Top Internet Companies To Own For 2014

Microsoft� (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) has launched Windows 8.1, kind of.

A preview was unveiled Wednesday. At a conference in San Francisco, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer acknowledged that the company pushed hard to get people to adopt a radical new tile-based "Modern" user interface in Windows 8. Microsoft is now back-pedaling, making it easier to reach and use the older "Desktop" interface. "Let's make it easier to start applications the way we're used to," Ballmer told the audience of software developers. "What we will show you today is a refined blend of our Desktop experience and our Modern experience."

In an effort to capture the growing demand for mobile-focused devices, Microsoft has updated its Windows 8 operating system with a slew of new features:

Search:��Powered by Bing, the Search function will let users see results from across the PC, apps, and the web.� Personalization:�Users can set their lock screen to display pictures, turning the computer into a picture frame. Cloud Storage: SkyDrive -- a Microsoft cloud storage service -- will now be the default location for saving documents. With the SkyDrive app, users can further manage local and cloud back-up. Internet Explorer 11:�Built for touch, the new Internet Explorer includes faster load times and side-by-side browsing.

For now, the update released Wednesday is a "preview." Only those who choose to download and install the update will see the updates. When launched later this year to the public, Windows 81. will be free for current Windows 8 users.

Top Mid Cap Stocks To Buy Right Now: eBay Inc.(EBAY)

eBay Inc. provides online platforms, services, and tools to help individuals and merchants in online and mobile commerce and payments in the United States and internationally. Its Marketplaces segment operates ecommerce platform eBay.com; vertical shopping sites, such as StubHub, Fashion, Motors, and Half.com; and classifieds Websites, including Den Bl�Avis, BilBasen, Gumtree, Kijiji, LoQUo, Marktplaats.nl, mobile.de, Alamaula, Rent.com, eBay Anuncios, eBay Kleinanzeigen, and eBay Annunci, as well as provides advertising services. The company?s Payments segment offers payment and settlement services for consumers and merchants on and off eBay Websites and other merchant Websites. This segment operates PayPal, which enables individuals and businesses to send and receive payments online and through mobile devices; Bill Me Later that enables the United States merchants to offer, the United States consumers to obtain, credit at the point of sale for ecommerce and mobile tra nsactions; Zong, which allows users with mobile phones to purchase digital goods and have the transactions charged to their phone bill; and BillSAFE that enables customers pay for purchases upon receipt of an invoice. Its GSI segment offers an ecommerce services suite for enterprise clients that operate in general merchandise categories, including apparel, sporting goods, toys and baby, health and beauty, and home; and marketing services comprising full-service digital agency, enterprise email marketing, mobile advertising, affiliate marketing, advertisement retargeting, and in-depth analytics services. The company also offers X.commerce platform that provides software developers access to the company?s applications programming interfaces to develop functionality for various merchants; and Magento Connect, which allows developers to market and sell add-on functionality and solutions to merchants that use a Magento storefront. eBay Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquarter ed in San Jose, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  David Ryder/Getty ImagesAmazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos NEW YORK -- Amazon.com (AMZN) is taking direct aim at mobile payment systems such as Square by introducing the Amazon Local Register, a credit-card processing device and mobile app designed to help small business owners accept payments through their smartphones and tablets. The move places the largest U.S. e-commerce retailer in competition with Square and other established mobile payment processing systems such as eBay's (EBAY) PayPal Here and Intuit's (INTU) GoPayment. Amazon's technology includes a card reader that attaches to a smartphone, Kindle or tablet. The reader processes credit or debit card payments via a secure Amazon network, the same one that processes Amazon.com purchases. The service is designed to serve on-the-go small business owners who might otherwise only accept cash or checks, including massage therapists, food truck operators and artists who sell their work at outdoor fairs. Small businesses can start using Local Register by creating an account at http://localregister.amazon.com. Businesses must buy Amazon's card reader for $10, and download the free mobile app from the Amazon app store, the Apple app store or Google (GOOG) Play. The app works on most smartphones and tablets, including the Kindle Fire. Similar to Amazon's strategy in many of its businesses, the company aims to compete on price in the mobile payment arena. For customers who sign up for the service by Oct. 31, Amazon will take as its fee 1.75 percent of each payment processed, or each "swipe" of the card, a special rate that will last until Jan. 1, 2016. For people who sign up after Oct. 31, Amazon will take a service fee of 2.5 percent of each payment processed. The first $10 in transaction fees will be credited back to the customer, essentially paying for the card reader. That's below most of its competitors' rates. Square takes a fee of 2.75 percent of each transaction. PayPal Here takes 2.7 percent of each tra

• [By Daniel Sparks]

  If you're one of these investors, here are two quantifiable investment opportunities I've came across this month: Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) and eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY  ) .

