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The year 2009 underscored an enormous economic meltdown that brought many United States businesses to their knees. But for some of America’s most famous moneymakers, the year brought enormous luck and vast gains. America’s top 25 stock gainers — composed of large stakeholders in publicly traded companies — made a combined $81.5 billion in 2009, Forbes.com reports.

Check out Forbes’ esteemed list of the ten biggest gainers in 2009:

1. The founder of Google, Inc., Larry Page raked in a whooping $8.4 billion between January and mid-December 2009. At 36, Mr. Page is ranked as the 26th billionaire in the world and the 11th wealthiest person in the United States. Technology stocks are enjoying broad boost with the economic rebooting, according to Forbes. As such, Google made a rise of 90% since January 2009.

2. Sergey Brin, the Russian-born American co-founder of Google, Inc. gained $8.2 billion in 2009. The 36-year old Internet titan gets a rebound after losing $11.7 billion in 2008 amid the collapse of Internet companies’ shares.

3. Oracle Corporation and NetSuite gave 65-year-old founder Larry Ellison a $7.9 billion gain in 2009. He made it to fourth spot of Forbes’ list of richest persons as of September 30, 2009.

4. Microsoft magnate Bill Gates generated $7.6 billion in 2009. The computer software company he founded with Paul Allen consistently places him on the list of the world’s richest. Over half of Mr. Gates’ fortune, however, is held outside of Microsoft. At 54, Mr. Gates grabbed the top spot overall as the wealthiest person in 2009.

5. At barely 46 years old, Jeffrey Bezos has made Amazon a household name. The online retail company gained $7.3 billion in 2009 amid a 175% surge during the past 12 months. Amazon’s shares hit an all-time high in early December 2009.

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Everybody wants to be a billionaire. The big question is: How? Forget Ivy League schooling or wishing that you were born rich. Get into these businesses now!

5. Petrochemicals
Environmentally damaging or not, oil and petroleum is still the world’s hottest commodity. With most industries and consumers needing it every single day, petrochemical products are in hot demand and there is no indication that the demand will wane soon.

Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani owes his fortune to petrochemicals.

4. Retail
Even with the economic downturn, people will still need to buy things. That is why retailers are still earning big bucks. Having a good sense of what people want, going with the trends, and offering value for money on your merchandise remain to be a retailer’s biggest challenge. However, if you get it all down to pat and you have built your brand better than your competitors, you are in for a great surprise.

Ikea’s Ingvar Kamprad is Sweden’s richest man. The 83-year-old is currently worth around $22 billion and runs an empire that spans more than 30 countries. Germany’s richest man, Karl Albrecht also made his billions in retail through his discount supermarket Aldi Sud. Other billionaires in retail: Jim, Christy, Robson Walton of Wal-mart,

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Vital to the success of your online business is choosing the right e-commerce shopping cart. The world of e-commerce has its share of confusing and daunting aspects. For one, shopping carts are perceived to take care of the whole financial transaction – but, apparently, not at all.

With so many shopping cart software packages advertised on the internet all claiming to have the best superior product, choosing is difficult. There is that nagging question: Why do online shoppers abandon their carts at some point in the process?

If you want to learn more about e-commerce, this guide will explain the points you should consider before purchasing a cart.

1. The cost of the package
Invest on shopping cart software that meets your specific needs. A good software package will cost you some $US250 – $300. Any cost beyond that range should include superb features. As you anticipate your business to expand or diversify, shell out a little more by incorporating advanced shopping cart features. Be wary of shopping cart programs that are so that complex you would need to hire somebody else to assist in the implementation. Still, many web host providers like JustHost.com, offer shopping cart and ecommerce system that caters to your business needs.

2. Check the “back-end” aspects
Know that the payment gateway service manages the requests and transmits the same to appropriate financial networks, to include the online merchant account with your preferred bank. Most, if not all, programs now integrate basic functions of a shopping cart with a merchant account and payment gateway. It is recommended that you opt for one where your sales are paid by way of check or via direct deposit.

3. Check your hosting service support capability
Remote hosting does your business good because you can save on bandwidth charges – especially if your products are soft goods and delivered online. Make sure that your web host guarantees you fast implementation, secure connection, and constant monitoring of service. Know also that shopping cart scripts are written in various coding formats such as PERL, ASP, PHP, among many others. Perl 5 is now very well integrated to reliable web hosts.

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Over the past decade the online gaming industry has emerged as one of the fastest growing segments of internet commerce today. In 2006 online gamblers wagered a total of twelve billion dollars via the World Wide Web. Experts project an estimated twenty four billion dollars will be wagered via online gaming sites during 2015.

