Articles by Rachelle Dragani

Facebook can be an effective platform for advertisers, according to a report released Tuesday by comScore The results appear to counter the findings of a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll in which four out of five respondents claimed they were never influenced by advertisements or comments on the site regarding products or services....

Microsoft put its updated cloud offerings and business tools in the spotlight Monday for the start of its annual TechEd Conference In the keynote address kicking off the confab, Satya Nadella, president of Microsoft server and tools business, discussed Microsoft's focus on helping consumers transition to cloud computing....

A European telecommunications agency in December proposed that the United Nations collect a tax on some of the largest websites and network providers in the U.S. for their overseas activities, according to documents that recently surfaced ETNO, the main telecommunications operators association in Europe, proposed the policy at a meeting with the In...

Best Buy Founder and Chairman Richard Schulze announced Thursday he is leaving the company immediately and plans to explore all available options for his 20.1 percent ownership stake in the electronics retail chain His departure comes two months after former CEO Brian Dunn left the company under a cloud of scandal and as the retailer faces increase...

Google unveiled new features to its mapping technology Wednesday, including an offline mobile version of Google Maps and 3D enhancements to Google Earth The announcement comes just before Apple is expected to drop Google Maps from its built-in mapping application on the iOS platform and pursue advanced mapping development on its own.

Mozilla released Firefox 13 Wednesday, which it says is a speedier, safer version of the open source web browser The newly launched Firefox also boasts a new home page and tab page layout similar to those of competing browsers such as Google's Chrome.

Google has acquired social networking site Meebo, a possible bid to sharpen the search giant's social networking acumen The deal has been the subject of rumors for about a month, after AllThingsD reported the two companies were in talks. Meebo confirmed the acquisition in a blog post Monday....

Facebook is opening its proposed policy changes to a vote, inviting users to review and approve or disapprove of the newly revised documents. The social network will consider results binding if 30 percent or more of its active user base participates Facebook's current proposed changes don't include many major policy shifts. Many of the updates amou...

Google is nixing its free product search model, opting instead to charge merchants and retailers to appear in Google product search listings Currently, retailers can provide information about their products and then add them to the search listings for free, where they are ranked by popularity and price. Under the new model, dubbed "Google Shopping,...

Sony's next-generation gaming console will arrive next year, according to The Wall Street Journal. Users of the upcoming system will be able to play games by inserting discs, just like they do with the present-day PlayStation 3. However, Sony executives reportedly came very close to limiting the console to downloadable games only Currently, PS3 use...

Samsung has launched two new computers running Google's Chrome OS ...

New details have emerged regarding an upcoming Dell tablet device, which could be one of the first to run Windows 8. The tablet will reportedly run on a dual-core Intel Cloverleaf processor with 2GB of RAM and 128 GB of SSD storage. It will have a 10.1-inch display, according to information from Neowin.

Fox, CBS and NBC filed lawsuits against Dish Network Thursday over a feature found in a new digital video recorder that lets subscribers automatically skip the advertisements on recorded shows from major networks Dish countered by asking a judge to declare that the feature does not infringe on any copyrights as claimed by the networks....

HP has posted its second quarter earnings and announced it will lay off 27,000 workers worldwide in an effort to simplify its business and increase efficiency HP beat Wall Street expectations with its earnings but still faces questions about how it will compete in a changing tech industry....

HP has posted its second quarter earnings and announced it will lay off 27,000 workers worldwide in an effort to simplify its business and increase efficiency HP beat Wall Street expectations with its earnings but still faces questions about how it will compete in a changing tech industry....

Dell took a hard hit on Wall Street Wednesday after it revealed sluggish PC sales and a disappointing quarterly earnings report Shares of Dell were down 17 percent Wednesday, Dell's biggest one-day drop since 2000. The stock, already down 15 percent on the year, closed at US$12.49.

SAP has revealed plans to acquire Ariba, an enterprise e-commerce network, for US$4.3 billion as part of the German company's expansion into cloud computing. SAP will purchase Ariba for $45 per share -- about 20 percent more than its market price. Ariba's board approved the purchase unanimously. The sale is expected to be completed during the thi...

Microsoft opened So.cl, its experimental approach to a social network, to all users Monday, aiming to create a place to find and share online articles, videos and digital content, all with the help of its search engine Bing So.cl doesn't appear to be a direct challenge to established social media sites like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. In fact, i...

Yahoo will sell half its stake in Chinese e-commerce heavyweight Alibaba back to the company for about US$7.1 billion, setting in motion a deal that will send cash toward Yahoo shareholders The deal will take place in multiple stages. First, Alibaba will purchase about 20 percent of Yahoo's stake in the company. The total $7.1 billion would be made...

HP is planning significant layoffs with the aim of increasing efficiencyand focusing on new products, according to a New York Times report citing an anonymous source. The company could lay off more than 30,000 workers, or nearly 10 percent of the company's total workforce of 324,000....