• [By John Divine]

  Perhaps if SanDisk decides to try a little harder, it could pawn its wares through eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY  ) , which could use some business of its own. Shares in the web-based auction site cratered 5.9% Thursday, as Wall Street was disappointed by slowing sales growth. Though 14% revenue growth in a wildly competitive environment like online retail ain't shabby, it's less than half the 29% pace seen a year ago. With PayPal sales growth also easing rapidly, it looks like the company may finally be reaching maturity. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but growth investors are leaving in hordes.

• [By Doug Ehrman]

  With the world of mobile payments in its infancy, the true power of iTunes and its huge database of user information remains essentially untapped. With Google�Wallet having yet to gain any major traction, eBay's (NASDAQ: EBAY  ) PayPal is battling Square for the top spot in a market that is estimated to reach $1 trillion by 2016.

Top Internet Companies To Own For 2014: Propell Technologies Group Inc (PROP)

Propell Technologies Group, Inc., incorporated on February 04, 2008, offers enhanced oil recovery technology and services. These services are offered through its wholly owned subsidiary Novas Energy USA, Inc., through commercial application of a Plasma-Pulse Technology.

The Company�� technology is designed to be suitable for oil wells as deep as 12,000 feet. Novas�� Plasma-Pulse Treatment is an Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technology and process. The treatment uses no chemicals.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Although oil prices are at multi year lows, now�might be the time to start taking a closer look at�small cap gas compression or enhanced oil recovery (EOR) stocks like TETRA Technologies, Inc (NYSE: TTI), Exterran Holdings, Inc (NYSE: EXH) and Propell Technologies Group Inc (OTCBB: PROP)�as oil and natural gas prices will�inevitably rise once again. To start with, natural gas compression services are�needed to transport natural gas from low-pressure wells into gathering systems, storage and processing facilities�as well as to maintain production as reservoir pressure declines. In addition, compression services�are used to extract gas from�unconventional natural gas sources like shale plays. As for so-called enhanced oil recovery or EOR, its�a generic term for the techniques used for increasing the amount of crude oil that can be extracted from an oil field with these potential methods including steam flood and water flood injection�or hydraulic fracturing�(so-called fracking). Naturally,�demand for compression services and EOR technologies are impacted by (the temporary)�low oil and gas commodity prices and so are the share prices for publicly traded stocks in the space.

• [By James E. Brumley]

  While the ongoing implosion of crude oil prices has put high-profile names like Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) and Linn Energy LLC (NASDAQ:LINE) in the limelight - and the hot seat - all the noise surrounding those and other names may have distracted investors from looking at the oil rout in an opportunistic light rather than through the panic-colored glasses that have proven so damaging to the likes of LINE and CHK. Rather than fret over how difficult life was going to be for Linn Energy, Chesapeake Energy, and all their peers now that the price of oil was at or below the cost of drilling for it, investors should have been looking at companies that make drilling for oil cheaper and more cost-effective. Enter Propell Technologies Group Inc. (OTCBB:PROP).

• [By John Udovich]

  Mid cap oil services stocks Dresser-Rand Group Inc (NYSE: DRC) and�Flowserve Corp (NYSE: FLS) and small cap Propell Technologies Group Inc (OTCBB: PROP) are all direct or indirect players in the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) sector among other niches. Of course, it might seem strange to be talking about oil services or enhanced oil recovery stocks when the bottom has fallen out from under the price of oil but consider the following two charts from WTRG Economics�and Gasbuddy.com:

Top Internet Companies To Own For 2014: Google Inc.(GOOG)

Google Inc. maintains an index of Web sites and other online content for users, advertisers, and Google network members and other content providers. It offers AdWords, an auction-based advertising program; AdSense program, which enables Web sites that are part of the Google Network to deliver ads from its AdWords advertisers; Google Display, a display advertising network that comprises the videos, text, images, and other interactive ads; DoubleClick Ad Exchange, a real-time auction marketplace for the trading of display ad space; and YouTube that provides video, interactive, and other ad formats for advertisers. The company also provides Google Mobile that optimizes Google?s applications for mobile devices in browser and downloadable form; and enables advertisers to run search ad campaigns on mobile devices, as well as Google Local that provides local information on the Web; and Google Boost for small businesses to participate in the ads auction. In addition, it offers And roid, an open source mobile software platform; Google Chrome OS, an open source operating system; Google Chrome, a Web browser; Google TV, a platform for the consumers to use the television and the Internet on a single screen; and Google Books platform to discover, search, and consume content from printed books online. Further, the company provides Google Apps, a cloud computing suite of message and collaboration tools, which includes Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Sites; Google Search Appliance that offers real-time search of business and intranet applications, and public Web sites; Google Site Search, a custom search engine; Google Commerce Search for online retail enterprises; Google Checkout to make online shopping and payments streamlined and secure; Google Maps Application Programming Interface; and Google Earth Enterprise, a firewall software solution for imagery and data visualization. Google Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Burke Speaker, Investorplace Writer Two new apps for iPhones (AAPL]

  Two new apps for iPhones (AAPL) and�Android (GOOG) smartphones are doing what you’d rather have done yourself than by a police officer: They quickly tests a user’s blood alcohol level — and even call the person a cab if needed.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Big Earnings Movers: Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is up 13.8% at $1,011.65 after hammering estimates. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) is down 13.7% at $3.53. General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) is up 3.6% at $25.57 after beating estimates. Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is up 2.6% at $29.68. Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) is up 2.8% at $93.95 on solid earnings. All these stocks, except AMD, posted new 52-week highs today; Google posted its all-time high.

