It seems that hardly a day goes by without another high street retailer biting the dust. It's no secret that the traditional retail sector is in deep trouble, and it's clear from news of the closure of Jessops and the recent administration of HMV and Blockbuster that the troubles are real and present.

Google remains a highly valued company, yet the news that Google revenue has touched $50 billion came as a bit of surprise for many. It is intriguing that contrary to the expectations of analysts, Google still continues to raise its profits.

If there's one keyword at the centre of the burgeoning fashion and tech scene at the moment, it's 'shoppable'. Just as retailers and brands get a grasp on how to handle content, it's commerce that begins to drive the sector forward again - undoubtedly the effect of greater need for ROI within the social space.

Almost every retailer now has the expertise to use Facebook to grow consumer awareness of their brand, however, there are only a handful of retailers that have truly monetised Facebook and extended its reach from a sharing space to a retail platform.

While the West has been trying to develop the right platforms and technology for mobile payments to work, and technology providers and operators have been battling for mobile payment supremacy, Kenya has gone straight from a barter/gift/debt economy to digital transaction - leapfrogging over the last 100 years of the West's progress in monetary transactions.

Kindles have Google's search engine incorporated into them. When I entered a couple of not-hard-to-guess search terms immediately I was presented with a long list of porn sites. Clicking on them took me to their home pages. These contained images which were extremely graphic, hard core.

'The Next Big Thing?' is a series of blogs that will focus on small businesses and start-up brands in the UK. Whether they are quirky, practical, pioneering or downright bizarre, this blog will shine the spotlight on what could be the next big thing...

The economic picture in the UK and the rest of Europe is grim and there is very little sign of this changing any time soon. One of the most difficult consequences of this is unemployment, which has just reached 2.685 million in Britain, which is the highest since 1996.