Michael Hickins

Verizon Communications  has heard the outcry loud and clear. The New York-based telco and broadband provider said today that it will no longer charge customers a controversial new fee to cover costs associated with providing DSL service to customers who do not also subscribe to Verizon’s traditional phone service. The surcharge was initially set at […]

The election of Google CEO Eric Schmidt to Apple’s board of directors isn’t surprising given the famously clubby relationship enjoyed by most Silicon Valley CEOs. Schmidt and Apple CEO Steve Jobs have known each other for many years, going back at least as far as when Jobs was CEO of Next, the company he founded […]

UPDATED:* Maybe it was back in 1999 when Google took its Web site out of beta. Or maybe it was in 2002, when the Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant launched the Google Search Appliance. Or perhaps it was when Google launched Gmail in 2004. If it’s none of the above, then surely, Google officially threw […]

Lycos is adding a new search capability that will allow users to search for video clips on the Web. The software uses audio and contextual clues to generate more effective search results than other video search engines on the Web, explained Lycos COO Brian Kalinowski. Kalinowski told internetnews.com that the video search offering fits into […]

There’s no longer any doubt that Google  intends to carve itself a niche on the desktop and beyond. Google announced today that it is offering hosted applications to rival Microsoft Live hosted software for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Google also hinted that it will offer other hosted applications to rival Microsoft’s  suite of productivity […]

According to an old saying, those who can’t teach, teach gym, and those who can’t teach gym work at the Department of Education (DoE). The agency suffered an embarrassing breach over the past weekend when a site used to reimburse student loans allowed unauthorized access to the personal data of tens of thousands of registered […]

Pioneering vendors of software-as-a-service (SaaS) have spent the better part of a decade defending their model against purveyors of traditional on-premise software. They have made their point, perhaps to their own chagrin. As the market for SaaS has opened up to enterprise-class customers and beyond customer relationship management (CRM) to a fuller array of solutions, […]

On the face of it, IBM’s $1.3 billion acquisition of ISS makes perfect sense. But deeper looks at ISS’s product lines and IBM’s customer base have some analysts questioning how well the entire company will fit into Big Blue’s own lines of business. IBM has long considered itself a major player in the security arena, […]

UPDATED: IBM  is bulking up security consulting services with its acquisition of Internet Security Services  in a $1.3 billion all-cash deal that values the Atlanta-based ISS at $28 per share. IBM said the deal would reinforce its position in the rapidly growing area of Managed Security Services and is an important addition to IBM’s security […]

UPDATED: Google might find it a bit harder to justify how much it charges for keywords. Two new solutions are hitting the market today that will help companies track the effectiveness of their search-driven, online marketing campaigns, even when prospects complete their transactions off-line. Both sets of solutions use link and cookie tracking that is […]

More companies than ever before see software-as-a-service (SaaS) in their futures. A new study from Aberdeen Group shows that companies of all sizes have begun adopting SaaS in order to get solutions implemented more quickly, achieve faster ROI and lower their IT costs. The study shows that businesses are also adopting SaaS for a greater […]

Cisco Systems agreed to pay $91.8 million to make a headache go away, but it doesn’t mark the end of Cisco’s legal woes. The headache was a suit, filed April 20, 2001, claiming Cisco, as well as current and former officers and directors, made misleading statements, or omitted statements of material fact that were relied […]