The winter months have seen a major rise in NHS patients going online to get health information with many people preferring the web than telephone services as a way to get medical advice, the Department of Health has announced.

As 2011 comes to a close, Nielsen reviewed the top social media sites during the year, with Facebook getting three times more visits than its closest rivals Blogger and Twitter.

India and China have the most active social media users, while web users in the US, Europe and Japan are less likely to post information on social networks, according to a new report.

An internet-connected car could become the norm, with features including speech recognition, and internet connection with Wi-Fi and 3G, according to a new industry survey.

Online shopping sales are forecast to grow between 18% and 22% during Christmas 2012, exceeding the rate of growth in 2011, according to a new report.

Social media marketing is in the spotlight for 2012, but the latest research from Forrester shows that surprisingly marketing budgets have been slow to shift to social. Simon Morris, marketing director, Digital Marketing business unit, Adobe Systems, explains how to remove the guesswork and connect social media to real business results.

Google was the most-visited U.S. Web brand, while Facebook held its lead among social networks and blogs, according to new data from Nielsen.

Internet body ICANN is to continue with plans to expand the number of possible website addresses despite criticism from industry and concerns from some law enforcement groups.

Starbucks has launched a new iPhone app in the UK that lets customers scan a unique barcode at the till to charge their accounts.

Google has acquired over 200 mobile-related patents and patent applications from IBM, as it looks to press further into the mobile device market while shielding itself from litigation from rivals such as Apple.