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Some of the biggest names in technology -- including Amazon, Google and Yahoo! -- share something in common: At least at first, they grew to become household names with little, if any, help from traditional advertising. Only recently have most of these well-known companies ventured into television, radio or mass-media print advertising. Instead, t...

Web services is arguably the most important IT initiative of our time. Whereasenterprise back ends have been cobbled together over decades, using application-specific components from a variety of vendors, they now can be (and increasingly must be) integrated and delivered to customers with a universality and coherence unimagined 10 years ago But th...

Federal investigators reportedly have widened their probe into AOL's accounting practices during the dot-com boom years, focusing on whether AOL aided and abetted the artificial inflation of revenue reports at partner companies, including embattled Homestore.com The Washington Post reported the probe is concentrating on the actions of two former AO...

While sometimes warranted, changing databases is a huge undertaking for almost any enterprise. An IT department embarking on such an endeavorshould plan for a major upheaval, with sizeable up-front costs, a host of compatibility issues and the need to retrain key employees. Still, some companies seem to be doing it. A recent IDC report showed that sector leader Oracle is losing market share to rivals IBM and Microsoft...

The e-tail universe has seen tremendous consolidation since the dot-com bubble burst. The list of online-only retailers that wound up on the Internet scrap heap is too long to mention. But the idea of selling consumer products to people via the Internet has not suffered. Indeed, more people are buying online every day. Air travel, consumer electro...

In a massive upgrade and testing initiative, Microsoft is set to release500,000 "beta 2" copies of Microsoft Office System, an enlarged andmodernized version of the company's office productivity suite. The beta release marks one of Microsoft's most extensive testing programs ever, and by far the largest test of an Office product. The commercial version of MicrosoftOffice System is slated for mid-2003...

So, you have a product or two. You want to expand your reach. The globalInternet sits at your fingertips. If you build it, will they come? Not necessarily. That is the big lesson of the bubble years -- and a quandary for small e-commerce companies at a time when venture capitalists are not feeling adventurous How can small sites build a reputation,...

Despite the ugly economic conditions facing IT, there are a few brightspots, and the computer gaming sector is one of them. Computer games continue to sell at a brisk pace, and the hot trend right now is online gaming. Ultima Online, EverQuest and Neverwinter Nights have developed huge fan bases, and more offerings are on the way. "It's doing very...

Microsoft has shipped a beta version of its much-hyped Greenwich platform in an effort to elbow its way into an already-crowded market for enterprise instant messaging (IM). The server software allows instant messaging to be built on an extensible platform that can be customized and modified to include additional functionality and accommodate more...

The phrase "Real Time Enterprise" (RTE) is a siren song of unquestionable allurefor many enterprises. Whether a company wishes to respond to customer data morequickly or communicate better internally, having a back end that responds immediatelyto the rapid flow of corporate information represents an ideal So, given the obvious benefits of on-demand...

In an effort to solidify its niche in the online advertising market, search engine Google has launched an advertising service that will deliver Web pages with targeted, sponsored links instead of random banner ads. The move comes on the heels of a plan announced by Google's main competitor in the pay-per-click ad market, Overture Services, to offe...

It is a common business scenario: A new CEO takes over a struggling company and vows to put it on more solid financial footing. He assures investors that he will cut only the fat from the ailing organization, leaving the muscle and bone the company will need to survive and thrive intact But when it comes time to put the scalpel -- or the hatchet, a...

EMC and Hitachi have settled simmering patent infringement lawsuits with a long-term agreement that calls for cross-licensing and cooperative development of new technology. As part of the deal, Tokyo-based Hitachi will make undisclosed payments to EMC, which first filed suit against Hitachi last April after Hitachi made a late but strong entry int...

Lucent Technologies has cleared what could have been a major obstacle to its ongoing turnaround. The telecommunications equipment maker has reached a settlement to close the books on a probe into its accounting practices by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Lucent said the settlement, which requires a vote of the full commission t...

Web service1.A Web service is a software system identified by a URI [RFC 2396], whose public interfaces and bindings are defined and described using XML. Its definition can be discovered by other software systems. These systems may then interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its definition, using XML based messages conveyed by Internet protocols...

E-commerce grew at a pace that put the overall economy to shame in 2002, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), which said online sales surpassed US$45 billion during the year. The DOC also said e-commerce is an increasingly large part of the overall retail economy, with 1.6 percent of the total pie in the fourth quarter of 2002, comp...

The e-commerce sector's recent successes are staggering. Combined sales of Amazon and eBay totaled US$19 billion in 2002, according to Forrester Research, and robust fourth-quarter numbers bucked the lackluster offline trend. But the path to those lofty results was paved with the failures of countless dot-coms and brick-and-click firms whose initial online endeavors were unsteady and fraught with errors...

In the latest round of a corporate boxing match that has persisted for more than five years, Microsoft has filed a court brief accusing Sun Microsystems of unfair competition and violation of a previous settlement agreement. The brief is part of an ongoing private antitrust case brought against Microsoft by Sun At issue is Microsoft's freedom to di...

In the wake of a spectacular meltdown that featured financial shenanigans, overspending and broken promises, can the telecom industry recover and grow strong again? The answer is yes, industry experts say, but telecom faces a long road back -- and it will not recapture the heights of three or four years ago Job one for carriers in 2003 will be to g...

Echoing reports of similar deals from such competitors as IBM, computer giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) said it won a five-year contract to handle technology outsourcing for Telecom Italia, a fixed-wire and wireless communications firm The companies said the deal is worth 225 million euros, or about US$243 million. It calls for HP to provide information...