In researching for meetings, I have discussed increasing flexibility in .au domain name registration and renewal periods with friends in and out of the internet industry, and every single one states they would appreciate the flexibility of registering .au domain names longer term, and even shorter term.

Shorter term registrations - of 1 year instead of the currently-stipulated 2 years - is particularly relevant to domains registered for events and/or promotions, which only have a short-term lifespan.

Longer term registrations - of 3, 4, 5 and more years instead of 2 - will result in businesses small and large not worrying about renewing domain names so often. It will deliver these businesses, who invest heavily in their brand and identity, more security about their web presence.

The reasons the 2 year period has stood until today are few, with the most valid one being that when renewing every two years, domain owners tend to update their personal information.

While I am all for a fresher and more valid database, I do not believe this is reason enough for Australian (.au) domain name owners to be given inferior flexibility to domain owners in the .com and other domain spaces offered worldwide.

I'd be interested to read the thoughts of others...

All you need to do is click here and enter your business data to get started.

Watch the video below to see the full potential.

Now Yahoo! Search is apparently improved as per the video they released below.

Just like Bing was improved.

But the question remains... how many are ready to stop 'googling'?

See video below for more information, then read on:

Much of the commentary since the launch of this new service has centred on how it will affect online businesses and businesses that advertise online.

Very little coverage has focused on the end user experience, which is delightful based on the reasons stated above as well as the speediness of it. Any argument to the contrary would be flawed.

Regarding the business case, search engine optimisation (SEO) experts, like my team at KAYWEB, need to see what suggested searches are appearing courtesy of Google Instant, and optimise to those keywords.

In 6 test cases which I trialled for KAYWEB clients, the differences were minor, if any.

The bottom line; Google has improved search for end users with its launch of Google Instant.

Businesses, through SEO, are hardly affected.

A problem Twitter was encountering was that Twitter users were using Twitter.com as a secondary way to access Twitter, as other clients (such as Tweetdeck, Seesmic and even Facebook) gave users more variety, with a bit of Twitter on the side.

The new design will change all that, and make Twitter.com the home for any Twitter buff.

More on the New Twitter.com and a promo video can be found by clicking here.

Below are the 10 Tweets (read best from bottom to top) is how Evan Williams launched the new Twitter on Twitter.