Tech bits in the United States and Cambodia

'Microlender' adds United States to its entrepreneur list

Kiva.org has spent the past 3 1/2 years raising money on the Internet to finance destitute entrepreneurs in 44 impoverished countries.

Now in a sign of the economy's spreading despair, the online "microlender" is reaching out to low-income entrepreneurs in the United States.

The expansion kicks off Wednesday when Kiva will let needy U.S. small businesses vie for funding alongside a melting pot of cash-starved entrepreneurs that includes everything from a Cambodian fisherwoman to a Moldovan butcher to a Bolivian taxi driver.

The U.S. listings will start with about 45 businesses in Boston, New York, Miami, Atlanta and San Francisco.

Kiva didn't intend to raise money for aspiring businesses in the world's largest economy. But the reluctance of U.S. banks to lend during the past nine months caused the San Francisco-based nonprofit to reconsider, said Premal Shah, Kiva's president.

Kiva relies on "crowd-funding" to make its loans. People come to its Web site, sift through the business plans of entrepreneurs then contribute in $25 increments. The money is pooled to finance loans that typically range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars.

Bing swing: New search engine increases Microsoft share

In the week since Microsoft Corp. launched Bing, its new search engine, the software maker's share of U.S. Web searches has crept into double digits for the first time in two years.

But Bing's early gain is no predictor of future success. After all, the last time that happened, Microsoft had resorted to paying people to use Bing's predecessor, known as Live Search.

Bing went live June 3, though some people had access earlier. According to a report from research group comScore Inc., Microsoft snagged 11.1 percent of U.S. searches from June 2 to June 6. A week earlier, its share was 9.1 percent.

That still leaves Microsoft a distant third behind Google Inc., which was used for more than 60 percent of searches in April, and Yahoo Inc., which topped 20 percent. ComScore did not release more recent figures for those companies.

Radio owner Clear Channel amps up digital strategy

Clear Channel Communications Inc., the nation's largest owner of radio stations, is ramping up its strategy to stream radio to mobile phones, computers and other devices.

Clear Channel was officially launching an online media player that consolidates access to its roughly 850 radio stations at IHeartRadio.com. The player also serves as a streamlined showcase for advertisers -- including full-page ads with interactive "widgets" that can be embedded in blogs.

Clear Channel already has an IHeartRadio mobile app, which once was the top application downloaded for the BlackBerry and now is among the top 10.

Facebook, like MySpace, lets users show full name

Facebook is further embracing the real name culture it touts as one of its founding principles -- and catching up with rival MySpace in the process.

Starting Saturday, the popular online hangout's millions of users will be able to claim a name to use as part of their profile page's Web address -- as in http://facebook.com/janedoe. Currently Facebook assigns each profile a string of numerals over which users have no control.

Facebook said people will be able to choose the names on a first-come, first-served basis, so if your name is John Smith and not, say, Blaise DiPersia (a Facebook designer who posted about the changes on the site's blog), it might be a good idea to stake one out early.