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Several years ago, while selling software in the British telecom market, I met the CMO of a smallish network operator. He described the issues his business was facing, and when I asked him his churn rate, he replied, almost casually, that it was "about normal for our industry: 37 percent." He must have seen my jaw drop, as he quickly abandoned hi...

This is the eleventh and final installment in a series on building a Web site for your small business. Part 1 looks at essential elements of a business Web site. Part 2 offers basic site design guidelines. Part 3 tackles some advanced design issues.Part 4 examines social media tools for building traffic.Part 5 compares outsourcing with doing maintenance work in-house.Part 6 offers tips on marketing your site. Part 7 covers analytics for measuring effectiveness.Part 8 delves into content management issues.Part 9 investigates security and transaction processing.Part 10 discusses issues concerning customer privacy...

Panda Security on Wednesday released a cloud-based antivirus solution in beta Panda Cloud Antivirus is based on a new protection model thatutilizes a thin-client agent and server architecture to process andblock malware. The product provides full protection from viruses,spyware and rootkits for free, according to the company, and does so with 50 pe...

The Department of Justice is reportedly looking into the settlement agreement that Google negotiated with representatives of book publishers and authors to put their works online. The Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guildfiled a lawsuit against Google some three years ago in an effort to shut down its book-scanning project -- or...

Although Twitter is growing at an incredible rate, it's having trouble retaining users, according to online activities research firm Nielsen Online The Twitter micro-blogging service only retains about 40 percent of users month-over-month, Nielsen Online Research Vice President David Martin claims in a company blog post....

Microsoft has begun a limited private beta test of an emergencysocial networking service that provides subscribers with aTwitter-like messaging system to track family, friends or specialgroups Microsoft Vine is a downloadable application that collects newsreports related to a specific area when disasters strike -- hurricanes,earthquakes pandemics, ...

Sun Microsystems has reported a US$201 million loss for Q3 2009, a significant increase over the loss of $34 million that it registered in the same quarter a year ago. At $2.6 billion, third-quarter revenue fell short of Wall Street's forecast of $2.86 million and was a steep drop from the $3.3 billion the company realized in Q3 2008.

Google and Yahoo used to compete mightily in the site search category, but now the two have turned their focus toward search advertising, which makes them more money. Dozens of smaller players have emerged to fill the void -- and to make money Other site search solutions may have looked like diminutive Davids when they first appeared next to the Go...

Zuora, the on-demand billing service for on-demand companies, is turning 1 year old. Last week, the company announced 100 product improvements with its 2.0 version and said that it had attracted 100 customers in its first year. Why all the attention to this startup? I think what's cool about Zuora is that it is the first on-demand infrastructure...

A long time ago -- meaning, of course, three or four years in Internet time -- wikis came to represent the best of the true democratic, user-generated nature of the Web. The collaborative writing/editing of a wiki meant that all voices could be heard, but majority rule would prevail. This segment's shining example, the "free encyclopedia" Wikipedi...

Seeking to help users organize and view TV content online, ZeeVee recently launched the latest iteration of its video browser. Currently in beta, the new Zinc browser, formerly named "Zviewer," has more than just a new name. Besides new content from existing video hubs such as Hulu, Fox, YouTube, CNN, Jaman, MTV and Cartoon Network, the browser h...

HP on Tuesday announced its new ProBook s-series, a new line of low-cost notebooks for business users Aimed at small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the laptops focus on security, reliability and ease of use....

Perhaps not content with successful sales of its own electronic reading device, Amazon on Monday added another chapter to its e-book strategy with the purchase of Portland, Ore.-based Lexcycle, the makers of Stanza, a reading application downloadable onto iPhones and iPod touches In announcing the acquisition, Lexcycle commented that it sees a brig...

Earlier this month, the journal Science published a report about a robot that could formulate hypotheses, perform experiments to test those hypotheses, and thereby contribute to scientific knowledge. This technological advance raises legal concerns: Based on current law, if a robot conceived the idea for an "invention," this invention might not h...

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 With an attractive force akin to the massive black hole at the center of the galaxy, online social networks have pulled into their orbits scores of new startups searching for profits....

IT developers are moving toward higher-level languages that make their work simpler in order to keep up with business needs That simplicity is found in lingos such as Java, C Sharp (C#), Visual Basic and .Net....

Facebook announced Monday that it will allow more access for third-party developers, a move designed to open the door to potential revenue streams and help it hold off social network rivals like Twitter However, there are fears that the network may instead lift the lid on a Pandora's Box full of personal information abuse....

Having developed Deep Blue, the supercomputer that famously beat out world chess champion Gary Kasparov back in 1997, IBM is now working on a computer built to compete in the TV quiz show "Jeopardy." It will use a system based on Question Answering, a computer science approach that tries to build software systems that can provide accurate, useful a...

Wireless may prove to be the magic bullet for many tech and telecom firms in this recession. Verizon's newly released earnings report is yet another indication of movement in that direction. The company reported higher revenue on Monday, based largely on growth in its wireless division, as well as its acquisition of Alltel Verizon reported net inco...

TO: Board of Directors of Apple, Inc. Mr. Tim Cook, Mr. Steve Jobs, Mr. William Campbell, Mr. Millard Drexler, Vice President Al Gore, Ms. Andrea Jung, Mr. Arthur Levinson, Mr. Eric Schmidt, Mr. Jerome York Board of Directors of AT&T, Inc. Mr. Randall Stephenson, Mr. William Aldinger, Mr. Gilbert Amelio, Mr. Reuben Anderson, Mr. James Blanchard, M...