BIG IDEAS

As Amazon.com has demonstrated, name recognition goes a long way toward becoming an Internet giant.

So the blandish-sounding Software.net Corp. changed its name Tuesday to Beyond.com, enhanced its Internet site and unveiled an advertising campaign in an effort to increase its online software sales.

Stock of the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based software reseller rose 81 cents to close at $13.63 on Nasdaq.

Beyond.com said it added software reviews and will add user recommendations to its Web site, while it plans TV, radio, print, Internet and outdoor ad campaigns in the “multimillion” dollar range during the next six months.

“They’ve done a good job of timing this announcement of the name change with their marketing campaign,” said Tonia Pankopf, an analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co. “The Internet is ideally suited to disseminating software over PCs.”

The company, which sold 5 million shares at $9 each in an initial public offering in June, hired Mark Breier as president and chief executive in May from Amazon.com Inc., where he was vice president of marketing.

“Shouting a clear brand name is step one for us,” Breier said.