• [By Brian Stoffel]

  1. "China" does not equal "America"
  Many people, myself included, have often used Google (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) as a proxy for how Baidu would perform as it matures. Though Google is certainly a force outside the United States, it still got close to half of its revenue stateside last year.

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  Facebook even got a timely analyst nod earlier this week. Stifel's Jordan Rohan points out if we look out to his 2015 estimates, Facebook is trading at a slightly lower EBITDA multiple than Google (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) -- 10 for Google and 9.4 for Facebook -- even though Facebook is expected to be growing a lot faster in the coming years.

Top Internet Companies To Own For 2014: Amazon.com Inc.(AMZN)

Amazon.com, Inc. operates as an online retailer in North America and internationally. It operates retail Web sites, including amazon.com and amazon.ca. The company serves consumers through its retail Web sites and focuses on selection, price, and convenience. It also offers programs that enable sellers to sell their products on its Web sites, and their own branded Web sites. In addition, the company serves developer customers through Amazon Web Services, which provides access to technology infrastructure that developers can use to enable virtually various type of business. Further, it manufactures and sells the Kindle e-reader. Additionally, the company provides fulfillment; miscellaneous marketing and promotional agreements, such as online advertising; and co-branded credit cards. Amazon.com, Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Douglas A. McIntyre]

  While J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) and Walmart�(NYSE: WMT) have run ads in newspapers and online around the country to get shoppers through their doors in a desperate attempt to take market share from one another during what has promises�to be a mediocre holiday season, the executives at Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) have posted their Thanksgiving and Black Friday specials online. The huge traffic to Amazon.com and emails to existing customers will be their path to holiday revenue. And, one of the most powerful inducements they have is items priced under $1.

• [By Rick Aristotle Munarriz]

  Jin Lee/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesAmazon executive Peter Larson with the Fire TV. The Fire TV from Amazon.com (AMZN) raises the bar for set-top devices in new and unusual ways. Wednesday's debut came with plenty of positive surprises -- and a negative, the price. Amazon has historically priced its products at the low end of the spectrum, something that it learned quickly after introducing the Kindle e-reader at $399 in 2007 before getting aggressive with price cuts. Fire TV hit the market at $99, and while that may seem reasonable compared to what streaming devices were fetching just a few years ago, it's nowhere close to being one of the cheaper Web-savvy boxes for video buffs. Google's (GOOG) Chromecast turned heads at $35 last year, and entry-level Roku players can be had for less than $50. Apple (AAPL) is at the high end of the range at $99, but even Amazon.com itself is selling them for less than $93 these days. Apple, Roku, and Google have each reportedly sold millions of their devices that use Wi-Fi connectivity to stream Internet videos on TV screens. Can Amazon make a difference as the most expensive option in a crowded playing field?

Top Internet Companies To Own For 2014: Symantec Corporation(SYMC)

Symantec Corporation provides security, storage, and systems management solutions internationally. The company?s Consumer segment delivers Internet security, PC tune-up, and online backup solutions and services to individual users and home offices. Its Security and Compliance segment provides solutions for endpoint security and management, compliance, messaging management, data loss prevention, encryption, and authentication services to large, medium, and small-sized businesses, as well as offers solutions through its software-as-a-service (SaaS) security offerings. This segment?s products enable customers to secure, provision, and remotely manage their laptops, PCs, mobile devices, and servers. The company?s Storage and Server Management segment provides storage and server management, backup, archiving, and data protection solutions across heterogeneous storage and server platforms, as well as solutions delivered through its SaaS offerings to large, medium, and small-s ized businesses. Symantec?s Services segment offers implementation services and solutions, including consulting, business critical services, education, and managed security services. The company also provides various enterprise support offerings, such as annual maintenance support contracts, including content, upgrades, and technical support. It sells its products through its eCommerce platform, as well as through distributors, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, system builders, ISPs, and retail locations worldwide. Symantec markets and sells its products through distributors, retailers, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, original equipment manufacturers, system builders, and Internet service providers; and its e-commerce channels, as well as direct sales force, value-added and large account resellers, and system integrators. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jayson Derrick]

  Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) announced last night that it plans to split itself in to two companies. The first company will offer security software and services while the second company will offer storage management software and services. The split will be structured as a tax-free spinoff and is expected to finalize by the end of 2015. Analysts at Topeka warned investors: "While the split may appease some, it remains to be seen if either, or both, company can begin to generate top-line revenue growth. Conditions may be a bit awkward until the separation is complete, which is likely to take place in 2HF16." Shares lost 6.37 percent, closing at $21.95.