Articles by Erika

One would almost think we have entered a stage of customer service nirvana: Two industry categories not ordinarily associated with high levels of customer service satisfaction -- airlines and fast food -- have garnered relatively good scores in a new American Customer Satisfaction Index report The operative word here is "relative," though. The airl...

YouTube's attorneys have sent a cease-and-desist letter to YouTube-mp3 demanding that it stop allowing users to extract audio clips from YouTube videos in order to copy them onto personal devices. YouTube-mp3 is a highly user-friendly service. All a user must do is enter a video's URL, and the audio is generated within moments. That process is the...

Morgan Stanley upgraded Groupon to "overweight" from "equal weight" causing the daily deal company's stock shares to jump by as much as 13 percent The reason for Morgan Stanley's apparent change of heart is a shift in the competitive landscape. Daily deal clones are still coming to market, but there is no evidence they are gaining any significant ...

Ethiopia has passed a draconian new law criminalizing the use of Voiceover Internet Protocol services such as Skype or Google Talk. Peoplewho violate the ban will find themselves facing 10-to-15 years inprison.The government has cited national security as a reason, although it iswidely assumed that protecting the market share and revenue of thestate-owned telecom provider, Ethio Telecom, is also a driver -- ifnot the main one...

By now, it has been drilled into most marketers' heads: Social media is all about conversation -- a two-way conversation. Oftentimes, the conversation entails responding to customers' comments, requests or complaints. From the customer's perspective, it almost certainly means offers of discounts and specials....

In the weeks running up to Facebook's initial public offering on May 17, correspondence between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the social media giant flew fast and furious The government agency had a number of questions about Facebook's business model that it felt were not adequately addressed in its S-1 filing early in the year, accor...

Well, he did say it was a tentative decision One week after telling the court that he was leaning toward dismissing the patent suit between Apple and Motorola because neither side had established a right to relief, Judge Richard Posner reversed course and decided to allow Apple and Motorola to pursue injunctive relief against each other. That hear...

Microsoft is in discussions to acquire Yammer, a social media and communication platform for businesses, according to a report in Bloomberg, which cited two anonymous sources Microsoft is prepared to acquire the company for a US$1 billion purchase price, the report said, and the deal could be reached as soon as Friday....

The Department of Justice is investigating whether cable companies such as Comcast and Time Warner are violating antitrust rules through practices that limit their broadband customers' access to online video, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing anonymous sources. The Justice Department apparently has questioned these companies, as we...

Customer satisfaction with the airline industry took a dip in J.D. Power and Associates' 2012 North America Airline Satisfaction study after two consecutive years of improvement The drop was not a large one; overall, passenger satisfaction dropped to 681 index points on a 1,000-point scale. In 2011, the score was 683....

Zynga's share price dropped to a record low after an analyst's research note revealed that its usage declined in May due to players migrating to mobile platforms. At close of business on Tuesday, the stock had dropped to US$4.98 per unit, the lowest level since its December initial public offering at $10 per share. Wednesday morning the stock made a slight recovery, reaching $5.20 per share...

PayPal has been working for a year or more to translate its brand of safe online payment to other channels. It has rolled out several products to establish bona fides in the mobile payment space, as well as among brick-and-mortar retailers. Now it is making the same push for the TV viewer It is joining forces with such companies as TiVo and Comcast...

Banks have still not made important reforms or improvements in their checking account practices, according to an update Pew Charitable Trusts made to a report it released in April 2011, "Hidden Risks: The Case for Safe and Transparent Checking Accounts." The original report set out a discouraging list of banking practices that added fees to consum...

The adoption of tablets has reached critical mass in the U.S., according to comScore. In fact, one in every four smartphone owners also used a tablet during the three-month period ending April 2012 What stands out most about this particular study, though, is the link it makes between TV and online video content and the growth of tablets. Tablet use...

Facebook has cut the ribbon on its App Center -- a hub that lets users access apps from Facebook and related third parties. There are about 600 apps in the center so far, including favorites like Draw Something, Pinterest and Nike+ GPS Facebook is taking a curated approach to the apps. Besides the popular ones, it is suggesting newer apps users mi...

The Apple v. Motorola trial scheduled to begin next week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has been cancelled, with the judge presiding over the case deciding it should be dismissed because neither side has established a right to relief However, Judge Richard Posner wrote in the order filed Thursday that he would del...

Ntractive, the developer of Elements CRM, a cloud-based CRM app for Macs only, has expanded its product line to include the iPad and iPhone. Ntractive is taking a different approach from other CRM vendors that have pushed their applications onto these devices, CEO Justin Bartak told CRM Buyer....

Citrix is acquiring privately held Bytemobile, a provider of data and video optimization applications for mobile network operators. The deal will give Citrix exposure to a burgeoning market -- mobile infrastructure -- and extend its reach to points around the world The acquisition builds on a partnership the two companies announced earlier this yea...

LinkedIn has reported that some of its users' passwords have been stolen and published on the Internet. The company is withholding details, including exactly how many passwords were compromised Members with accounts associated with the compromised passwords will find that their LinkedIn account password is no longer valid, and they will be receivin...

A new poll does not bode well for Facebook's goal of stepping up its ad revenue. Four out of five Facebook users said they were never influenced by advertising or even comments on the site to buy a product or service, found the poll, which was conducted by Reuters/Ipsos.