The year kicked off with the fun Nerdies 09 awards, which i’m sure everyone’s twitter feeds went crazy with nominees and updates.

Surprisingly enough the reports coming in on the holiday season showed that the recession did not affect online retail as much as anyone would expect, with Hitwise reporting increases in online traffic and spend in the UK. As from today, IMRG reports and increase in 14.2% for online retail for the December 2008 period. Seems the recession had less effect on online holiday shopping as people would have expected. I can agree with that, being the unfortunate one to have to dive into the shops on Christmas eve, where there seemed to be more people shopping than i’ve ever seen in my life (South Africa that is).

Google’s favicon goes through a makeover, that recieved a mixed response. Personally, i found it fairly arb within my FF tabs, something with colourful blotches? Google is not alone, Yahoo went through retrenchments recently, Jerry Yang even left the board, now it seems rumours are flying around that Microsoft is up next. Google then recently announced layoffs and a shutdown of services, which include uploads to Google Video. Google also recently announced the release of their own sitemap generator, which i have yet to play around with.

Steve Jobs announces a leave of absense from Apple due to cancer, soon after Apple suffering share price drop of 7%.

WebAfrica starts planning to build their own network, selling 30% stake to Smartcom, expanding their current products and services. (Thanks Brendan for the heads up )

On a lighter note (sure to give you a chuckle), George Bush is now leaving the White House, however leaves behind a memorial legacy for all of us online, with the “miserable failure” GoogleBomb.

Let me not forget the flood of 2009 predictions the last 2 weeks, which are a great read for first few days, however they start to lose their luster after variation after variation. Matt Mcgee however offers a great sum up post on all the great predictions for all to read in 1 place. Bookmarking time folks.

This is yet just a “piece of the pie” as they say, while everyone started looking at the future of mobile search last year, it really looks that 2009 will be the year of mobile, Apple launching their new 3G Iphone and many businesses and marketing companies realising the potential of the mobile market. As mentioned in a collegues presentation from last year, the stats are definitely something to consider, especially within the South African market.

So the 2009 is off to a busy start, let’s hope will all that is happening business continues to go on and the recession will be a thing of the past.

2009 has started – so much happening is a post from: The Pringle

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1. Recession & Retrenchments

In September this year i was appointed Director of Search for MediaVision, great step up the corporate ladder after all the long hours and hard work, yet within 2 weeks in this role 1 or 2 large UK clients decided to play it safe with their finances, cutting down costs and as you would expect the marketing budget is the first to go.

Our company faced a tough decision going forward, as we had more hands than we needed then. The announcement was made, and the “laying off” process started. What made this process that much harder, was the fact that before being appointed Director of Search, i was down in the “trenches” on a daily basis with all the staff, having formed strong friendships with most, training and supporting their growth within the company. In many cases just random fun even out of office hours was spent going out together.

The hardest part is having to seperate emotion from the equation, remembering that the business needs to go forward. Decisions need to be made on operational requirements and the future of the company. While most employees were understanding of the current situation, the ordeal was not a very pleasant one for myself to go through (while thinking that this will be my starting legacy as a Director).

So where does this leave other businesses in a similar situation? From my side, we have looked internally at what we offer, analysed and reviewed every service and or process from a very critical standpoint. What we offer works, but during this global recession, if any business does not look internally at developments and possible improvements what stops the same situation from happening again when the recession subsides and a businesses competitors come out stronger than before. Similar to the dotcom crash. As we are slightly smaller than before, however it has given us the unique opportunitiy to look at personal development for employees. At the same time we are improving our current offerings while strengthening our relationships with current clients. After a week of change, the results are being seen. We have survived a good few hiccups over the years and will be around for many many more to challenge any new hurdles.

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” – Mark Twain

I’m sure this is a very sensitive subject for most businesses, however i personally feel that we should not pretend this might not happen to us “if i can’t see you, you can’t see me” approach. Don’t get me wrong, i am in no way implying that businesses out there have this attitude.

How have you been affected by the recession?

Decided to try a poll, based on a conversation i had with Louis Venter:

[polldaddy poll="1123507"]

Recession & Retrenchments is a post from: The Pringle

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1. 2009 has started – so much happening