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An independent advisory body for SMEs has said that running a business from home can provide significant cost savings.

The National Federation of Enterprise Agencies (NFEA) has said that developments in the internet have released some of the financial strain business owners face in getting their companies off the ground.

Statistics by Flexibility found that the number of employees working from home had risen by 11 per cent in 2005.

NFEA chief executive George Derbyshire said: ‘The NFEA network of enterprise agencies is now seeing a larger number of new business start-ups operating their businesses without the use of a traditional office.’

He added: ‘Of course, many of today’s business operations can be run with a mobile or by email.’

Mr Derbyshire said that as the businesses grow they may have to move to larger premises but that for the early stages it was an economically sensible decision for SMEs to make.

However, he added that it was still important to run a professional operation.

The popularity of web 2.0 in the consumer marketplace will wane and die according to a UK web testing firm.

Concerns about placing online advertisements alongside “questionable content” was a primary reason for vendors to stop using the format, stated the research firm SciVisum.

“Retailers will focus on eliminating the background problems that plague their websites and affect sales,” said Deri Jones, chief executive of SciVisum.

Researchers found that a high number of users encountered problems while surfing the net, leading to a fall in user confidence levels.

Some one in three online users were found to result in more than three per cent error rates, with more than ten per cent of users having extreme inconsistencies in delivery speed.

In order for businesses to keep demand up for this type of platform, researchers concluded that firms will be forced to form stricter e-commerce operations in order to see profits.

The organisation leading the digital TV switchover in the UK, Digital UK, has speech-enabled its website with a new feature that will allow users to listen to content about the switchover read aloud to them.

Browsealoud is innovative in that its text-to-speech reads online content by also visually highlighting each word as it is spoken to those with dyslexia, literacy difficulties, mild visual impairments and those who speak English as a second language.

The system is provided free of charge to anyone who downloads the software and then can use the application for all websites on the internet.

Ford Ennals, chief executive of Digital UK said: “By incorporating Browsealoud technology on the digitaluk.co.uk website, we are further increasing our ability to give as much help as possible to vulnerable groups in society.”

Mr Ennals explained that the digital switchover will “affect everyone in the UK” and said the tool will help get that message out.

Search engine Google has announced a new open source development platform for mobile phones.

The Android platform, a result of collaboration between Google, T-Mobile and Motorola, among others, will allow developers to create software for a wide range of mobile devices and comes after much speculation over the rumoured launch of a specific Google phone.

It comprises an operating system, middleware and a user-friendly interface and applications and has been launched with the aim of lowering the cost of mobile handsets and other gadgets for both businesses and consumers.

A total of 34 companies have joined to form the Open Handset Alliance, with the first handsets utilising technologies from the initiative set to launch during the second half of 2008.

‘Today’s announcement is more ambitious than any single ‘Google Phone’ that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks,’ commented Google chairman and chief executive Eric Schmidt.

‘Our vision is that the powerful platform we’re unveiling will power thousands of different phone models.’

The announcement came shortly after Google announced the release of its OpenSocial platform, which will allow developers to come up with social networking applications for use across the web.