• NY Times, Monday, December 19, 2005 10:01 AM

Small Internet retailers have figured out how to compete with the Wal-Marts and Amazon.coms of the Web, says The New York Times. Forrester Research predicts that some 45 percent of this year's expected $26 billion in holiday sales will go to the little guys, up 42 percent from last year. How have they done it? In a word, Google. Pay- per-click advertising on Google's search engine, which accounts for 45 percent of Internet searches according to Nielsen/NetRatings, helps the littler fish gain much- needed publicity--and they only pay for real leads that often end in sales. As local search technology improves, so too do the fortunes of those small to mid-sized businesses who spend the money to create an online presence. Now, several big players like Yahoo! and eBay have created simple storefront templates that make it even easier to for smaller merchants to have Web sites. And they make even more when they expand their online presence to include search marketing.

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