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Google Instant Stirs Advertisers' Fear and LoathingGoogle has introduced a change to its search offerings -- a new feature called "Google Instant" -- that has online advertisers wringing their hands over its implications. Google Instant lets users see results as they're typing a query. Each letter and word triggers its own predictive search. The user doesn't even have to hit the enter key anymore.
ecommercetimes.com | 09-Sep-2010 22:45
Choosing Your Favorite Smartphone Flavor
I love smartphones, but I have not found the perfect one yet. I have tried countless devices for years. I come close, but I've never settled on the perfect phone -- and trust me, I have tried many. The good news is there are many great features to choose from. The bad news is they are all on different devices. Trying to find one device with all the features you love seems to be an impossible task.
ecommercetimes.com | 09-Sep-2010 14:00
Is It CRM Time Yet?
If you're in the CRM industry, you may have a slightly skewed view of the world when it comes to CRM penetration. Many of my peers, when they hear about a company that still uses a home-brew system to manage sales, marketing and service, are aghast. With hundreds of applications out there and thousands of man-years of thought behind it, how can a business remain without a formal CRM application?
ecommercetimes.com | 09-Sep-2010 14:00
Salesforce.com Spreads Chatter to Mobile Devices
Salesforce.com has announced it is making its social tool Chatter available for mobile devices within the next several months. Chatter is a real-time social collaboration application and platform for the enterprise, allowing employees to create profiles, and send feeds and status updates about projects, account and clients.
ecommercetimes.com | 08-Sep-2010 22:30
Ruling Tosses Location Privacy Issues Deeper Into the Gray
A federal appeals court has ruled that prosecutors may need to get warrants to access cellphone location data. The decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Justice Department's argument that the Stored Communications Act requires judges to issue orders for access to such data whenever prosecutors show that it would be material and relevant to an ongoing investigation.
ecommercetimes.com | 08-Sep-2010 21:04
AAPL May Yield a Bumper Crop This Fall
Though it may be some time before AAPL shares again reach the record-setting heights they saw last June, they appear to have made modest gains over the last week. Shares closed Tuesday at US$257.81, down 96 cents for the day but up about $10 since Sept. 1. Meanwhile, Sony has demoed a prototype Google TV at the IFA 2010 consumer electronics show in Berlin.
ecommercetimes.com | 08-Sep-2010 14:00
Counting Your Negatives
Back in August I wrote about some research I had gotten into mostly for fun. You might recall it. I searched on a company name and the word "sucks" and reported what I found. The point of the research was not to be salacious or to offend anyone. In political circles, it's known as discovering one's "negatives" -- here's how it works.
ecommercetimes.com | 08-Sep-2010 14:00
US Law Against Online Gambling Makes It the Biggest Loser
In 2006, the U.S. enacted the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which outlawed Internet gambling and restricted how financial institutions could pay monies to Internet gambling sites. The UIGEA resulted from four major policy concerns of the federal government.
ecommercetimes.com | 08-Sep-2010 14:00
Sparks Already Flying as Oracle Brings Hurd Into Fold
Mark Hurd, the former CEO of HP who resigned in disgrace last month, has joined Oracle as co-president. At the same time, Charles Phillips, co-president and a member of Oracle's board of directors, has resigned. Hurd will serve alongside Co-President Safra Catz. Wall Street investors are excited about the move: Oracle's shares were up by 5 percent on Monday morning following the news.
ecommercetimes.com | 07-Sep-2010 21:24
E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of August 30, 2010
Under attack on a number of fronts, Craigslist has shut down its adult services advertising section. At least one escort referral service is pleased with the move but the change has pros and cons. Each weekend, E-Commerce Law Briefs provides a brief summary and commentary on recent legal news affecting...
E-Commerce Law | 07-Sep-2010 17:51
VMworld: 7 Years Without a Glitch
First a caveat: As part of my work, I attend a lot of IT vendor conferences and high-tech trade shows. Objectively speaking, most shows provide the means to literally and figuratively peek under the hood of usually interesting, sometimes intriguing vendor products and solutions. But conferences also provide an ideal opportunity to consider how much buzz a given vendor or technology is generating.
ecommercetimes.com | 07-Sep-2010 14:00
Teaching Sales and Web Strategies to Sing in Harmony
Consider the left hand of sales methodology and the right hand of digital strategy. It's 2010 and the two hands still do not know what the other is up to. Even with the most advanced of our clients, the digital strategy is focused on lead generation, awareness and a bevy of other activities aimed at the top portion of the sales funnel, traditionally owned by marketing.
