An ever-expanding set of WordPress themes also guarantees that you look the part. If you’ll notice from the last few weeks, we’ve been creating lists of WordPress themes that we hope will reflect your business identity as well as complement your branding strategy. Today? We bring you another list: this time, it’s a set of 45 Business WordPress themes. We think they’re all awesome. If you have a favorite, let us know by leaving your comment below. We hope you’ll also share the list to others by tweeting the list and posting it on Facebook. Kids Toys WordPress Theme $40.00 | Demo | Buy Radial WordPress Theme $35.00 | Demo | Buy Smoke WordPress Theme $35.00 | Demo | Buy Hotel Classica WordPress Theme $30.00 | Demo | Buy Sport and Grunge WordPress Theme $40.00 | Demo | Buy Cars Dealer WordPress Theme $35.00 | Demo | Buy Child Care Creative WordPress Theme $40.00 | Demo | Buy – Read the full article
Internet domain registrar, Web hosting company, and SSL Security Certificates provider GoDaddy has been sold to a consortium of private equity firms in a deal reportedly worth $2.25 billion. The company, which grew by 25 percent to $947 million from 2009 to 2010, and which has been expecting 2011 revenues to hit $1.1 billion after managing more than 48 million domain names and 9.3 million customers, will now enter into a strategic partnership with venture capitalists KKR & Co., Technology Crossover Ventures, and Silver Lake Partners. GoDaddy follows in the footsteps of Groupon, Zynga, and Skype as the latest in Silver Lake Partners’ series of technology investments. “I’ve always said we would make a move like this when the right deal with the right partners could help us do the right thing for our customers and our employees,” said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons in a press release. “This is it! We are partnering with KKR, Silver Lake and TCV – Read the full article
Watch out, WordPress and Tumblr. Blogger is about to undergo a major makeover this year. At this year’s SXSW in Austin, Texas, search engine giant Google provided a glimpse of the new and improved Blogger, its very own blogging and publishing platform and sixth largest website in the world (according to Alexa). To be included in the series of updates to Blogger are: a brand new interface, a revamped post editor, a more customizable template designer, and a new content discovery feature. These and more are going to be rolled out throughout the year. “2010 was a big year for Blogger,” wrote Chang Kim, Blogger Product Manager, in a blog post covering the announcement. “We introduced template designer, real-time stats, comment spam filtering, mobile templates, web fonts and more. 2011 promises to be another exciting year. We’re kicking things off at SXSW by giving folks a sneak peek at our next-generation user interface. The new design is not only cleaner and more modern, but it also – Read the full article
The search engine wars are heating up, and Microsoft has once again boosted its Bing search engine to compete with Google. In the latest series of enhancements to its own search experience, Microsoft is expanding the HTML5 version of its Bing search engine to include an “instant search” feature similar to Google Instant. The HTML5 version – which had been previewed at www.bing.com/peek before the site was pulled down in the wake of unwanted publicity – offered a peek of what else the new Bing might have in store, such as “search previews as you type,” smoother “animations that make search come alive,” better search history interaction, pop-over windows for easy in-site navigation, and slideshows that appear for certain kinds of search results. Bing’s HTML5 site is being timed to correspond with the launch of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9, the upcoming version of its Web browser, designed to maximize the use of HTML5 browser technology. While Google remains at the – Read the full article
As you’ll notice, we’ve been focusing recently on the “marriage” of search engine optimization and social media – and talking about things like how you can use social media sites for your SEO campaign, or how you can leverage Twitter for link building. We believe that social can have a tremendous impact on search. And by “social” we don’t mean just Twitter and Facebook. We take into account other websites, too, like Reddit. Reddit – a social bookmarking site – is one of the darlings that we’re keeping an eye on this 2011. It has been around, having been launched 5 years ago, but Reddit enjoyed its best year last 2010 when it experienced a 300 percent surge in traffic (thanks largely to the expense of faltering Digg) and record 829 million page views last December alone. The site markets itself as “the voice of the Internet – (with) news before it happens”. Being a social bookmarking site, Reddit delivers – Read the full article
It looks like snubbing the world’s number one search engine was the right move after all. Just a little over a month after rejecting Google’s $5.3 billion offer, daily deals website – and one of today’s fastest growing companies – Groupon has raised $950 million in one of the largest venture funding rounds of all time. The financing came from a long list of venture capital firms and investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, Accel Partners, Battery Ventures, DST, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, Silver Lake, Maverick Capital, Technology Crossover Ventures, Mail.Ru Group, and New Enterprise Associates. “We’re thrilled that Groupon has earned the confidence of some of the world’s most respected investment firms,” said Andrew Mason, founder and CEO of Groupon. “With their support, we will continue on our mission to change the way people shop locally and serve the world’s local businesses.” Added Greylock Partners venture capitalists Reid Hoffman and James Slayet in a TechCrunch guest blog post: “We – Read the full article
Looking to get ahead of the social media marketing game? Sure, Facebook and Twitter are still the king and queen of this kingdom – just as reported in a recent StrongMail survey of online marketing budgets in 2011 – but the New Year also heralds a number of new social media darlings that are certainly worth keeping an eye on. Last year, it was Foursquare and Posterous leading the pack. This year is just as promising – if not more promising, thanks in large part to the continued expansion of social media and to the crazy range of new sites, apps, and startups out there. Here are our picks for social media websites to watch in 2011. Quora Last March 2010, Quora reportedly received $86 million in funding from Benchmark Capital (also a Twitter investor). It didn’t make any million-dollar noise the rest of the year, but this 2011 just might be the year Quora really makes waves. As a – Read the full article
Online advertising is back – and bigger than ever. US online ad spending rose by 13.9 percent in 2010, reaching a new record of $25.8 billion after a downslide in 2009. According to digital marketing research firm eMarketer, this figure surpasses that of advertising spending in newspapers (print and online editions), which fell to $25.7 billion in 2010: a decline of 6.6 percent. Among several measured media, only TV generates more advertising dollars than the Internet. The results of eMarketer’s study mark a new milestone for advertising on the Internet – and a trend that is likely to continue in the next few years. It is estimated that in 2011, Internet ad spending will account for about $28.5 billion, while ad spending on newspapers is expected to continue to decline. Said Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer, “It’s something we’ve seen coming for a long time, but this is a tipping point.” eMarketer cites three key reasons for the steady rise – Read the full article
