Tim Gray

Google’s smallest search appliance has beefed up and trimmed down at the same time. The company’s latest version of Google Mini, a search appliance designed for small and mid-size businesses, has doubled its capacity and reduced its price. That original Mini was optimized for up to 50,000 documents and costs $5000. The new product can […]

Online retail giant Amazon.com has acquired printing fulfillment company BookSurge, which maintains a catalog of thousands of book titles that users can print on demand. “Print-on-demand has changed the economics of small-quantity printing, making it possible for books with low and uncertain demand to be profitably produced,” Greg Greeley, vice president of media products for […]

Instant messaging bots are building steam in the online brokerage world. Conversagent, a developer of chat-based interactive customer service software, has hooked up with online broker HarrisDirect to launch a Customer Relationship Management bot called Automated Service Agent (ASA). Called “Ask Harrisdirect,” the chat application deploys a self-service customer service technology that replicates the contact […]

Security software firm Symantec was forced to issue patches for vulnerabilities found in some of its popular anti-virus products that could allow malicious hackers to use Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to crash systems running the software and disrupting automatic protection features. The company posted a notice on its Web page this week that described […]

Online auction giant eBay won the latest round in its patent infringement fight with MercExchange Tuesday when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office handed down a ruling that could invalidate one of the Virginia-based company’s patents. If the action is upheld it would invalidate the patent that led to a $25 million judgment against eBay. […]

The University of California, Berkeley, is the latest institution of higher leaning to report a computer security breach where the sensitive personal data of tens of thousands of people may have been compromised. However, this time the thief opted for a more conventional manor in which to pilfer: by swiping a laptop containing the information […]

Microsoft officials said they have agreed to a number of changes requested by the European Commission relating to the design and description of its version of Windows without media player. Redmond will adhere to several major technical alterations to its media player, including changes to “registry settings” and the removal of references in product documents […]

The recent rash of personal data thefts may be keeping data brokers on their toes, but other industries could stand to improve their policies when it comes to keeping your sensitive information secure, a new report finds. Financial services firms, retailers and insurance companies rated as the worst offenders in the loose-with-data category, according to […]

Global telecommunications providers and network operators have linked to form perhaps the first large-scale alliance designed to combat the increasing scourge of Internet attacks. Arbor Networks, a Lexington, Mass.-based network security firm, today announced the Fingerprint Sharing Alliance, an initiative comprised of global communications service providers committed to helping network operators share Internet attack information […]

As eBay prepares to celebrate its 10th anniversary, the Internet giant is having perhaps its roughest stretch since the company founder launched the site as a way to help his wife trade Pez dispensers. For several months now, eBay sellers have aired a laundry list of complaints, from an increase in fraud to the reduced […]

Yahoo took another step toward fulfilling a promise to make its portal a platform where communities develop, rather than a stagnant site limited to serving information. The latest feature, released Thursday as a beta, allows users to search content hosted by Creative Commons, a nonprofit group that specializes in copyrighting material made available for limited […]

Symantec on Wednesday announced the latest wrinkle in its e-mail security program. The computer security software vendor launched Hosted Mail Security, a comprehensive set of services designed to protect businesses against spam and viruses. The anti-spam and anti-virus technologies within the offering provide server-based software, gateway appliances and software protection, according to the company. “Multiple […]