Entrepreneurs Mitesh Soma of Chemist Direct, Liam Wood of enviro-lights.co.uk and Claire Young of The Apprentice fame are backing a Google initiative to get 100,000 businesses online with a free website by the end of 2010.

How popular websites will be financed in future remains an unanswered question, as two of the web’s biggest names head down opposing paths.

When big brands like Coca-Cola and Unilever move, others follow usually follow, so the latest development in the corporate world could have small businesses everywhere revising their dotcom plans.

US entrepreneur and founder of monster website Wikipedia.org Jimmy Wales has launched a fresh appeal for donations to the site.

Royal Mail strikes are not only affecting sales at online companies, they undermine the core propositon of internet firms: buy today, have it tomorrow. Here's how you can fight back and undo some of the damage inflicted by striking workers.

Social entrepreneur Cyndi Rhoades is re-launching online problem solving platform The Nag, turning the model on its head to give power back to the people.

Simon Parslow wants to change the way retailers market their products through his new website, eSay-uk.com.

OutSec provides secretarial typing to corporate clients. Founder Vanessa Phillips tells us how the company has saved the country a whopping 1,000 tonnes of Co2 emissions – and why the internet changed her entire business model.

You've got to hand it to Brent Hoberman. While the government is ignoring small businesses, the Lastminute.com founder is dipping into his own pocket to help startups.

A browser-based system means staff can log into the finance system from any location and can access documents or data via a single customised portal using a standard web browser.

Entrepreneurs are exploiting Facebook. Dragons, such as Duncan Bannatyne, Twitter. Even Real Business is on a social media rampage (check out our FB and Twitter pages). But be warned! HMRC is using these sites for evidence of more taxable activities.

ASOS couldn’t give a monkey's about the credit crunch. The fashion e-tailer’s sales have soared by 104 per cent for the six months to September 30. And we’re not surprised.

James Murray Wells set up Glasses Direct while he was still at university and has grown it into a £4m-turnover “recession proof” online specs retailer. Now he’s hoping to rocket-fuel growth by hiring Kevin Cornils of Match.com fame.

In June, the governing body for internet domain names approved a “land grab” for new web addresses, allowing Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and Cyrillic characters to be used for the first time. So should you start defensively registering domains to avoid being gazumped by cybersquatters?

A family business that is more than 300 years old and still thriving

Many companies are not taking advantage of the benefits online financial systems could provide. There are some key areas that could be improved.