Clint Boulton

LAS VEGAS-Should Facebook be banned from the workplace? That question formed the center of a debate between two analysts at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo 2008 here April 7 before an audience of about 100 people. Gartner analyst Nikos Drakos argued that Facebook should be banned, while Gartner’s Ray Valdes defended the social network. The debate […]

Jive Software launched a new version of its social collaboration platform, fortifying its social networking tools, adding project management utilities and blending on-premise with software as a service features. Released April 7, Clearspace 2.0 features expanded user profiles to make it easier to connect with colleagues and understand organizational relationships. The Portland, Ore., company said […]

Facebook is rolling out its first Chat application to let its nearly 68 million users ping each other in real time. The application, which the company will roll out slowly this week, is geared to provide a speedier communication mode than the popular social network’s Wall and Inbox. The approach echoes moves from Microsoft, Yahoo […]

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer lowered the boom on Yahoo April 5, telling the company that if the two companies can’t come to a decision regarding Microsoft’s $31 per share purchase offer within three weeks, it will take its offer directly to Yahoo’s shareholders. Ballmer offered the ultimatum, which signals the beginning of a proxy fight, […]

Google officials confirmed what many folks expected: The company’s bidding in the FCC’s 700 MHz wireless auction was a ploy to drive up the purchase price of the spectrum to ensure that the provisions for open devices and applications would be applied to the winner. Worked like a charm as we all now know: Verizon […]

Google officials confirmed what many folks expected: The company’s bidding in the FCC’s 700 MHz wireless auction was a ploy to drive up the purchase price of the spectrum to ensure that the provisions for open devices and applications would be applied to the winner. Worked like a charm as we all now know: Verizon […]

Facebook plays host to roughly 17,000 applications already, but this week it’s become the playground for new virtual worlds thanks to Vivaty. The startup March 31 began testing Vivaty Scenes, a browser-based widget users can download to construct their own three-dimensional virtual environment on their Facebook profile pages and invite friends to participate. Users can […]

Two interesting rumors about possible Google acquisitions have me rooting for one to happen and the other to vanish like an unwanted stepchild. First, TechCrunch is talking to people who claim Google is huddling with Skype over a possible acquisition or partnership. This makes perfect sense. The second is that Google is considering buying travel […]

Like a lot of Web 2.0 technologies, virtual reality has been slow to take off among enterprise customers, largely because of concerns that merry pranksters hacking the three-dimensional worlds for fun will disrupt online meetings, or wreak worse havoc. IBM and “Second Life” creator Linden Lab are looking to change that with a joint effort […]

The race for the socialized inbox is on. Xoopit went into private beta March 31 with its with a new personal media browser application that combs through the files, photos and videos floating in users’ Gmail cloud and lets users post content on other social networks and blogs. But the San Francisco startup is hardly […]