Anyone waiting for the backlash against Google's continuing and irresistable rise to universal dominance may have a while longer to wait. The previews last week of Google Wave have demonstrated that - yet again - Google is shaping the web instead of merely using it and why that is the best business model in this brave new online world.

Do you think twice now before buying that gorgeous new pair of jeans you don't really need? What about your customers? If you're worried whether you should be reacting to lower sales by slashing budgets, read on. In periods of economic downturn, many businesses respond to the dilemma, somewhat desperately, by cutting huge chunks from their marketing budgets. They do this in the false belief that marketing dollars are not warranted, because marketing - as a means of gaining business - is rendered ineffective in such a climate. It's the wrong response, and can often begin an ironic spiral downward - an act of saving money that leads to making less money.

You might have noticed in your journey on the web that some organisations websites look so professional, while others come off very amateurish. These organisations might even have similar looking websites. So how can two organisations with similar, professional concepts be so different?

One of the many concerns website owners have is that the web-safe fonts which we are bound to use on our website, because of web standards and policies, look dull and lifeless! Wouldn’t it be great if we could use those interesting font styles we see in Word, on our website? Welcome to Facelift and FFonts. The problem with using these special, more interesting fonts we see in Word and other graphics programs is that we can’t just set the font name in style sheets, because not everyone on the internet is bound to have that font – in fact it’s more likely they won’t.