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This story was originally published on Aug. 22, 2011, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. During the past few years, customer service organizations have faced increasing amounts of pressure to deliver better service over a broader range of channels including the Web, email and phone. Customers expect to get service ...

Imagine the paint on your house powering the electric devices inside it ...

This story was originally published on Aug. 10, 2011, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. It just makes sense that consumers tend to trust the opinions and recommendations of friends before they trust those of advertisers, promoters and retailers. Social shopping sites, which combine features of social networking wi...

This story was originally published on April 19, 2011, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. Computer software requires an enormous amount of support. That fact has enriched companies such as Oracle and SAP, which levy annual support fees of about 20 percent of the sale prices of their applications....

If there was ever a year for train wrecks, 2011 was it. It is that time when we look back at the screwy decisions executives made last year, and be thankful that we aren't them. There were a number of career-limiting moves last year that warrant a top spot on my Bozo meter I'll end with my product of the year: the 2011 product that I found I just c...

This story was originally published on Oct. 11, 2011, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. Given the sheer volume of commentaries following the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs, I hesitated to add my own voice to the chorus. Like most folks, I didn't know Jobs personally. Like many, the closest I ever got to him was...

This story was originally published on July 14, 2011, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. Whenever I talk about CRM to people who aren't CRM experts, I find the discussion devolving into an examination of the real common denominator in all of this: the human aspects of doing business. The "R" of relationships resona...

This story was originally published on Aug. 11, 2011, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. In terms of online communication, social media is the biggest trend in recent years. There are billions of participants around the globe as well as an array of forms: blogs, forums, wikis, multimedia content, social bookmarking...

Looks like Yahoo is going to let go of most of its Asian assets -- a large part of its stake in the Alibaba Group of China and its Yahoo Japan affiliate -- and load up on cash. The move may allow the company to retain control of its core assets and perhaps even buy itself a new look. Yahoo's board is considering a plan to sell these assets back to...

A group of mathematicians turned to Twitter to gauge global happiness for 2011, and it seems the last 12 months have not been humanity's cheeriest. The team from the University of Vermont gathered 4.6 billion Twitter messages from Twitter's 33 million users from around the world. Starting in September 2008, the mathematicians, led by Peter Dodds, ...

Facebook has agreed to improve privacy protections in Europe over the next six months, after a three-month audit by Ireland's data protection agency found the social network lacking in some areas. Users will be given more information about how Facebook and third-party app providers handle their information, the company promised. It also agreed to ...

Last week, I focused on companies to keep our eyes on in 2012. This week, I'll share my views on different technologies and their place on the Wave. Remember, some are growing and others are falling. There are key differences for investors, customers and workers 2012 is all about togetherness. Companies will be trying to lock in customers by gettin...

This story was originally published on July 28, 2011, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. By now, most people understand the power and the value of adding a social component to your customer relationship management strategy. Perhaps you're not yet ready to go to full social CRM, but you no doubt recognize that there...

Are we about to see the demise of the game console? It's hard to believe the days of Sony's ubiquitous PlayStation system, introduced in 1994 -- or even those of the Xbox -- may be numbered. But with changing delivery systems, the spreading cloud, and processor advances, those PlayStations and Wiis may be going the way of the Walkman....

January's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will be the last one Microsoft will attend Announcing its decision on Wednesday, Microsoft's Frank Shaw said the company's product news milestones generally don't align with the timing of the show, which is regularly held in January....

Everyone seems to be singing the Sue-You-Sue-Me Blues in the smartphone market. Microsoft and Motorola are the latest to join the chorus, both claiming victory in a patent ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission. The ruling found that Motorola Mobility -- which Google has agreed to acquire for US$12.5 billion -- violated one of seven patents in question. The patents cover technology used in Android-powered Motorola smartphones.

Intel is stepping up the drumbeat around its efforts to penetrate the mobile handheld device market leading up to the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which will be held in Las Vegas in January The semiconductor giant recently sent prototype devices, known as reference designs, to the MIT Technology Review to try out....

Facing a deadline from its partner Sprint, LightSquared filed a motion Tuesday asking FCC officials to confirm the company's right to use the airwaves, despite data that suggest its operations could interfere with global-positioning systems Any interference with GPS devices is a flaw within GPS technology, not LightSquared technology, the company c...

Massive data sets -- a season's worth of baseball statistics, for example, or health data from around the world -- can contain some very revealing knowledge. The problem confronting researchers, though, is finding it That may be a little easier with some tools developed by scientists at Harvard University and the Broad Institute....

Google and Mozilla have reupped their search revenue agreement. Under the new three-year plan, Google Search will continue to be the default search provider for Firefox users. Given Google's clear desire to push Chrome into the top ranks of the browser market, it would seem counterintuitive for it to re-ink a deal with one of its chief rivals in t...