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[I]How come I can't let go? I'm between two worlds ~Tom Petty, Between Two Worlds[/I] As I watched vendors navigate the changing software world last week at [URL="http://www.e2conf.com/"]Enterprise 2.0 in Boston[/URL], it struck me that the old companies are trying desperately to hold onto to the markets they have dominated …

I hate bloggers and Twitter users that bandwagon something like the tragically early demise of Michael Jackson. This isn't the right platform for tributes even if I were his biggest fan anyway. Nonetheless, there is a lesson to be noted in terms of technology. The fact is that the Internet …

Over the years there has been plenty of [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20745/53/"]speculation regarding the sanity[/URL] of Steve 'Monkey Dancing' Ballmer, the Microsoft CEO. But what is it with Microsoft and this obsession to pursue the search supremacy dream at any cost? Sure, I know [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3327.html"]Ballmer has sworn to kill Google[/URL] before but the …

Speaking about consumer search [URL="http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/06/18/ballmer-we-should-have-built-search-sooner/"]last week[/URL], Steve Ballmer said he now regrets that Microsoft quote "didn't start earlier" unquote. But it seems to me that Microsoft has been all in for a long time and they just haven't been very successful at consumer search. It wasn't so much they gave …

One of the big rules of online advertising as I understand it is that you count success to a great extent based on how many people click through to your site. It's really the basis of how people get paid by Google for [URL="https://adwords.google.com/select/AdSenseLoginToAdWords"]Google AdSense[/URL]. If you get click-throughs you …

I've seen a lot of love for Microsoft's newly branded search engine, [URL="http://www.bing.com/"]Bing[/URL] lately and frankly I just don't get it. Bing landed a couple of weeks ago with a huge ad budget (as I wrote in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4372.html"]Microsoft Ad Wars Turn to Google[/URL]) and a big splash, but I've used …

[URL="http://blogs.forrester.com/information_management/2009/05/microsoft-office-still-owns-the-desktop.html"]Sherri McLeish from Forrester[/URL] reports that 80 percent of enterprise customers still use Microsoft Office. While this is down significantly from the 95 percent reported in this [URL="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_27/b3991412.htm"]2006 BusinessWeek article[/URL], it still makes me wonder why so many companies would continue to use Microsoft Office given the current economy and …

Have you bought a [URL="http://www.amazon.com"]Kindle[/URL] or Kindle 2 yet? Don't--at least not until you check out the [URL="http://www.coolreaders.com"]COOL-ER[/URL] ebook reader. It's about the same size and weight of a Kindle--so what makes it so much [I]cooler[/I] than the Kindle? It could be your choice of eight cool colors, its magical …

Just as British MPs line their pockets with taxpayer cash, just as Hollywood epics re-write history with happy endings, so Google was always going to want to compete with the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4111.html"]Wolfram Alpha[/URL] computational engine head on. And so it is that we get a sneak look at [URL="http://www.google.com/squared"]Google Squared[/URL] in …

This is interesting, as we are all used to reading about online resources being optimised for mobile devices. Take YouTube which has been successfully shrunk to fit the iPhone and other mobiles, but has now been writ large by way of a change. Google informs me that it has now …

The Google Android OS is coming to the Acer Aspire ONE netbook, and sooner than you might imagine. As a happy ONE owner myself, and a keen observer of all things Android, the news that it could be as soon as Q3 this year really pleases me. Jim Wong, President …

Lots of talk about [URL="http://wave.google.com/"]Google Wave[/URL] last week, but after reading five articles that all described it in a similar fashion, I still didn't quite get what all the fuss was about. Finally, at the behest of one of my [URL="http://twitter.com/CharJTF"]online friends[/URL] I looked at the first 40 minutes of …

It's never a dull moment when it comes to Google, Microsoft and Apple (which is why I write about them so much), and this week Google and Microsoft made some big announcements. For Google, it was [URL="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/went-walkabout-brought-back-google-wave.html"]Google Wave[/URL], an incredibly hyped new communications interface (more on that it in a …

[URL="http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=136847"]Ad Age reports[/URL] that Microsoft is ready to spend $80M to try and turn people's attention away from Google, the dominant search market leader, and toward Bing, Microsoft's latest search engine offering. Much like Microsoft's attempts last summer to prop up Vista, trying to turn consumers to a new product …

