According to analysts at ABI Research, a confluence of social and technological factors has created a kind of “perfect storm” that will lead to a market explosion for netbooks over the next few years. The firm forecasts worldwide shipments of nearly 35 million this year, rising to an estimated 139 million in 2013.

Practice director Kevin Burden describes this evolution: “PDA’s began our reliance on instant accessible data while traveling. When PDA functionality converged with cellular voice, smartphones became the new darling of mobile professional technology that many expected to evolve into the hub for all data and communication needs for travelling professionals. Today, with a better understanding for what a smartphone is, is not, and may never be, along with a reality check on the usefulness of UMPCs, the market remains open for new device types.”

Smartphones did a lot to raise our comfort level with mobile technology as well our expectations for how connected we could be and how accessible information and data should be while on the road. Enter the netbook with its light-weight, medium-sized form factor and low-cost processors leading to moderate overall price points may finally have “right-sized” mobile technology for productive travels.

comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported that total global Internet audience (age 15 and older from home and work computers) has surpassed 1 billion visitors in December 2008, based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service.

The Asia-Pacific region accounted for the highest share of global Internet users at 41 percent, followed by Europe (28 percent share), North America (18 percent share), Latin-America (7 percent share), and the Middle East & Africa (5 percent share).

“Surpassing one billion global users is a significant landmark in the history of the Internet,” said Magid Abraham, President and Chief Executive Officer, comScore, Inc. “It is a monument to the increasingly unified global community in which we live and reminds us that the world truly is becoming more flat. The second billion will be online before we know it, and the third billion will arrive even faster than that, until we have a truly global network of interconnected people and ideas that transcend borders and cultural boundaries.”

Practicle Ecommerce recently interviewed Derek Del Conte, co-founder of Innerfence, an iPhone applications developer, who have created ”Credit Card Terminal,” an iPhone app that allows merchants to process credit card transactions remotely.

When they asked him why ecommerce merchants should be interested in a mobile credit card terminal, he replied “Many ecommerce merchants sell directly to their customers through fairs, exhibitions, and performing on-site services. That’s exactly what our Credit Card Terminal products are made for. If you already have an Authorize.net account, all you need to do is download the iPhone app and you’re able to process mobile transactions.”

He goes on to add “The iPhone is a great device to accept payments because you’re carrying it with you all of the time and since it doesn’t require any additional hardware; it gives you a lot of flexibility about how and where you might accept payments. For example, we have several merchants that are in the handmade crafts and apparel industry. They have their ecommerce sites set up and they sell their goods there, but then they also sell at a fair on the weekend and oftentimes some of these items can be high ticket. The ability to accept credit card payments has resulted in additional sales and also lowered their transaction risks.”

According to a recent MediaMemo post by Peter Kafka, Google has expanded its YouTube eCommerce program, which lets users “click-to-buy” products related to the video they’re watching on YouTube, by extending the offers to viewers in Germany, Spain and the Netherlands; they had previously been limited to US and UK users.

Instead of just adding an affiliate link to Apple’s  iTunes or to Amazon at the bottom of the video, YouTube is now featuring the links on transparent overlays that pop up early in the clip. Check out this Monty Python clip for an example.

Google’s attempt to increase  its ad revenues in printed media has flopped – and as a result the company will dump its two-year-old Print Ads program.

Says Spencer Spinnell, Director of Google Print Ads: ”In the last few months, we’ve been taking a long, hard look at all the things we are doing to ensure we are investing our resources in the projects that will have the biggest impact for our users and partners. While we hoped that Print Ads would create a new revenue stream for newspapers and produce more relevant advertising for consumers, the product has not created the impact that we — or our partners — wanted. As a result, we will stop offering Print Ads on February 28. For advertisers who have campaigns already booked, we will place their ads through March 31.”

Mountain View, in a series of separate announcements, said last Thursday that it was killing, halting development on, or curtailing access to six products, in yet another cost-cutting exercise at Google. The firm also plans to axe 100 staff in its recruiting division

With two weeks to go before Landrush for the innovative new top level domain .tel, trademark owners have a limited time to apply for their domains before applications for any domain open to all. Anyone will be able to buy a .tel domain from 3.00 p.m. GMT on Tuesday 3rd February 2009, enabling them to have one secure and easy-to-manage address for life which they own and where people will be able to view from any device connected to the internet and contact them with simple ‘click to communicate’ functionality using any and all existing communications types.

As no web hosting, web development or deep level of technical expertise is required, .tel domains are a revolution in the use of domain names and internet publishing and ideal for individuals and small businesses with limited resources.

With over 120 ICANN-accredited registrars signed up with Telnic, levels of pre-orders (applications for .tel domain names taken by registrars to submit the instant Landrush commences) are being called ‘unprecedented’ by some in the registrar community.