Articles by

A new business advocacy group has launched in New Orleans -- a city that three years out from Hurricane Katrina is still trying to entice all of its former residents to move back home. Called "504ward," a play on the New Orleans' area code of 504, the group's main goal is to help the city attract and retain a key worker and consumer constituency: the 21-to-35 year old age group.

For TV networks, a presidential election isn't just a chance to report history-making news. With so many millions of people watching, it's also a chance to show off new technological toys. On Tuesday night, CNN unveiled its new psuedo-holographic imaging technique reminiscent of the "Star Wars" movies During its election night broadcast, the cable ...

With tough economic times upon us, it is more important than ever to maximize the effectiveness of search engine marketing (SEM) initiatives (defined as paid search, paid inclusion and search engine optimization) to drive both online and offline conversions. In September and October of 2008, Aberdeen surveyed over 200 organizations to unearth Best...

As the economy continues to decline, retailers are fighting a fierce battle for a share of the consumer's wallet. Every customer counts, but the loyal customers are particularly valuable, especially when your competitor is just a click away. The Web gives consumers access to far more options than were available in pre-Internet days, but even with ...

Multimedia infotainment devices are a hot seller in today's automotive market and can be the deciding factor in which vehicle a customer ultimately chooses. The automotive infotainment market has successfully navigated the initial wave of consumer devices invading the automobile, offering basic connectivity for consumer electronics (CE) in the passenger cabin...

Part 1 of this three-part series discusses the fuzziness -- or the flexibility, depending on one's point of view -- of the definition of "cloud computing." There have been a number of attempts to size the cloud computing market. The most eye-popping figure, arguably, is from Merrill Lynch. It has famously said that by 2011, the cloud computing mark...

The Federal Communications Commission gave its blessing to two large wireless deals Wednesday The larger of the two is Verizon Communications' US$28.1 billion buyout of Alltel; Verizon will pay $5.9 billion and assume $22.2 billion of Alltel's debt....

Despite dissent in some quarters of the television and cable broadcasting community, the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday voted to allow the use of open broadcast television spectrum to provide broadband data and other services to consumers and businesses However, the wireless devices needed to implement those services are not yet avail...

Research In Motion (RIM) and AT&T finally put the much-delayed BlackBerry Bold on store shelves Tuesday The device, aimed at corporate and business users, offers international wireless coverage with global 3G capabilities, built-in GPS, WiFi and access to thousands of services and applications available from AT&T's consumer and business application...

Search engine giant Google has walked away from a proposed ad-sharing deal with Internet portal Yahoo after the U.S. Department of Justice made it clear that it would seek to block the agreement in court Google's decision is a profound setback for Yahoo, which has struggled to maintain its share in the online advertising market. The proposed deal, ...

The Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) recently handed out its peer awards for the Pakistan IT industry. The awards provide an industry snapshot at a time when Pakistan has become the third most popular global IT outsourcing destination on RentACoder, an outsourcing marketplace. India and the U.S. are the top two outsourcing destinations ...

I have been operating in tired mode continuously since the conventions, and by the time you read this, I may have gotten some serious sleep, though I doubt it because this is Dreamforce week after all. There have been too many things competing for my attention after dinner each evening, and none of them resembles a good book or a client. In no particular order, the list includes the Red Sox, Patriots, Republicans and Democrats. ...

Simplify That, at its heart, is the purpose of XBRL -- extensible business reporting language. XBRL employs a common set of tags for financial terms, making reports more searchable and transparent to everyone who uses them....

Increasingly, consumers are connecting their stereos, plasma TVs, DVRs, PCs, laptops and gaming systems to intelligent entertainment systems designed to record, store and share media across devices throughout the home. As the home networking market continues to gain traction, what devices will they hook up next? Some home networks have begun incor...

Fujitsu debuted two updated models and an entirely new model in its LifeBook line of notebook computers Tuesday. The new U820 and P1630 are new versions of models the hardware maker released in 2007. The all-new LifeBook N7010 features two screens -- a traditional 16-inch wide display as well as a 4-inch color touchscreen situated near the keyboard...

The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a controversial proposal to open up vacant "white spaces" spectrum for unlicensed use for broadband Internet access. The vote is the culmination of an idea that was first proposed by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin more than four years ago. The proposal hit several speed bumps along t...

Search engine powerhouses Google and Yahoo have offered to significantly scale back the depth of their proposed online ad-sharing deal in an attempt to gain the approval of the U.S. Department of Justice, according to press reports The proposed deal, first announced last June, would allow Yahoo to display ads from Google and then take a portion of ...

You can't say you were not warned or that you had no idea of what was happening. The socialization of CRM took a big step forward on Monday when Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff told the keynote audience at Dreamforce 2008 in San Francisco that his company has developed technology that will integrate Facebook and Salesforce.com. Amazingly, despite...

Most retailers experience a downturn in a weak economy. As consumers rein in spending, a downturn is usually not distributed equally among all retailers. The extent of the downturn depends on a number of factors, including geographic location of stores, product categories being sold and specific market segments. In order to survive a tightening economic climate, retailers must focus on their short- and long-term objectives...

The competitive environment that characterizes today's broadband and value-added services landscape benefits the growth of many digital lifestyle products and services. Consumers are also primary beneficiaries of increased competition among carriers. Case studies reveal that when at least two service providers on relatively equal footing in terms of offerings are actively battling to acquire and retain customers, the end results tend to be 1) lower prices; 2) additional value-added offerings, and 3) improved customer support...