Archive

Today it's all about search-ability and search engines. Spelling and cognitive associations control corporate names. Business listings have gone through the roof: A two-inch directory of the past is now a two-mile thick book. Has pure memorability of the precise name become more critical then the en...

Google has formally launched its 3D mapping and imagery technology, launching a service called Google Earth, a name that seems to fit the search company's global ambitions. Google Earth uses satellite-based maps based on the Keyhole technology Google acquired earlier this year to create three-dimens...

Ratcheting up the Web e-mail wars once again, Yahoo is about to launch an extensive makeover of its service, saying the new iteration will offer faster message loading, search functions and an easier-to-use interface that mimics traditional desktop e-mail programs. The new version is expected to be ...

European consumers are being driven away from online banking and commerce by fears that their identities will be stolen and their financial resources raided by information highwaymen. Survey results released yesterday by Entrust, a publicly traded digital identity security firm located in Addison, T...

Challenges facing new offshore call centers can spill over and impact clients and customers of those clients. Driven by cost considerations and the availability of personnel, U.S. firms are increasingly turning to offshore call centers -- but are often doing so without fully understanding the constr...

Google has launched a playback feature that enables users to watch video online without using third-party plug-in software from the likes of Microsoft or RealPlayer, stepping up its video search capabilities while taking aim at some huge tech targets. Instead, the new feature in Google Video uses th...

Serving a victory to the entertainment industry and a potentially damaging blow to peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing firms, the U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that P2P firms can be sued if they encourage the use of their products to illegally swap copyrighted music and movies. The unanimous court ruli...

Mobile computer users have always accepted that their devices were only mobile in the sense that they could be taken from one wireless access point to another. Accessing the Web at any point in between -- in other words, over most of the globe -- was problematic at best. However, with the release of...

MCI has launched a test of a consumer-focused voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, in a move that has puzzled some analysts because of the company's pending merger with Verizon. MCI,which Verizon is in the process of buying for US$8.6 billion, has launched a test with about 5,000 customers o...

In the latest sign that it has designs on extending its e-commerce brand well beyond its core auctions business by catering to the legion of small merchants seeking to sell online, eBay has launched a storefront feature that will enable sellers to create a standalone Web retail presence. The ProStor...

The European Union (EU) has been slowly and steadily gaining strength and momentum and has today become a major financial challenger to the U.S. Of late, however, most of our economic focus has been on China, due to the enormous current-account deficit that the U.S. has created with that country. It...

Yahoo has shut down dozens of Internet chat rooms after questions were raised about whether the sites were being used by adults to lure minors into sexual encounters. The portal also removed a feature that lets users create their own chat rooms in Yahoo's popular chat community area, but Yahoo-spons...

Putting its own anti-spam technology to work -- and possibly hoping to highlight its effectiveness -- Microsoft has begun to use Sender ID to divert questionable messages away from the e-mail inboxes of Hotmail account holders. Microsoft has begun verifying e-mail origins with its Sender ID framewor...

Have you ever waited on the line for a customer care representative to help place that very important order right before Christmas, or help you figure out how to resolve a technical issue with your iPod that you're eager to start using? And right when they gave you that special "free shipping" deal,...

An ambitious project launched by Google to scan millions of pages of widely read books to create a digital library open to all is drawing flack from the publishing industry and raising anew questions about how the Internet interacts with traditional copyright laws. The Association of American Publis...