We've compiled a list of ten sites we hope you'll find useful, as a small business or an Internet user in general...
 

• www.Google.co.uk – the web’s most popular search engine gives you access to over 8 billion web pages in less than a second. Don’t forget, you can search for exact phrases like “to be, or not to be” by enclosing them in double quotes (“), word definitions by preceding the word with define: (e.g. define:oxymoron) and images related to your search words by clicking “Images” just below the Google logo.
   
• www.Yell.co.uk – the old and familiar Yellow Pages, online. Use it to find local businesses by name or the type of service they offer. It provides addresses, phone numbers and websites for companies it contains, and will even show you where they are on a map.
   
• www.BBC.co.uk – with everything from world news to cooking recipes to educational resources, the BBC’s site is one of the web’s best. Explore it to see what it has to offer you.
   
• www.Amazon.co.uk – the undisputed king of online retailing, Amazon is worth a look for most products, especially books, CDs and DVDs.
   
• www.Kelkoo.co.uk – not a shopping site but a shop comparison site, Kelkoo lets you compare prices of a particular item across many different online shops. Use it to find where its cheapest to buy that new album, TV set, or toaster.
   
• www.eBay.co.uk – bid for a bargain or unload some of your old junk at the web’s number one auction site. As well as such domestic use, eBay is a useful sales channel for product companies looking to sell on the web, but who cannot afford a full e-commerce website.
   
• www.Wikipedia.co.uk– a web phenomenon, this freely available encyclopaedia of everything is maintained by the public at large, meaning it has all sorts of interesting and in-depth information about topics you never dreamed of, as well as the more traditional areas you’d expect to find in an encyclopaedia.
   
• www.CNET.co.uk – an excellent site containing product reviews and buyers’ guides for all sorts of hi-tech consumer goods including PCs, laptops, digital cameras and MP3 players.
   
• www.SmallBusiness.co.uk – a wealth of information for small businesses on everything from how to write a marketing plan to guidelines on hiring employees.
   
• www.statistics.gov.uk – the UK Government’s official statistics site. It contains reports on employment, local economies and populations, and is an invaluable resource when conducting market research.