Russian search giant Yandex last week announced that users can now see results from foreign sites only.

As with most local search engines, Yandex prefers locally hosted websites in the Russian language. Foreign websites are rarely shown in the first page rankings, and Yandex have stated that Russian web users prefer sites locally relevant and in Cyrillic script.

The European Union has developed a plan in order to get half of European households on broadband speeds by 2020, a report by the BBC has stated.

It is part of the European Union’s five year plan for the digital economy. The plan also aims to have half of Europeans shopping online by 2015. Neelie Kroes, the new digital affairs commissioner announced the agenda in order to boost Europe technological and digital advancement, helping it catch up with the USA.

South Africa's First National Bank (FNB) and global internet payment system PayPal announced their new partnership at the end of March. This means that South African internet shoppers can now carry out transactions to and from their FNB accounts, and sell and purchase services and goods with 190 markets worldwide swiftly and safely. The move highlights ecommerce opportunities for foreign markets at a time when, thanks to the World Cup, South Africa is in the spotlight, and reflects the general progress being made in SA to improve and encourage international ecommerce.

The first few catalogues from travel agents have already arrived in mailboxes throughout Denmark, full of glitzy pictures of white sand and sapphire oceans. But when it comes to finding inspiration for the summer holidays, Danes prefer the internet.

Who knew that Indonesians were such an active online crowd? The country, which boasts the world's fourth-largest population (at 230 million people), is the third biggest Facebook-using nation in the world, and has the most Facebook and Twitter users in Asia.

Expedia recently investigated online holiday booking behaviour amongst Swedes and reported some interesting behavioural trends in when, how and what people look for when they book a holiday.

The online travel company reported that the Internet-savvy Swede knows how to get the best deals when booking holidays online. One in ten people seize the opportunity to upgrade their holiday when booking package holidays online. More people also tend to book package holidays, which tend to be the cheaper option in the long run.