That 20% plus share may hold through December's figures when they come out next month. But, don't be surprised if they slip again in January.

Here's why:

Firefox is primarily popular with residential customers. November featured a lot of downtime at home due to the holidays.

Then again...

Given Firefox's popularity with residential clients, the sour economy may be good for their business. I'm imagining all those recently laid off workers home surfing the web for job postings, contract work and face time on Facebook.

The offer is for tech startups only who are less than three years old, privately held and with annual revenues still under one million dollars. There is a one hundred dollar fee that has to paid when the company leaves the program.

For companies secure in making a committment to a Microsoft IT infrastructure, this is a good deal. Not only is there the break in software expenses, there's also technicial support and access to a network of hosts and partners.

Check out the BizSpark web site for more information.

Sentforever.com will send a text message into outerspace for all eternity.

If we really do ever have a "War of the Worlds" this is a great way to start it. At the very least, given the inanity of the average text message; I'm guessing any intelligent life out there won't think the same of us.

Maybe we can beam out our Facebook profiles into the great beyond while we're at it. Who wants to throw out the first snowball at the Klingons?

I hate to be pithy on Christmas Eve. But, how does a dotcom that sells overpriced text messages to shoot off into space (as in the "Final Frontier") get funding in times like these?

For you last minute shoppers, the good news: you don't have to worry about getting it delivered by tomorrow somewhere here on Terra Firma. Just a thought!

Happy Holidays!

Renee Oricchio

Made by Novatel, this little guy that literally fits in the palm of your hand, is expected to be priced at less than $300. It requires no external broadband connection. Novatel refers to it as the first of a line of "intelligent mobile hotspots" that "creates a personal cloud of high speed Internet connectivity". (When in doubt; throw in the word "cloud" into any high tech press release to ensure more coverage).

It's easy to imagine this as a handy little tool for smaller businesses. For one thing, the price is right. Imagine a presentation team taking this on the road. It's also good for juggling multiple mobile devices like not only laptops; but multimedia devices and cameras, too.

I happened across a site recently called VendorRate. What a great idea! What a great layout! VendorRate has a search mode to pull up a single company and review a whole snapshot of customer review data. Not only does it give an overall rating of the company; it breaks it down by services offered, customer service, reliability, timeliness, etc. You can even call up a service or product category and compare the main vendors in that area. For example, call up cloud computing and there's a side by side comparison of Amazon, Salesforce.com, etc.

There's only one problem.

All the data is typically based on 50 people or less. So, what is this really telling you?

Especially, when you consider the likelihood that the PR departments of some of those vendors have stacked the numbers with bogus reviews. One or two planted reviews could skew the data very easily with so few contributions in the mix to begin with.

There are some good review sites out there.

How to separate the good from the bad from the ugly:

- Look at how many individual reviews are involved.

- Read up on how the site compiles its reviews (based on customer feedback, independent usuablity testing, etc.). If the site doesn't offer details then that's a bad sign.

- How independent is the site? Who sponsors the site? Are they reviewing their own sponsors or their sponsors main competitors? Are they owned by the people they are allegedly reviewing independently. If it's not clear, move on!

But what is the most universal of the more conservative, professional fonts that would be the safest bet to use company-wide?

The short-list of conservative, widely used fonts would be:

Arial (Helvetica on a Mac), Times New Roman (Times on Mac), Georgia, Verdana?

Notice "Wing Dings" is not on the list. I'm not sure who uses Wing Dings or for what purposes.

Is it:

- Times New Roman (TImes on Macs): As characterized on yesterday's posting, Times New Roman may be the corporate grey pinstripe suit of the font world. But, it's not necessarily the best choice; especially for web sites. It's not bad a choice, just keep it at 12 points or larger. Times New Roman is very hard to read at smaller font sizes.

- Arial (Helvetica): Reads better on web sites and e-mail. However, it too is a narrow font that tends to start cramping up in smaller sizes.

- Georgia? Good choice! This is one of my personal favorites. It's a little wider and reads cleaner, especially online.

- Verdana? Even better! Verdana was actually shipped way back with Internet Explorer 3. Historically, that is meaningful. IE3 shipped at the time the Internet was really taking off and Verdana was the preset font of choice because it was considered the optimal font for online reading. Like Georgia, it is a wider, cleaner font easy to read in any point size.

So the winner: Verdana, by a nose.

First, here's where the wrong font can give users and companies fits:

1. On the company web site: fonts look differently when viewed on different browsers; and smaller. For example, Arial is so popular on Windows that it's the preset font on Microsoft products. Macs don't have Arial. The equivalent is Helvetica.

2. On e-mail: same issue. The other big mistake that users make is taking a little too much latitude with their creativity. It's one thing to use the font Comic Sans Serif on your own time putting together that PTA flier. Don't use it on an e-mail going out to clients. Times Roman (or Times on the Mac) is the font equivalent of the traditional corporate grey pinstriped suit.

3. Consider a company mandated font. Why spend all that money on coordinated marketing collateral and then have your employees sending out e-mails, blog postings, Powerpoint presentations and print materials in a tower of Babel of various fonts? Keep your look consistent across the board with one or two universal fonts (and clear directions under what circumstances each is used).

Tomorrow: Which of the "safe" fonts is the most universal and therefore "safest" to use across the board?

Hint: It's not the grey pinstriped suit!

One of Staples main competitor's, Office Depot, is going through some rough times. Who isn't in this economy? In recent weeks, Office Depot has announced it will shut down some 126 stores and 33 distribution centers.

It's not pretty. But, it's also not fatal when you consider in this country alone that Office Depot has more than 1000 stores from coast to coast.

So here we are in the middle of the season of giving, charity and kindness to all and I get my monthly rewards newsletter from Staples via e-mail.

The headline reads, "You can always count on Staples." It's followed by the first couple of lines of the Office Depot press release announcing the store closures.

The newsletter goes on to fearmonger to office supply customers who might shop at Office Depot whether their rewards will be honored, whether ordered products will arrive on time and whether office supplies in their area will be readily available.

The last line reads,"And remember, when other suppliers are closing their doors we're here to stay."

Ick, poo! That was sleazy!

Memo to Staples:

- You know how the American public made it clear in the last election that they are sick to death of negative campaigning. Ditto for negative advertising. If you can't compel people to your way based on your own positives, then find a new line of work.

- A lot of companies (and their employees and investors) are hurting right now. Office Depot is one of them. Don't kick people when they are down. It's just poor sportsmanship. You may intimidate a few extra people to shop at your stores, but at what price to your public image? Is this really the image you want to have?

- Your claims are not even fair. Who said anything about Office Depot rewards not being honored or products not being available or delivered on time? I think the 1000 other chain outlets will manage just fine.

There's a cautionary tale here for companies that send out e-newsletters. Newsletters by e-mail can be cranked out really fast. Maybe too fast. Production may be reduced to a quick-as-a-flash, but companies still need to take the time to edit and vet their content before hitting the send button.

In other words, not so fast with the Easy button.