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Google has launched what many see as its answer to the growing phenomenon of social search in general and Facebook's "Like" button in particular: the +1 button. It is similar in concept, although in Google's case it will eventually be included in search results. When users see something they like on a Google property such as YouTube or a search ad...

Succeeding with social media marketing was one of the keynote topics at the Web 2.0 conference Thursday Others involved tips on going mobile, while some touched on the subject of design, which seems to be gaining new importance, judging from the number of keynotes focusing on that topic at the conference....

Microsoft is filing a formal antitrust complaint with the European Commission (EC) as part of the commission's investigation into possible Google violations of European competition law. Google holds about 95 percent of the European search market. The complaint involves Google restraining competition by limiting search and Windows Phone access to Y...

It was a generally interesting day of keynote speeches at the Web 2.0 conference Wednesday, although a couple of the presentations were real mind-benders One keynote laid out how developers can use core concepts of gaming apps to create better products....

The online shopping cart has become as much of a wish list as anything, giving consumers a place to store, compare, consider and dream about potential purchases. E-tailers, however, would like to see those potential purchases become actual ones, and they're coming up with increasingly sophisticated ways of doing just that "Shopping cart abandonment...

Cloud computing is a priority for enterprises seeking greater agility, operational efficiency and overall cost reduction, but security concerns continue to inhibit its use. Half of all companies not adopting cloud computing cite security as the reason, according to a Forrester Research October 2010 study, "Security and the Cloud." Whether consider...

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft on Tuesday and Wednesday captured and delivered to Earth the first photographs of Mercury ever taken from within the planet's orbit ...

Salesforce.com has signed an agreement to acquire Radian6 for US$276 million in cash and $50 million in stock. Salesforce intends to use Radian6, a platform for social media monitoring, to help its clients track hundreds and millions of conversations on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and other online communities, analyze them, and get real-time...

Amazon surprised the music world this week with the rollout of several products that will allow consumers to store and access their digital music in the cloud. Perhaps no one was more surprised, though, than the music studios, who appeared to have learned the details of the offering shortly before they were publicly unveiled. They were not, to put...

At first glance, the Web 2.0 conference, being held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, appears tailor-made for today's audience Keynotes are kept short -- about 20 minutes each -- and follow each other in rapid-fire succession. They're posted on the Web. The audience is mainly young and armed with multiple mobile devices -- several had smartph...

The issue of whether online gambling should be legalized is once again being taken up in the U.S. Congress. The Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act has been introduced by Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif., with Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., as a leading cosponsor. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., are also leading cosponsors. This bill is nearly identical to the anti-UIGEA (the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) bill introduced in the 111th Congress last year. ...

Thumbing through the current issue of Wired, I came upon a multi-page ad spread from Microsoft, and I saw what looks like an interesting juxtaposition, though there was nothing in the ad itself that made the connection. I have also been interviewing some of the industry's best and brightest recently on the subject of revenue performance management, or RPM, and the combination provided the source of my fascination...

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As online shopping becomes a larger and larger part of global consumers' spending habits, they are demanding the highest levels of availability, performance and security. Your application cannot be unavailable, slow or vulnerable. Period. The single most important factor in keeping an application live and performing well is ensuring that your d...

Amazon on Tuesday announced a triple-play entry into the cloud-based music storage field The online retail giant's trifecta consists of Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon Cloud Player for Web and Amazon Cloud Player for Android....

The Obama administration's program to more efficiently utilize information technology has worked -- but not well enough to get a passing grade from the U.S. Congress. Lawmakers are ratcheting up the pressure on federal agencies to improve their IT resource management -- including the way they procure IT products and services from the private sector.

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) banks have begun to feel the heat of competitive pressure from foreign banks that are trying to exploit the potential investment prospects in this market by riding on their vast experience and proven consumer-friendly services. In such a scenario, the banks have nothing to blame but their laid-back approach and less-than-stellar commitment to customer service, leading to lower satisfaction and higher churn.

When Nokia and Microsoft announced a partnership last month, many systems and app developers interpreted the deal to mean Nokia was beginning to turn away QT Symbian and MeeGo platforms. In essence, Nokia would be dialing into Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 technology in the near future -- and, it was presumed, dialing out of its own mobile OSes. The...

It's now official: Everything that the Federal Communications Commission has ever told us about the safety of cellphones is almost certainly wrong. When the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse recently reported that simply holding a turned-on cellphone next to the ear for 50 minutes caused significant changes to brain chemistry, many...

Amazon's Android Appstore launched last week with an innovative approach to selling apps. Amazon Test Drive allows potential customers to try out the full-version of an app free for 30 minutes on a virtual version of an Android phone. Currently, Test Drive is limited to U.S. customers -- however, the Amazon Appstore is not yet available to AT&T subscribers.