Clint Boulton

Here is what I love about covering Google. Google will tell you until it’s blue in the face that its Google Apps doesn’t compete with Microsoft Office or SharePoint applications because Apps is geared toward collaboration while Microsoft focuses on productivity. What?! People collaborate to be more productive. Sarcasm aside, Apps naysayers (and they do […]

Yahoo said that Microsoft’s $44.6 billion bid to acquire it has spawned seven class-action lawsuits from shareholders claiming the Internet company breached fiduciary duty by rejecting the offer. The company also acknowledged in its annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission Feb. 27 that Microsoft’s bid has created a distraction for Yahoo’s management and […]

Since Facebook opened up its developer platform nearly a year ago, analysts have been asking when applications that derive some sort of business value will appear on the site, a departure from the digital sheep-throwing and electronic food fights. Equals has taken the conversation a step further with Party Line, an application that lets Facebook […]

Things are heating up at LinkedIn. Four days after launching a mobile version of its professional networking service, LinkedIn Feb. 28 launched a home page with a new “status” feature that relays activities to users’ networks. In the Internet version of a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Microsoft is taking over the LinkedIn home page as the premier […]

Google acquired wiki software maker JotSpot in October 2006 and the world has since been waiting for Google to rationalize JotSpot’s assets and put them in front of the public. The wait is over. Google Feb. 28 introduced Google Sites, a free wiki application that lets users with little or no technical know-how create a […]

Oh how we hang on a few stats and rush to wring our hands when the golden goose appears to lay too few eggs. Numerous media outlets are covering comScore’s Monday report that clicks on Google’s paid search links fell 7.5 percent from December 2007 to January. Reporters did the same when IDC two weeks […]

In a technology move that underscores why Microsoft covets Yahoo, the Internet company on Feb. 26 introduced a feature that measures consumer votes and search patterns to identify the most pertinent stories and videos from news sources and blogs on the Web. Similar to social news aggregators such as Digg, top-rated content is then given […]

When rumors surfaced last fall that Google and a handful of companies were planning to create a submarine fiber-optic cable to pipe data across the Pacific Ocean, some took it as proof that Google was getting into the telecommunications business to support its rumored phone. Now the truth is out: Google and five telco companies […]

There is an interesting tug of war brewing between Google and the European Commission’s data protection working party, also known as the Article 29 WP. Google has long held that IP addresses do not count as personally identifiable information, mostly because IP addresses for most peoples’ personal computers are shifted around based on need, much […]

In the course of covering the evolution of collaboration software, some bloggers are tracking “wiki moments,” ideas that start as seeds and germinate into big bouquets of contemplation and collaboration. Burton Group analyst Mike Gotta said a wiki moment can start when a user comes across a confusing issue and can’t find the right insight […]