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Yahoo, Google, and MSN hold a huge lead in search engine technology over open-source alternatives. These search giants are competing in a battle among themselves to be a computer user's default search site for search Where can a computer user go to find an adequate open-source alternative to mainstream engines? Choices appear to be limited. A few e...

With outlets like Flickr, Shutterfly and Photobucket -- just to name a few -- there's been a considerable decrease in demand for programs for creating photo albums that can be uploaded to personal Web space Still, if you have an account with an internet service provider (ISP), you likely have megabytes of Web space begging to be used for something,...

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door Wrong -- unless of course your business has a Web site. Search engines like Google and Yahoo troll the Web constantly, categorizing and ranking sites so users can find what they're looking for....

Sony has reportedly turned its attention to creating products and services that will enable users to download television programming and movies. The service will use the company's struggling PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable video game platforms as well as the company's high-definition Bravia televisions as its basis technology, and it will operate in a fashion similar to Apple's iTunes store...

Microsoft's Office Open Extensible Markup Language (OOXML) document format on Tuesday failed to win enough votes among members of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to become an international standard. The vote, however, may not be the final chapter in the politically charged fight over standardized document file formats The F...

Oracle plans to acquire Netsure Telecom, a Dublin, Ireland-based company that provides networking intelligence, analytics and network data integrity software The company's typical clients include tier one operators of next generation network and service providers such as Vodafone, Cable & Wireless and Eircom. These firms essentially use Netsure's s...

The president of handset maker Sony Ericsson, Miles Flint, resigned unexpectedly Tuesday, just as the joint venture has solidified its role as the world's fourth-largest maker of mobile phones and as it embarks on a strategy to grab more high-end market share Flint plans to take a "short career break" before exploring other employment, he said. Son...

Hackers associated with the Chinese government broke into the Pentagon's computer systems earlier this summer, according to a report in the Financial Times The London-based paper, which cited anonymous sources in the current and previous administrations in its article, said officials believe the People's Liberation Army were behind the incursions, ...

A new service from AT&T aims to give parents more control over their children's cell phone usage, the company announced Tuesday AT&T Smart Limits for Wireless is a Web-based service that allows a parent to set usage limits on a child's talk time, text messages, instant messages and downloads, as well as manage how and when a child can communicate, ...

The wireless telecommunications industry is poised to consolidate further, with Metro PCS Communications bidding to acquire Leap Wireless International for about US$5.5 billion in a move that would combine two of the leading low-cost, prepaid carriers in the U.S MetroPCS, which is based in Dallas, made an unsolicited bid for Leap, offering 2.75 sha...

Mobile devices are increasingly working their way into our everyday lives, and market research suggests that the operating systems driving these devices are often Linux-based Technology research firm ABI Research forecasts that Linux will be the fastest growing smartphone operating system over the next five years....

When News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media unit reported its first annual profit earlier this year, a message was sent to naysayers everywhere about the future of online advertising Growth in advertising and search revenue at MySpace was largely responsible for the unit's profitability, and the result was a figurative sweeping away of many skeptics' c...

In his new book, "The Cult of the Amateur," Andrew Keen publicly and pugnaciously says many of the things people were quietly thinking about Web 2.0. He refers to bloggers as a "pajama army" wreaking cultural havoc from their parents' basements Let me provide a few highlights:...

Electronic Arts (EA) -- the world's largest video game publisher by sales -- made a statement in June when it announced it was forming a casual gaming division. Last month, the Redwood, Calif., company punctuated that statement with an exclamation mark by cutting a licensing deal with Hasbro, whose real-world gaming portfolio contains monster brands like Monopoly, Scrabble and Yahtzee...

There is no rest for the wicked, or anyone else this summer, as last week had a number of big events One of the largest is that Acer moved around Lenovo and Apple (which is also coming up fast) to become the No. 3 PC manufacturer by buying Gateway....

The fact that the name "Google" is often used interchangeably with the verb "search" today speaks volumes about the current state of the search market "Right now it's Google's game to lose," Kevin Lee, executive chairman and cofounder of search marketing company Didit, told the E-Commerce Times. "They are synonymous with search, and thus far they'v...

EarthLink has bowed out of its agreement to build a network that would provide free WiFi in San Francisco. The news follows the company's announcement this week that it is eliminating 900 jobs -- half its workforce -- and closing offices in four cities, including San Francisco. The beleaguered WiFi project in San Francisco is apparently one of the casualties...

ITT this week emerged the winner of a lucrative contract with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to design and build the first component of a new satellite-guided air traffic control system The US$207 million initial contract is for the development and deployment of the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system, a part of the...

It's been a rumor-filled week leading into Labor Day, and Thursday was no exception, with reports surfacing that Microsoft might be considering purchasing BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) It's not the first time such a rumor has circulated, but it still had the effect of driving RIM's stock prices up on Wall Street. RIM shares increased US...

Dell took an important step toward crafting a turnaround Thursday, with the PC maker saying profit had risen 46 percent in the second quarter thanks to cost-cutting moves. The company's sales beat forecasts as its new retail strategy began to take shape In fact, the No. 2 maker of personal computers beat Wall Street targets for both profit and sale...