Online Sportsbooks and Casinos were first to introduce their product to the public during late 90’s. 2002-03 ESPN began televising the World Series of Poker showing pro player’s hidden cards which sparked the online poker boom. Millions of recreational players logged on to become the next televised world champion. By 2005, bingo made its official entrance and has proven to be one of the most profitable sectors for gaming operators. The United Kingdom has experienced a growth rate in excess of 400% with new bingo players over the last four years.

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Shopping for the latest technological gadget is a very tempting way to spend that hard-earned money during pay day. But do you really need to splurge on the latest version of iPod or iTouch when you have a perfectly functional music or video player? Here are guaranteed ways for you to resist incurring unnecessary gadget update even in the most enticing conditions.

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You already have your monitor, your CPU (the Central Processing Unit), your keyboard, mouse and printer. The recent Windows Microsoft’s OS (Operating System) is already installed, as well as other basic office programs. Your PC seems to be complete yet you find yourself bored with it. Here are 10 easy steps to liven up your PC:

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With the fears of recession and overall scrimping on unnecessary expenses, Microsoft shows some marketing savvy by positioning it as the better and cheaper alternative to Apple’s Macintosh.

Microsoft recently released a new ad featuring Lauren, a bespectacled redhead. In the commercial, a voice-over tells her to go hunt for a laptop that would suit her needs, and if she does, Microsoft would buy it for her. Lauren then goes into an Apple store, but quickly goes back out and dejectedly reports that the store did not have her preferred laptop: one that has a comfortable keyboard, a 17 inch screen and fast performance. The only thing she could afford from the Apple store is a 13 inch Macbook.

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Notebook or netbook? One of the key features that separate a netbook from a notebook is the presence of an optical drive.

Now Asus comes and blurs that line with its newest installment for the Eee series – the Asus Eee PC 1004DN. This shiny new creation sports a ‘super-multi optical disc drive’. In other words, it is a CD/DVD writer. How’s that for revolutionary, eh?

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Rumors are spreading that a new version of the Conficker worm will be causing widespread havoc again on April 1, its anniversary date. Media reports have related that Conficker could be activated on that day giving a hacker access to millions of computers affected by the worm. Others reported that the French military has grounded a few of its fighter planes due to the threat.

While the media are concocting doomsday scenarios, worm and virus experts are shrugging off the threats. Anti-virus company F-secure has already said that there is no likelihood of a widespread, global attack. Only those that are still infected by the Conficker worm will be affected, if such an event should happen.

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iPhone has touted it as the next generation of the world’s most advanced operating system. On March 17, Apple gave the world a preview of the iPhone 3.0 OS.

The new OS promises to bring 100 new features to iPhones worldwide, including the following:

- the ability to search or “spotlight” the whole phone
- cut, copy and paste functions, even between apps
-you can also send photos, contacts, audio files and location via multimedia messaging
- read and compose SMS and e-mail in landscape orientation

All these are just the official ones. Unsurprisingly, various blogs and tech journals have come out with their own versions of what features would be included in the new 100 list. Some are unimaginative, while others say that the new iPhone 3.0 would enable you to use your iPhone to predict when the Second Coming would take place.

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As a writer, I found that not many of my fellows actually know about this amazing little tool. I myself only discovered it last year, during the frenzy of NaNoWriMo. And I tell you, it helped a whole lot. If you haven’t stumbled across it yet, I highly suggest you go check it out.

Q10 is a word-processing software for Windows, sort of like Notepad but packed with just the right features that every writer needs. Q10 blacks out your entire screen, getting rid of distractions and letting you concentrate on the writing task at hand. It even hides your task bar. Instead, you get a useful little info bar that displays your running word count, page count, character count, and the current time — details that matter to a writer. Additionally, you have the option to toggle this info bar on and off, and you can set which particular counts you want to display. You can choose to show only the details that are important to you. Nifty, eh?

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In the future, your mobile phone will be your computer. It will allow you to connect to a central database of files where you keep your spreadsheets, documents, unedited blog posts, pictures: anything and everything you’ve ever kept on you current desktop will be on that central database. You dock your phone onto a device that allows you to view everything from a bigger screen, and a standard sized keyboard. Wherever you are, you have all these with you, and it will all fit into your palm.

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Let me start with some truths.

The truth is, the generally accepted time frame for rolling out new software done in-house is 18 months. That simply is not acceptable in a dynamic and competitive business or industry. What’s more, a recent study has shown that almost a third of all in-house projects fail. Imagine waiting 18 months then getting disappointed by a program that just does not meet your needs or carry out the tasks you want it to, after spending all the money on manpower, new hardware and software, as well as non-tangible things like lost opportunities.

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