ecommercetimes.com | 07-Sep-2010 14:00
Building a Cloud Businesses Will Actually Want to Use
We've assembled a panel to examine the business impact of cloud computing, to explore practical implementations of cloud models, and to move beyond the hype and into gaining business paybacks from successful cloud adoption. Coming to you from The Open Group Conference in Boston, the panel tackles such issues as what stands in the way of cloud use, safe and low-risk cloud computing, and working around inhibitors to cloud use.
ecommercetimes.com | 04-Sep-2010 14:00
HP's Wallet-Busting Win
The insane tug-of-war between Dell and HP for enterprise storage company 3Par has finally drawn to a close. We have a winner, if you want to call it that -- the final sale price is more than double the figure Dell initially put forward when it announced its intentions to buy 3Par a couple weeks ago, so who knows how much of that is real value and how much is just financial one-upsmanship.
ecommercetimes.com | 03-Sep-2010 18:58
Marketers, Let's Get Personal
On Aug. 13, IBM and Unica Corporation announced they had entered into a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire Unica, a leading provider of marketing software solutions that focuses on streamlining marketing program development, execution and management to achieve improved marketing effectiveness.
ecommercetimes.com | 03-Sep-2010 14:00
Making Change Happen Every Day: Q&A With GSA's David McClure
The U.S. government spends $80 billion annually on information technology. The U.S. General Services Administration is directly involved in nearly 25 percent of federal IT procurement activities through its Schedule 70 acquisition program, including nearly $9 billion directly for information technology investments. GSA has emerged as a leader in guiding federal investments for information technology.
ecommercetimes.com | 03-Sep-2010 14:00
3Par Sale Frenzy Ends With HP the Presumed Winner
HP has won the bidding war it waged with Dell for data-storage company 3Par, whose shares were trading at $9.65 when Dell first tried to acquire it in mid-August. Dell decided not to match HP's $2.4 billion ($33 per share) offer, which topped Dell's bid of $32 per share. Dell first tried to acquire 3Par with an $18 per share offer on August 16, which 3Par initially accepted.
ecommercetimes.com | 02-Sep-2010 20:29
Intel, Infineon and the Winds of Change
Intel has focused solely on the computer business for so long, we forget it can pursue other avenues of growth as well. Tomorrow, all our devices will be connected and talk to each other and share information. In that new world, Intel has been looking around for another business to acquire to help expand its reach, and it chose Infineon.
ecommercetimes.com | 02-Sep-2010 14:00
Do E-Readers Spell the End of Print Media?
Recently, library chief Helen Josephine of Stanford University's Engineering Library said that the students' search through volumes of books to get to a formula that they want is basically at an end because "with books being digitized and available through full text search capabilities, they can find that formula quite easily."
ecommercetimes.com | 02-Sep-2010 14:00
How to Build a Better Business Blog
About the easiest way for companies to dip their toes into the social media waters is the blog. There are few technical burdens to setting them up, the time needed to create posts can flex with the workloads of the assigned writers, and they can become a conduit for customer conversations through the comments section. So every business is leaping eagerly into blogging. Right? Well, not exactly.
ecommercetimes.com | 02-Sep-2010 14:00
In iTunes, All App Reviews Are Not Created Equal
I like walled gardens. They are safe and, for the most part, keep out the predators. However, when one sneaks over the wall, the results can be ugly, to say the least. With the iTunes App Store, one of the key supposed advantages for end-users is that it is a walled garden, and Apple is providing a safe, secure environment you can trust in.
ecommercetimes.com | 02-Sep-2010 14:00
Sony's New Touchscreen Readers Unlikely to Shake Up Market
Sony has updated its e-reader family of devices: the Reader Pocket, Reader Touch and Reader Daily. The new Readers offer touchscreen functionality based on infrared sensors that read taps made by a finger or a stylus. They are smaller and lighter, and have redesigned user interfaces.
ecommercetimes.com | 01-Sep-2010 21:30
VRM's Missing Ingredient
I spent an interesting day at Harvard Law School last week at the invitation of Doc Searls for a conference on the intersection of CRM and VRM, or vendor relationship management. Doc's involved with the Berkman Center at Harvard, which sponsors research into issues of law and the Internet, among other things.
ecommercetimes.com | 01-Sep-2010 14:00
Will Wednesday's Big Show Put More Spring in AAPL's Step?
