Ask.com has added something new to their Smart Answer collection by making the International Children’s Digital Library available as a top-of-page resource for children’s literature-related queries.

Some companies are dealing in market places where there are very few customers.

Earlier this week I talked about building out an actuarial table for defining risk in information security as something that would work in helping information security professionals being insured against the work that they do.

In the spirit of the season, one search engine deserves some special consideration. For every query made through GoodSearch.com, a small donation will be made to (more or less) the charity of your choice.

An American-based online entrepreneur may be willing and capable of handling sales to European destinations, but their websites need to be able to properly handle visits from those prospective customers who may likely arrive via the Firefox browser.

Expect this online holiday shopping season to be a blockbuster as 80 percent of American Internet users will purchase gifts online, according to a Zogby International poll commissioned by AOL. New York City will lead the rest, more than doubling the spend of the nearest market.

Yahoo recently donated $1 million to Stanford University’s Knight Fellowship program “to support press freedom.” While that might seem like an innocent gesture, it’s created a bit of a stir. Some people view it “as an act of atonement,” but others “worried the money came from a tainted source.”

What kind of financial return should a company expect when it globalizes its website? If it translates the e-commerce pages, will more people buy? Or is English enough for the still English-saturated web?

Something new happened in mid-2006 – five out of the top ten websites listed by Alexa (based on traffic for the previous three months) were Asian. Four of those were Chinese.

According to a Guardian story (reg. req.), MySpace just took second place (vs. SecondLife) to YouTube in terms of traffic.

Adding to its aggressive campaign to attract more users, Skype launched a promotional offer called the “Skype Days of Summer” that allows US and Canadian SkypeOut users to make free international calls to the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Japan during three July weekends.

United Press International reports that Yahoo has launched a microsite in honor of Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.

A new site developed by Amnesty International with the help of long-time supporter The Observer UK and the Open Net Initiative provides a way to republish snippets of content from websites banned by various governments on one’s blog or site.

International users may have noticed that Google maps (aka Google Local) are now available from a number of International domains including:

Word on the street has it that Google has added loads of new data to the offerings available for viewing via Google Earth.

For the IABC 2006 international conference in Vancouver, Canada, in June, Shel and I are co-hosting and producing ConferenceCast, the official podcasts of the conference, as we announced in February.

To gain added exposure for their stories, some bloggers have begun taking advantage of the way Google Finance incorporates content as part of a company’s information page.

I’m delighted to announce that Neville Hobson and I-cohosts of the For Immediate Release podcast-have agreed to produce a series of podcasts leading up to and running through the IABC 2006 International Conference.

It’s often a good idea to just click on things on a website as you might discover something new.

“What do you think of it?” asks General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz in a post yesterday on the GM FastLane Blog.

A global business perceptions survey is offered for your participation by William Prado, Director of the MBA Program at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont.