China Direct Trading Corporation's (OTCBB: CHDT) wholly owned subsidiary, Souvenir Direct, Inc. (SDI), returned from the San Diego Postcard and Souvenir Distributors Association gift show with a first place in the best keyring division and sales to distributors with distribution in Illinois, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. This week SDI also began selling the Sutter's Mill souvenir line and proved that small minimum orders are in great demand. The company will immediately develop a line of generic keyring designs to fill the need of distributors in all areas of the country and purchase these through SDI.

In just seven years, Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) has morphed from a bare-bones online search engine into a technological octopus that seems to sprout another intriguing tentacle every other week. The Mountain View, Calif.,-based company, with $7.1 billion to spend thanks to zealous shareholder support, is now positioned to head down a variety of different paths. And that's spurring an almost-daily guessing game about where Google's flurry of innovation might lead. Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, announced today that legendary author Michael Crichton will lead a Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com) online reading group in a discussion of his latest book, State of Fear. Registration is now open for this free interactive discussion at www.bn.com/bookclubs. Staples, Inc., (Nasdaq: SPLS - News) the world's largest office products company, came to Chicago with a mission: make life easier for area customers. Staples is making good on that mission by teaming up with teachers and students from Prairie View Middle School and Earth Force's Global Rivers Environmental Education Network (GREEN) program in an effort to build the next generation of environmental stewards.