Archives: March 2007

More from Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, on whether Google is too powerful

Posted by: Peter Burrows on March 30, Categories: Google

Google is winning today, but they might lose it tomorrow...Unlike other companies in the past, they can’t assume success based on bundling or tying or creating a walled garden of some sort. That’s not their business model.

Is This The Vonage Work-Around?

Posted by: Olga Kharif on March 29, Categories: VOIP

A company called VoIP just announced an agreement to provide services to Vonage's domestic customers. Could this be the work-around around Verizon's technology that Vonage had talked about for weeks?

Is Google Too Powerful?

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 29, Categories: Google, Search, startups, tech's future

That's what the BW cover story this week is asking--or more accurately, my story examines the deeper meaning behind complaints about Google's power and influence online. Those complaints are...

Help with a story

Posted by: Steve Hamm on March 29, Categories: Web 2.0

Hey! I need help finding powerful examples of corporations trying to capitalize on the social networking/Web 2.0 craze in really icky and obnoxious ways. Please send your nominees to me...

Muni Wi-Fi: Not As Good As It Gets

Posted by: Olga Kharif on March 28, Categories: wireless

Most cities' Wi-Fi networks aren't up to snuff, independent research shows. The networks don't perform well, and don't even offer some basic services, like voice, that cities have set them up for in the first place.

The Phone That Wasn't There

Posted by: Stephen Wildstrom on March 28, Categories: Apple Computer

With a general dearth of exciting new products to talk about at the CTIA Wireless show, much of the buzz in Orlando concerned the product that isn't here--Apple's forthcoming iPhone....

Michael Powell's other new board seat: CMWare

Posted by: Peter Burrows on March 28, Categories: Placeshifting

Former FCC chairman Michael Powell made some news the other day, with the announcement that he'd joined the board of directors of networking giant Cisco Systems. It turns out Cisco...

Rackable Goes Mobile. Does Two Make a Trend?

Posted by: Peter Burrows on March 26, Categories: Data Centers

Go to Sun.com today, and one of the revolving lead articles is "Project BlackBox Goes on Tour". Project Blackbox, of course, is Sun's data-center-in-a-shipping-container, that drew much interest when it...

Vonage Injunction: Now Wait a Minute (Weeks, That Is)

Posted by: Olga Kharif on March 23, Categories: VOIP

Vonage just got slapped with an injunction in its legal battle with Verizon. A judge will rule on whether to stay the injunction or not in the next two weeks. But even if the judge does not grant a stay, Vonage may have more time to come up with a work-around around Verizon's technology.

Will the Studios' YouTube Killer Fly?

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 22, Categories: Google, TV, YouTube, digital media, video

It looks like the long-rumored alternative to YouTube will actually happen, as NBC Universal and News Corp. team to provide TV show clips and even full-length movies to a new...

Apple TV and the Law

Posted by: Stephen Wildstrom on March 22, Categories: Apple Computer

Many posters commenting on my review of Apple TV have taken me to task for understating the varieties of video content that Apple TV can play. I have two replies,...

Web 2.0 Is So 2006

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 20, Categories: Web 2.0

Peter Rip at Crosslink Partners wonders if Web 2.0 has run its course. Or at least the popular buzz about it. He writes: The apogee of this Web 2.0 hit...

Google Moves Beyond Pay-Per-Click Ads

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 20, Categories: Google, advertising

Google just announced that it's testing what it call Pay-Per-Action ads. Basically, advertisers will pay not for every click, as they do now, but only when someone buys something, fills...

Webcasters vs. CRB: Chapter 2

Posted by: Olga Kharif on March 20, Categories: Web radio

Clear Channel and NPR have asked the Copyright Royalty Board to reconsider its decision to impose higher fees on Webcasters playing music. Now, it looks like the board might reconsider its decision.

PS3 Saves the World?

Posted by: Cliff Edwards on March 15, Categories: high performance computing

OK, you may not exactly save the world with Sony's newest game console (unless you've mastered Resistance: Fall of Man) but there are ways to help. Sony Computer Entertainment America...

Cisco buys Web-Ex. Who knows what's next?

Posted by: Peter Burrows on March 15, Categories: Cisco

If Cisco is willing to take on Microsoft in the web-conferencing space, what could be next?

What Did Cisco's $3.2 Billion for WebEx Buy?

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 15, Categories: Cisco, WebEx, telecom, video

Following the deal announced by Cisco for the Web conferencing service, here are the candidates: 1) A channel for its cool telepresence system, according to Sean Ness. 2) A pig...

Google Logs New Data Privacy Policy

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 14, Categories: Google, Privacy, Search

Google and other online services have long been criticized for collecting unimaginable amounts of data on its users, such as what they've searched for. And many of them keep that...

TellMe's Long Journey to Redmond

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 14, Categories: Microsoft, TellMe, telecom

TellMe Networks has to be one of the longest-running IPO candidates ever. Now, it's going to be part of Microsoft. I hope it doesn't get buried inside the colossus, because...

Where Are the Flying Cars and Digital Watermarks?

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 14, Categories: Google, YouTube, copyright, video

I talked with a copyright lawyer, Gregory Rutchik of The Arts and Technology Law Group in San Francisco, today about the Viacom lawsuit against Google and YouTube. His main question:...

mSpot Remix: A Threat to Music Phones, iPods Everywhere?

Posted by: Olga Kharif on March 13, Categories: wireless

mSpot just launched Remix, an application allowing users to access and listen to their music libraries, stored on their home PCs, via mobile phones. If it takes off, this application could become a serious competitor to iPods and music phones.

Viacom Brings the Hammer Down On YouTube

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 13, Categories: Google, YouTube, copyright, video

OK, so now Viacom's really serious. It's suing Google and its YouTube unit for $1 billion. Clearly, this is a negotiating tactic, since it seems unlikely Viacom could reasonably expect...

Report from the Daylight Time Trenches

Posted by: Stephen Wildstrom on March 12, Categories: Curmudgeonly

It took more effort than it should have, but when Sunday arrived with its three-weeks-early switch to daylight savings time, everything sprang forward as it should have, with only insignificant...

All You Wanted to Know About Wikis for Work

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 12, Categories: Wiki

... you can find in BWOnline's CEO's Guide to wikis....

Divvio: Not your average Web 2.0 start-up

Posted by: Peter Burrows on March 09, Categories: Web 2.0

Eslambolchi is about as far from the “grad student with lots of friends that like his cool idea” as it is possible to be.

Turns out this backdating stuff ain't so black and white to the SEC. Now, about the business press...

Posted by: Peter Burrows on March 09, Categories:

There was more evidence today that the options backdating scandal is changing—in ways that make it all seem just a bit less scandalous....

AT&T: More Hot Spots Than T-Mobile

Posted by: Olga Kharif on March 08, Categories: wireless

Turns out, AT&T has twice as many hotspots now as T-Mobile. With its Web TV and new wireless offerings added into the mix, I have to say that AT&T has done a good job reinventing itself.

What's Up With Microsoft's Attack on Google?

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 06, Categories: Google, Microsoft, YouTube, copyright

That's the question roiling the blogosphere today, following a speech today (masterfully leaked in advance for maximum publicity) by a Microsoft lawyer to the Association of American Publishers, slamming Google's...

Clearwire IPO: Not As Hot?

Posted by: Olga Kharif on March 06, Categories: IPOs

Clearwire is expected to go public this week. But while it's still one of the most anticipated IPOs around, the WiMax service provider is no longer viewed as the belle of the ball.