A Searchmetrics.com report has shown that online retailer Amazon is the clear leader of paid search advertising on Google, the UK's leading search engine.

Threepipe Communications and Blowfish Digital are set to unite as one company following a merger, with a  combined staff of 50 now offering a comprehensive digital service from offices in Holborn, London. The company will retain the name and branding of Threepipe.

Online retailer eBay has reported that more than three million UK users logged on to the site on Sunday 2 December via mobile devices, doubling the number of mobile visitors on the same Sunday of 2011.

American coffee giant Starbucks, implicated by MPs in a report on tax-evasion along with Google and Amazon, has announced they are to review their "approach" towards UK taxation.

MPs put American multinationals Starbucks, Amazon and Google under scrutiny yesterday over suspected off-shore tax-avoidance schemes denounced as "immoral" during a three-hour investigation.

Facebook are refusing to comment on speculation that the social network is on the verge of launching their own, branded jobs board.

eBay have announced plans to expand on their mobile applications and drive customers into stores using their click and collect incentives.

The retailer has introduced services to 'remove the friction' of in-the-flesh transactions by offering customers the opportunity to pay for goods via their phone. An example of this took place at the Mobile World Congress in which eBay encouraged visitors to scan a QR code which let users purchase paella at a food stand. The meal could be paid for using a credit card or PayPal account and allowed people to 'skip the queue'.

Head of mobile Steve Yankovich said: "“We can know when someone is in or near a store and offer them a deal via our relationship with a bricks-and-mortar retailer. By doing this, we go from a multimillion-dollar business to a multitrillion-dollar one.”

Mobile network 3 has also recently agreed to pre-load eBay apps on some of their devices, similar to an existing deal with O2, which would make the aforementioned features readily accessible to new customers.

“It’s important for us to help people realise there is an eBay experience on the phone" stated Yankovich.

VP and general manager for eBay has quoted the retailers research in the neccessity of mobile-optomised websites, commenting that 17% of mobile users will change their purchasing decision when encountering a non-optomised site.

“We want to help businesses, small and large, compete online by using eBay tools to provide a real multichannel experience and mobile is a massive part of that."