Articles by Kevin W. FitzMaurice

Google today announced its latest salvo in the hot competition in the search landscape: a free online service intended to allow webmasters to automatically submit their Web pages to Google to be indexed in a bid to improve the results of online searches Google Sitemaps is a beta release and is designed to be a collaborative program between Google a...

Yahoo has launched a service to provide live local traffic information with its online maps and driving directions, something it said makes it the first Web site to provide speed conditions and dynamic traffic information nationwide The new feature will initially be integrated in Yahoo Search, Yahoo Local, and Yahoo Maps, and is available at http:/...

A barrage of lawsuits against several dozen defendants have been filed in federal courts by an antispam alliance of the nation's leading Internet service providers in the latest crackdown on e-mail spam The lawsuits were filed by Earthlink, America Online, Microsoft and Yahoo. They represent the second round of suits in the ISPs' get-tough approach...

Computer Associates International today said it will lay off 800 workers worldwide in a restructuring plan it said is designed to more closely align its investments with its strategic growth opportunities In issuing a statement this morning announcing the action, the company said the effort is expected to yield about US$70 million in savings annual...

The Internet has topped television as the first choice of media by 18- to 54-year-olds, according to a study released today by the Online Publishers Association (OPA) The Generational Media Study -- the fourth in a series of research reports aimed at providing a detailed view of 18- to 34-year-old media consumers -- shows that 45.6 percent of respo...

Global communications systems equipment supplier Andrew Corp. today updated its previously issued earnings guidance for the fourth quarter, noting it now expects a loss of 4 cents to 8 cents per share The company attributed the loss to slowed purchases by two big customers planning to merge, higher cost for raw materials and startup costs for new p...

Qualcomm today projected it will realize higher earnings in the current quarter than previously expected, with revenues up 60 to 62 percent over the same time last year and up 4 to 5 percent for the quarter A notable part of the increase was attributed to the company expecting to produce more of its Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) phones....

Oracle today announced that its first quarter earnings per share increased 18 percent to US10 cents per share, compared to the first quarter last year, outperforming Wall Street expectations that were closer to 9 cents per share In afterhours trading following the release of the earnings numbers, Oracle shares were up 4.17 percent....

A federal class action lawsuit filed Thursday accuses Salesforce.com, its CEO and its chief financial officer of withholding critical, detrimental financial information from potential investors in order to boost the share price of the company's IPO The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco by the law firm Bernstein Liebhard ...

Home entertainment pioneer TiVo today announced it will be dropping the cost of its basic digital video recorder to $99 and will expand distribution of its products to three more major retailers The Alviso, California-based company also announced a redesign of its TiVo box and a rewards program for subscribers who refer new customers.

Disney today unveiled the Disney Dream Desk PC, a personal computer aimed at children and featuring a Mickey Mouse-shaped LCD monitor and a variety of Disney applications In unveiling the new PC in New York, Disney President and COO Bob Iger noted, "We've traveled a long way since that first Mickey writing tablet hit the market in 1929."

Pfizer today announced it has filed a barrage of lawsuits aimed at shutting down online sales of generic, counterfeit or fake versions of Viagra, its copyrighted erectile dysfunction medication The New York-based drugmaker filed the suits against dozens of what it called "illegitimate online pharmacies," accusing them of trademark infringement and ...

Online search engine Ask Jeeves has reached an agreement to start offering Citysearch's local content and business data, with the information expected to start showing up in searches in September Citysearch's data will complement the local features already offered on Ask Jeeves, including maps, driving directions, weather, people search, movies and...

German engineering conglomerate Siemens today posted strong earnings growth for the quarter ended June 30, with net income up 29 percent over the same period last year, profit from operations up 21 percent and orders up 5 percent At the same time, the company also said it now expects to exceed its previous earnings projections for the year....

Internet retailer Amazon.com today announced financial results for its second quarter, showing net sales up 26 percent and operating income more than doubling over the same quarter last year -- but the figures were below Wall Street's expectations At the same time, the Seattle-based company projected net sales in the current quarter to be 26 percen...

DreamWorks today filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission announcing it intends to make an initial public offering of shares in, and split off, its animation unit, DreamWorks Animation The studio, formed in October 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffin, said in the registration statement tha...

Discount brokerage Charles Schwab today announced the immediate replacement of CEO David S. Pottruck by board Chairman Charles R. Schwab in the face of continued sagging profits In the same statement, the San Francisco, California, company also reported that its net income for the quarter ended June 30th was US$113 million, down about 10 percent, o...

Inflationary pressures appeared to ease in June over the preceding month, with the Labor Department today reporting that consumer prices rose a modest 0.3 percent, half the rate of May The core inflation rate, which ignores fuel and food costs, rose only 0.1 percent in June, half what analysts had expected and again half the jump it took in May. Th...

Dell President and COO Kevin Rollins moved up to the PC company's top spot today when he took over the CEO reins from company founder Michael Dell The move was described as more a change of title than duties and is not expected to be followed by significant strategy changes, the world's largest PC maker said in a statement....

Microsoft, America Online and Yahoo today announced they will collaborate to enable connectivity between Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and the AOL, MSN and Yahoo instant messaging (IM) networks "This agreement represents the dawn of the next era for instant messaging, which will unleash the true potential of real-time communicati...