B2B Magazine:

Microsoft Corp. has rolled out new ads with the theme “It’s everybody’s business” designed to show how the company’s technology is helping people run their businesses successfully, particularly in a down economy.

The ads, part of the company’s larger “People Ready Business” campaign, debuted during NFL playoff coverage on Jan. 11.

The campaign includes TV, print and online ads. The budget was undisclosed, although Microsoft first launched “People Ready Business” three years ago with a $500 million global ad budget.

TechCrunch:

Google says the vast majority of the 1 million businesses that use Google Apps opt for the free advertising supported version. To make the free option less attractive they’ve been quietly lowering the number of user accounts that can be associated with a free account. Now as businesses grow, they’ll be forced to move to the paid version much more quickly than before.

Google Apps is a suite of online applications like gmail, Google calendar, Google Docs, etc. that are packaged and tailored for business use. It’s growing fast – in a recent post where Google announced the opening of a reseller program, the company said that more than 1 million businesses and 10 million users use Google Apps today, and 3,000 new businesses sign up daily. The largest business user, Genentech, has 20,000 employees on Google Apps.

The Nielsen Company:

Though an overwhelming majority of US households are ready for the changeover to all-digital television next month, 5.7% – or 6.5 million homes – remain unprepared and would not be able to receive TV at all if the switch occurred today, reports The Nielsen Company.

This is an improvement of more than 1.3 million ready homes since Nielsen reported readiness status at the end of December, the company said, though many of the unready households include people with low incomes, minorities, disabled persons and seniors who most rely on traditional, free TV for much of their information about the world.