The world’s largest online search engine, Google Inc., has acquired the product search engine Sparkbuy, according to a note on the Sparkbuy website.

Google has yet to issue an official announcement concerning its latest acquisition, and at this time, the terms of the deal are being kept strictly private.

Sparkbuy to date has raised about $1-million in venture capital funding and was founded by Dan Shapiro in 2010 after he was disappointed with current search methods when he was looking at purchasing a new laptop. The search engine aims to allow a user to easily get recommendations on consumer electronics (like laptops) based on various input criteria and preferences, including price, feature options (like memory, hard drive space, battery life, etc.), among other filters.

The search engine works by aggregating various bits of information about products and generating recommendations based on aggregated data. Spa

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BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Birmingham’s Neal Jackson is from a family that knows all about building a lodging company from scratch.

His grandfather, Ervin Jackson Sr., was one of the original developers in 1952 of the well known Motel Birmingham on Crestwood Boulevard, now known as Delux Inn & Suites. His father, Cory Jackson Sr. in 1974 founded Birmingham-based Jackson Hospitality, which owns or manages nine hotels in Alabama and Louisiana and developed the 22-location Key West Inns brand 12 years ago.

Neal Jackson says he is counting on experience learned from his father in his new role as president of Centerstone Hotels, a hotel franchising company with offices in Birmingham and Orlando that he and his brother, Cory Jr., are partners in.

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GREENSBURG, Ind. — Honda said Tuesday it will add 1,000 jobs at its southeastern Indiana plant by the end of the year by adding a second shift.

Greensburg plant spokeswoman Anita Sipes said the factory’s workforce will double by adding the shift. She said employees were told about the plans last week.

Sipes says the company planned to add a second shift since the factory opened in 2008, but that those plans were delayed because of the economic downturn, according to The Indianapolis Star, which first reported about the factory’s plans.

“We were waiting for the economy to rebound so this seemed like a natural time,” she told The Associated Press.

The March 11 tsunami that struck Japan and the widespread power outages that followed interrupted the flow of auto parts to Honda’s U.S. plants. Last month, Honda cut production to about half the normal level because of falling parts supplies. I

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Inc. Magazine recently ran a piece titled, “10 Tips on How to Research Your Competition.” If Tweets, Likes and LinkedIn Shares are any indication, this piece by Darren Dahl, has generated quite an online buzz.

Must be a compelling topic…

The interest and importance of researching your competition is a no-brainer. Obviously it’s important, no matter what industry you’re in, what you’re selling or who you’re selling to. You have to know what your competitors are doing.

But more importantly you have to know what the competition will do.

Sun Tzu had a GREAT deal to say about knowing what the competitor, or enemy, will do. He said a lot about reading the signs so you can launch the most effective campaign. There was no substitute for intelligence for Sun Tzu.

The same is true for you.

The question of how best to know your enemy is so near and dear to me that I was interviewed for and quoted in the Inc. article. I hope t

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In order to retain the old and new clients and create awareness towards a particular branding, company always brainstorms to choose the best promotional product to be given out to them. There are a few considerations whereby a company can take account in choosing a promotional product to promote a product.

First and foremost, the cost of promotional product must be take account for. It should be cheaper than the real product for promotion. The cost should not be more than the actual product and profit. There should be a win-win situation between clients and company.

Secondly, company may consider if the item is practical for usage. It is suggested that company should choose the type of gift which can be used by clients in daily lives. Main factor which customers deem in promotional product is the usefulness. Instances of items for daily used such as water bottle, pen, sticky note pad, mug and towel can be considered in using them as promotional merchandise.

Apart from that, company may choose to give out company’s own product as free gifts. P Full story…