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Part 1 of this three-part series focuses on the strategies and technologies companies are employing to use online social networking as a marketing tool. Part 2 takes a closer look at some of the companies operating in this space and what kinds of specific services they offer Can the privatized and anonymized be monetized? When it comes to the mega...

For the last 30 years, many people have invested a lot of money and effort chasing an unrealized promise of hoped-for explosive growth in home automation. With not a lot of commercial progress, it might be seen as foolish to pursue opportunities in this space. However, the promise of addressing latent needs of the 100 million households in the U.S. -- and the rest of the world -- to create a new consumer electronics (CE) category is highly seductive. ...

Rumor has it that Amazon is poised to announce a larger version of its Kindle e-reader this week. On Sunday, The New York Times published an article citing sources who said the e-commerce giant was ready to launch a larger-screen version of its e-book reader. Amazon, for its part, has sent out invitations to a press conference scheduled for Wednes...

Research In Motion is bolstering its mobile productivity lineup with new enterprise offerings. In addition to a new version of its server software, BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0, which emphasizes energy efficiency and virtualization, RIM has partnered with HP on an operations manager for the BlackBerry server, and an application that allows BlackBerry smartphone users to send a print request to the nearest printer...

The Internet is an American invention, and the governing body that assigns domain names to Web sites around the world has had its roots in the U.S. (California, no less.) However, it's time for ICANN -- the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers -- to go "global" in every sense of the word, according to one European Union commissioner ...

Even as the economic tsunami devastates IT budgets and scuttles many planned technology upgrades, a growing wave of companies continue to pursue unified communications (UC) solutions. While once viewed as a "nice-to-have" for large organizations with correspondingly large information technology (IT) budgets, unified communications solutions hav...

The burgeoning world of social media could be a huge threat to your brand if not managed properly. On the other hand, the world of social media may be the biggest marketing opportunity in years. The difference is all in how proactive you are in protecting yourself by becoming part of the broader social networking community Social networking sites o...

Before the arrival of sales force automation and marketing campaign software, there were productivity applications. CRM, as we all know, rose from that fundamental platform of email, calendaring, mailinglist management and task management. A lot of CRM vendors include productivity in their CRM apps -- most do, in fact. However, few focus on it as ...

It is both interesting and ironic that three of the major companies in tech each defined something early in their lives they didn't want to be and then became it. In the cases of Apple and Microsoft, the top people in each company forgot about the epiphanies they had early in their careers -- for Microsoft, a couple come to mind. Google's case...

Video streaming site Hulu has struck a deal with Disney to make the media conglomerate's programming, including shows from its ABC television network, available online through its channel In addition to taking a nearly 30 percent stake in Hulu, Disney will put full episodes of its ABC TV subsidiary's shows on the site....

Oracle is intent on expanding its offering of Software as a Service applications, according to press reports including an account in the Wall Street Journal. Specifically, it is planning to offer seven new products in a SaaS environment -- a move that would significantly enlarge its already substantial SaaS footprint. What's surprising is that it ...

In the month before each year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the rumors about gaming company plans usually start flying faster than zombie body parts in "Resident Evil 5." Buzz about the upcoming 2009 show ratcheted up on Thursday with a report in Variety that Sony may be getting ready to show off a motion-sensing PlayStation 3 controller at the big video game convention in June in Los Angeles...

By now, you know the best ways to protect yourself: Wash your hands, manage your stress, avoid contamination. Wearing a mask is optional, but it couldn't hurt. However, if by chance you are exposed to an infectious swine-flu-related headline or story on cable news or the Internet, stay in your home and contact the proper authorities A hazmat team ...

Two different types of media uses are propelling the vision for a connected consumer electronics home. These two concepts -- media server and cloud media -- increase the value of television as well as other devices by increasing the ability to discover, aggregate, access and display different types of media. They are two very different scenarios, ...

Voters are still reeling from tax day in a tough recession, and taking to the streets in protest, but state governments and their allies aren't listening. In fact, they are gearing up to squeeze more money out of the nation's workers. Their target is online shopping, and if the pro-tax coalition gets its way, embattled Americans will soon be shouldering higher tax burdens...

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has unveiled a document that standardizes certain industry terms. Its purpose is to help resolve the surprisingly large number of discrepancies that occur when impression data is exchanged between publishers and third-party ad servers. Such discrepancies can range from simple mislabeling of certain buys to different ways of labeling a certain category...

Windows 7 has been tweaked and tuned a bit since the launch of the operating system's initial public beta in January, as is evident in the new release candidate (RC) Microsoft unveiled Thursday. The RC is now available to MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) and TechNet subscribers, and it will be released to the general public May 5.

On the heels of two senior executives who recently left Google, a third -- David Rosenblatt, head of the display advertising business -- is saying goodbye. His final day is scheduled for mid-May. While their timing is most likely coincidental, the departures suggest a worrisome trend for Google Rosenblatt, the former CEO of Doubleclick, was among t...

Motorola's earnings for Q1 show a continued decline in revenue -- this time, by 28 percent. Its net loss was US$231 million on revenue of $5.37 billion. In the same period last year, Motorola's earnings tanked by $194 million on revenue of $7.4 billion The decline was due in part to plummeting handset sales, which have fallen to just under half the...

The declining economy has led to an increased trend toward drop-shipping transactions and has allowed e-tailers to remain competitive while brick-and-mortar stores hedge their bets as they see physical retail sales and profits slide precipitously. By tapping into drop-shipping programs, e-tailers can effortlessly expand product lines to meet shopp...