Yahoo!Tech reveals that “

[s]hopping on eBay just got a bit more rewarding, at least for some users of the online auctioneer's site.  On Wednesday, eBay Inc. launched a ‘beta’ test version of eBay Bucks, a program that lets participants earn a 2 percent reward on certain items they buy through the site and pay for using eBay's online payment service, PayPal. Rewards come quarterly as gift certificates, which can be used to buy other items through eBay within 30 days.  Unlike many other ‘beta’ tests, this one is open by invitation only; eBay is randomly selecting buyers to enroll. Kurt Apen, head of eBay's loyalty marketing team, said the company will likely expand the program to everyone over the next several months.”

The Register reports that “Mozilla’s web browser Firefox 3.0 crawled past Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 in European market share for the first time last week.  According to StatCounter’s latest report on browser popularity, Firefox 3 eked ahead of IE 7 in Europe by just one per cent when version numbers were broken down in the market share study.  It found that Firefox 3 pulled in 35 per cent compared to IE 7’s 34 per cent market share.”

In a different article, the Register writes that “[t]he European Commission has prepared a set of questions and answers as well as a flowchart to help companies understand when they can and when they cannot send personal data abroad.  The European Union's Data Protection Directive protects the personal data of EU citizens from abuse and misuse.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, “Google Inc. has started a venture capital unit to fund new technologies.  Google Ventures will invest $100 million in its first year and mostly target young companies, said Bill Maris, a managing director of the unit. The fund will invest in consumer-oriented Internet companies, healthcare, robotics and nanotechnology, he said.  ‘We're not ruling anything out’ in terms of investment areas, Maris added.”

Inc.com has a fun interactive chart describing “30 Great Moments in Entrepreneurship.”