Shares of Apple closed up 60 cents on Tuesday to hit $243.10. However, Cupertino is still smarting from the downward spiral of the past few weeks, when its stocks took a beating along with the rest of the market. The Dow on Tuesday recovered a fraction of what it lost after a Monday drubbing, and the Nasdaq fell nearly six points.
ecommercetimes.com | 01-Sep-2010 14:00
Meeting the Application Virtualization Challenge
Delivering and managing IT continues to be complex. Application demand continues to grow, while the maintenance and support of old applications, as well as the processes involved with new applications, lead to a frustrating user experience and constraints on flexibility and business agility.
ecommercetimes.com | 01-Sep-2010 14:00
VMware Buys Parts for Its 'Virtual Giant'
VMware on Tuesday announced two purchases aimed at furthering its vision of the future of IT. One is Integrien, which offers software that -performs real=time application and infrastructure performance analysis. The other is TriCipher, which offers secure access management and enterprise identity federation for Software as a Service applications.
ecommercetimes.com | 31-Aug-2010 21:26
What Sort of Game Is Google Playing?
Google continued its shopping spree through the social networking marketplace on Monday, agreeing to purchase SocialDeck, a 2-year-old company that develops games for mobile devices. This marks Google's third purchase of a social networking company during the month of August. These purchases have fueled widespread speculation that Google ultimately hopes to unseat Facebook.
ecommercetimes.com | 31-Aug-2010 19:35
Interacting With the Connected Customer: Don't Forget the Cake
I was at a friend's dual celebration of birthday and wedding anniversary recently, and as part of the occasion someone had prepared two fantastic cakes, which were both amazing to behold and a delight to eat. While the appearance was all to do with the icing, the taste and nutrition were defined by what was under the icing -- the cake itself.
ecommercetimes.com | 31-Aug-2010 14:00
Corporate America's Cruel Linux Hoax
Corporate America is playing a cruel joke on Linux desktop. Businesses benefit from free Linux, improving their bottom line on the shoulders of Linux -- all the while ignoring (and damaging I think) the Linux desktop. Linux servers toil in back rooms bringing big bucks to companies smart enough to use them. What do these companies install on their employees' desktops? Windows, of course!
ecommercetimes.com | 31-Aug-2010 14:00
Compliance vs. Security: Which Should Lead Corporate Governance?
As companies battered by the recession have begun emerging from their cautionary stances, many are re-evaluating their IT security budgets and looking to solve the age-old question: "What should drive our strategy, security or compliance?" Now is the perfect time for companies to consider the right approach to an important component of their IT security strategy with the goal of meeting security and compliance objectives.
ecommercetimes.com | 31-Aug-2010 14:00
Intel to Bolster Mobile Ambitions With $1.4B Infineon Buy
Intel is acquiring Infineon's wireless business for $1.4 billion -- the second major transaction for the company in as many weeks, coming on the heels of its surprising announcement that it would purchase McAfee for $7.7 billion. Unlike the McAfee deal, however, the Infineon buy does not have analysts scratching their heads.
ecommercetimes.com | 30-Aug-2010 20:33
E-Commerce Briefs: Week of August 23, 2010
The Washington Post discusses net neutrality and how the FCC can best regulate the Internet. Google has added phone calling to Gmail. It seems that everyone has published a list of the "best" iPhone or iPad apps. In fact, we published a list of a dozen iPhone apps for attorneys...
E-Commerce Law | 30-Aug-2010 15:55
Anything Desktop Salesforce Can Do, Mobile Salesforce Can Do Better?
Salesforce.com is a top provider of CRM software in large part because its application is intuitive and easy to use and deploy. It is interesting, therefore, that many Salesforce.com users are opting for Salesforce.com Mobile because it is even easier and more intuitive to use than the desktop version, according to the company.
ecommercetimes.com | 30-Aug-2010 14:00
The Secret of E-Commerce Success: Many Channels, One Brand
Not very long ago, both social media and e-commerce were new and innovative. Now, they're simply elements of today's marketing mix -- part of the fabric of how you reach your customer engagement and revenue objectives. During the slow economic recovery, it has become business-critical to conduct more business using digital channels: websites, social media and email.
ecommercetimes.com | 30-Aug-2010 14:00
Mobile Operators, the App Parade Is Passing You By
iPod, iPhone, iPad and soon we will have iCloud? Mobile operators are working feverishly to determine how best to tap their network resources and offer not just bits and bytes but content, applications and other forms of value-added services. They know their future cash flow depends on successful deployment of these services. Time is still on their side.
