Clint Boulton

Google Morphs into Topeka, One of Many April Fools Day 2010 Gags by Clint Boulton Not Google, Topeka Now, this is a more than a little cheesy, but the gist of the riff is this: Topeka Kansas Mayor Bill Bunten renamed Topeka “Google” to cozy up to the search giant over Google’s broadband initiative. We […]

Facebook confirmed that users will soon be able to join member brand pages by clicking “like,” arguing that users are universally more comfortable with the expression than the current “become a fan” option. This change will roll out in April on Facebook Pages, those Facebook accounts brands, celebrities, athletes and others use to promote themselves […]

SAP March 30 renamed its real-time collaboration platform StreamWork and is offering it free with limited storage or for $9 per user, per month, with more storage and security features. StreamWork, profiled by eWEEK in February when it was launched as a public beta under the name 12Sprints, is a Web-based platform that includes instant […]

The Yale Daily News scored a nice piece of local info that warrants some speculation about whether Google’s recent moves versus China are adversely affecting its collaboration software business. Apparently, the Ivy League school has decided to postpone a move from the Horde Webmail service to Google Apps for Education, the suite of e-mail, word […]

Twitter March 30 began surfacing tweets on its homepage in real time, a redesign of its front door that better reflects the frenetic pace of information sharing on the microblogging site. When prospective users or existing users who are signed out visit Twitter.com, they will see a live ticker-type scroll of trending topics on Twitter. […]

Google’s Postini e-mail security team March 31 unveiled Dual Delivery, an IT administration feature for Google Message Security that supports migration to a new e-mail service and backs up each message in the process. Google Message Security, which helps prevent spam and viruses before they hit servers, is available at no extra charge in Google […]

Google blamed blockages of searches on its Google.hk Website in China on a change in that country’s firewall censors, the latest issue involving the search engine’s move to reroute users to Google.hk to avoid censorship in that country. People searching Google in China March 30 reported that Google.hk was inaccessible. Searches on any topic, including […]

If Google is really planning to roll out a version of Android that mitigates the gross fragmentation issue among smartphones based on that operating system, the company is keeping it to itself. Google declined to comment on a report from Engadget that it was considering a move to make applications and components normally integrated on […]

Where have all the Google Buzzers (or is it Buzzees) gone? New research from Chitika and Google’s own insights tool show that Google Buzz, the controversial social network app, has quieted down since its Feb. 9 launch and subsequent privacy brouhaha. Upon launch, the Chitika network saw some 1,500 searches for the term “Google Buzz,” […]

LinkedIn March 29 released LinkedIn for BlackBerry 1.0, an application that brings the leading professional social network to users of the leading smartphone for corporate workers who need to access their contacts from the road. LinkedIn for BlackBerry lets BlackBerry Tour, Bold and Curve users do on their smartphones most of what they can already […]

Facebook March 29 said advertising is not the motivation behind proposed changes to its privacy policy that would let trusted third-party Websites access users’ Facebook data without prior consent. Currently, people who use applications that connect to Facebook from Facebook Connect can find and interact with their friends. These connections require basic information about users, […]

Social networks such as Facebook as well as several programs for communications and collaboration are being used in enterprises to a great degree, with 22 Google applications showing particularly strong usage, according to research from a network security firm. Palo Alto Networks surveyed use of 750 applications across 347 organizations for its fifth Application Usage […]