1. The Independent online's recent revamp appears to have paid dividends, scoring the website a 10% uplift in average daily users, which made it the only national newspaper website to record an increase between November and December, according to ABC data. Despite the uplift, independent.co.uk remains a minnow compared to the big cats of national newspaper websites. But December proved a tough month for the big cats, with guardian.co.uk the biggest faller.

2. Engineers from Facebook, Myspace and Twitter have clubbed together to show internet users in the US how Google search results would look, if the new controversial "Search plus your world" feature was reversed. Google rolled out the optional social search feature to US users this month, and soon encountered criticism that "Search plus your world" pushes Google+ results up in its search rankings at the expense of other social networks. Twitter has been particularly open in its criticism, claiming the move marked a "bad day for the internet".

3. Three out of five people are unable to name one Olympic sponsor, while 1% or less are able to identify Panasonic, Samsung and Procter & Gamble as London 2012 sponsors despite their high-profile campaigns. The Ipsos MORI research, which polled 1,985 people, will largely make bleak reading for sponsors, particularly as there are only six months to the start of London 2012. McDonald's and Coca-Cola are the most well-known, with 11% able to identify them as sponsors.

4. Kraft is gearing up to take on rival, Nutella in the breakfast spread market, by combining its Cadbury chocolate and Philadelphia Light brands to launch a new chilled chocolate spread. The confectionary giant is rolling out the new cream chocolate cheese spread in stores nationwide from Wednesday (1 February) and has forecast sales to hit £10m in the first year alone. A £3.2m marketing push will back the new product.

5. Starbucks plans to invest £8m to revamp 70 London stores ahead of the Olympics in a bid to cash in on increased visitor numbers to London. The news comes as Starbucks reports that sales of special festive menus items such as eggnogg and gingerbread lattes and its 12 days of Christmas festive campaign helped drive the highest quarterly gains in the company’s history.