ecommercetimes.com | 28-Aug-2010 14:00
3Par Excellence: Why HP and Dell May Fight to the Finish
HP is proving relentless in its bidding war with Dell over data storage company 3Par. Within hours after Dell matched HP's offer of $1.8 billion, HP countered with $2 billion. Where the bidding will go from here is anyone's guess. "Maybe they could just have a duel at dawn," suggested Enterprise Strategy Group analyst Mark Peters.
ecommercetimes.com | 27-Aug-2010 22:56
The DMCA Ruckus: Lots of Gnashing, No Teeth
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act -- enacted in the waning days of the 20th century -- contains provisions designed to make it evolve over time. The idea was that as technology fostered new ways of creating and distributing copyrighted material such as music, movies and software programs, the law could continue striking the proper balance between the consumers' and producers' rights.
ecommercetimes.com | 27-Aug-2010 14:00
Dell Cuts In on HP at the 3Par-ty
It has been a roller-coaster week for 3Par, a company whose shares were trading at $9.65 when Dell first tried to acquire it in mid-August, with no sign that the ride will be ending any time soon. Since that event, HP made a counteroffer, which Dell has now topped -- but only slightly.
ecommercetimes.com | 26-Aug-2010 21:54
Why Amazon's Cagey About Kindle Sales
Amazon says the latest version of its Kindle e-reader -- which began shipping to customers on Tuesday -- is outselling all of its predecessors. The company also says the Kindle has been the hottest-selling item on the Amazon site for the past two years. It's difficult to put those statements into any meaningful context, however, since Amazon has never said exactly how many Kindles it has sold.
ecommercetimes.com | 26-Aug-2010 20:24
Residing in Tennessee But Visiting an Oklahoma Company's Website Can Subject You to Personal Jurisdiction in Oklahoma
On August 6, 2010, the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma denied a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction where the defendants, who were based out of Tennessee, stole storm shelter website designs from the plaintiffs, who were based out of Oklahoma. In determining...
E-Commerce Law | 26-Aug-2010 16:40
Telecom and Wireless in 5 Years: Who Will Lead and Who Will Follow?
This is one of the times of the year that wireless and telecom CEOs invite me to speak at an upcoming meeting of directors or executives or employees or customers. Over the years, I have learned they have one of the toughest jobs. First, they have to accurately see the changing industry. Second, they have to understand how their company must change. Third, they must bring everyone else up to speed.
ecommercetimes.com | 26-Aug-2010 14:00
Analytics and Social CRM: Parallel Evolution?
Social CRM has earned widespread appreciation as a real business tool. It's no longer an idea or a theory or a hunch. However, it's still a new idea, and many are approaching it with trepidation because its impact on the bottom line is not yet well understood. I don't believe there's a single set of best practices for succeeding in Social CRM.
ecommercetimes.com | 26-Aug-2010 14:00
Can Apple Make It Big in Television?
Apple is reportedly negotiating with some major entertainment companies for television content consumers can lease to watch on Apple TV for 99 US cents a pop. These deals might give Apple TV users access to some of their favorite TV shows and would help drive the sales of Apple TVs, iPod touches, iPads and iPhones. The content will be leased through the iTunes store.
ecommercetimes.com | 25-Aug-2010 23:52
Google Adds Another Brick to Its Communications Monolith
Google has rolled out a new service that allows Gmail account holders to make voice calls to any traditional phone number from their Gmail account. It will require the installation of a voice and video plug-in, but users won't need to have a special phone number assigned to them.
ecommercetimes.com | 25-Aug-2010 21:18
RIM Widens Its App World With Cellmania Buy
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has purchased Cellmania, whose products drive mobile ecosystems for mobile operators, infrastructure providers and content operators. "Cellmania has joined RIM and is bringing their expertise in application storefront development to the BlackBerry platform," Marisa Conway, of RIM's public relations agency Brodeur Partners, told the E-Commerce Times.
ecommercetimes.com | 25-Aug-2010 20:21
Roger Clemens, Defamation, and Personal Jurisdiction for Interviews Given in Foreign Jurisdictions
On August 12, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a defamation action brought by controversial major league baseball pitcher Roger Clemens against his former trainer, Brian McNamee. The action was dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction. The original judgment was issued...
E-Commerce Law | 25-Aug-2010 18:45