We all know just how much we rely on our trusted PC, laptop or notebook for internet access and daily usage. The whole family benefits from the World Wide Web, from parents researching and booking their family holiday to kids using its vast resources to help them with their homework and studies, even grandparents are getting involved because of course, it is a great way to keep in touch with distant members of the family.

With the amount of use the internet gets and the vast amount of surfing that takes place from site to site and page to page with it brings a great threat to your PC. From fast spreading viruses, trojans, spyware and other forms of malware your PC, without protection, is vulnerable to catching all manner of infections which could crash your computer and loose valuable work, photos and downloads that are saved indefinitely.

Fortunately there is plenty of free download antivirus software available online which can enable you to surf safely and will protect your computer and information. Preventing viruses, rootkits, spyware, hackers, online fraud and identity theft along with the lesser known but very real internet threats, it’s certainly something that you should be looking at to provide you and your whole family peace of mind for 24 hour protection.

The latest to fail in the world of online mergers and acquisitions is the social networking site Bebo. It was once the most popular website for teenagers, but now it faces a complete closure by the end of this year. Bebo’s demise has been put largely down to the failure of AOL’s willingness or ability to fund the site which has now made it impossible to compete with the likes of other social networking giants Facebook and MySpace.

Recent figures show that Bebo’s global unique visitors in February totalled 12.8 million against Facebook’s whopping 462 million. MySpace totalled 110 million and Twitter 69.5 million. Bebo’s stats were 45% down on last February.

The result of the acquisition by AOL led to insufficient investment and when compared to Facebook, who at any given time have 2, 000 engineers working on the site to keep it running effectively, Bebo had just 40; it is not difficult to see one of its downfalls.

In its heyday, Bebo attracted a host of direct response advertising companies all keen to participate in features like the well publicised web video dramas like KateModern. This was a strategy that worked well and also saw the site attract media focus and ultimately led to a more attractive sale. However, since the acquisition it has lost the vital investment and impetus to keep up with the big boys and this, coupled with a gradual reluctance of top UK Advertising Agencies to continue to commit to any length of advertising campaigns, has led to their ultimate demise.