitched together to make a panorama. The Street View Trike is used to make the images in places that are not accessible to motor vehicles.

Last year, Google solicited suggestions about where it should send the Street View Trike and narrowed them down to five categories: pedestrian malls, college campuses, theme parks and zoos, bike trails, and national landmarks.