I have just been reading about the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4365.html"]YouTube Porn Day scandal[/URL] and it reminded me that I had been meaning to pass this little snippet of information on, direct from a YouTube Team Member and serving to illustrate just how popular the Google owned video clip sharing site has become. …

I am not a great fan of online translation services, or at least not the free variety which almost invariably end up making some huge gaffs. However, Google obviously likes the idea as it has been providing just such a tool for a while now in the shape of Google …

First let's deal with the big negative I've seen on a number of websites including the BBC: [URL="http://www.wolframalpha.com"]Wolfram Alpha[/URL] is American-centric. Well, yes, it kind of is. This will be because it's starting up and America is the biggest market it has to serve. Personally I find that understandable - …

It has not been the best of days for Google. First there were the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4339.html"]reports about Gumblar[/URL], a Google SERPs manipulation that is growing at an unprecedented rate. And now it seems that porn has been thrown into the Google mix, or at least into the Google Gadgets mix. I …

Recently Google has hit the headlines with [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4163.html"]concerns over privacy[/URL] courtesy of Street View mapping, plus [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4305.html"]allegations of trademark infringements[/URL] with the Android open source mobile phone OS. The latest headlines, though, look like returning to the heart of Google: the search engine. Google SERPs malware manipulation has hit new …

I was watching an ad the other day for Panasonic where it showed people watching YouTube on a big flat screen TV in the living room. Yet most people don't watch content from the web on TV, probably because it still takes a technical leap that's simply too difficult for …

[URL="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10234622-93.html"]Ms. Mayer went to Washington[/URL] the other day to defend Google against recent attacks that it is responsible for the ongoing problems of newspapers. Marissa Mayer, who is the Vice President, Search Products and User Experience at Google testified before a Senate sub-committee on '[URL="http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=7f8df1a5-5504-4f4c-ba34-ba3dc3955c61"]The Future of Journalism[/URL].' Not surprisingly …

The cheap Netbooks you see advertised at discount stores might not turn out to be so cheap after all. If you see a Netbook advertised at $100 or less, beware--it will end up costing you many times the regular price of $275-$400 USD. As I predicted in my post, "[URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4188.html"]Branded …

Last week we heard about the first Android-powered Netbook (which I wrote about in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4290.html"]First Android Netbook Nothing to Write Home About[/URL]). Then on Friday, analyst [URL="http://gartenblog.net/"]Michael Gartenberg[/URL], who is VP of Strategy at Interpret, and who writes frequently about consumer technology sent the following Tweet: [I]Is Android's future in …

Looks like Google could be in deep water, along with the Open Handset Alliance and some 40 or so companies, over an apparent trademark infringement. Now you might think that there had been some pretty heavyweight due diligence before Google and the OHA determined to call the open source mobile …

Last evening, my friend [URL="http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow"]Jason Perlow[/URL], IM'd me and told me to go to this [URL="http://download.cnet.com/Presto/3000-2094_4-10910300.html?tag=mncol"]link[/URL] and download a program called [URL="http://www.prestomypc.com"]Presto[/URL]. He had just returned from some "green" IT show in New York City and apparently had seen, or heard about, this Presto thing--a new Linux operating system that …

A new search engine, Wolfram Alpha, has gone into public beta. I say search engine but it's not quite that; it's a new concept that takes a question asked by the user, goes and has a look online and offers a proper answer in return rather than a series of …

The [I]New York Times[/I] is [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/technology/internet/29google.html?_r=1"]reporting[/URL] that the Justice Department is opening an antitrust investigation of Google’s settlement with authors and publishers over its Google Book Search service. In 2005, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers filed suit against Google, claiming that Google’s practice of scanning copyrighted …

The Android is about to take the leap from the cell phone to the netbook, and much like the first Android-powered cell phone, the first iteration is a bit of head-shaker. Instead of a dazzling showcase, it's underpowered and small, and although it has some interesting qualities, cost is going …

If you recall, on April 11, I wrote "[URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4227.html"]Linux Store Open for Business: A Fantastic Voyage[/URL]," where I told you that I wanted a Netbook for my anniversary. I also described my fantasy computer store where you select your computer, OS, other options and walk out happy. I had a …

The quarterly numbers are in the books for Google, Apple and Microsoft , and while Apple and Google made money, Microsoft failed to report a profit for the first time in 23 years as a public company. [B]Crazy Times, Crazy Results[/B] It seems unfathomable that Apple continued to do well …