Matthew Hicks

Ask Jeeves Inc. on Tuesday became the latest search engine to embrace product searches as it unveiled a new search tool for its Ask.com site. With its product search, Ask Jeeves is trying to position its approach as more intuitive than approaches from top competitors Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. Yahoo in recent months relaunched […]

Sonexis Inc. on Monday announced a new version of its flagship audio and Web conferencing system that adds additional security capabilities and provides broader support for enterprise collaboration software. With ConferenceManager 4.0, Sonexis provides support for Secure Socket Layer (SSL) security so that any content shared during a Web conference is encrypted. Such encryption will […]

Discuss This in the eWEEK Forum Yahoo Inc. has begun dismantling its enterprise software group as part of a plan to merge functions of its corporate-oriented products—such as its enterprise instant messaging service—with the consumer side of the business, the company said on Friday. As a first step, the Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet company last week […]

Discuss This in the eWEEK Forum Microsoft Corp. has sought a possible takeover or partnership with Web search leader Google Inc., according to a report published on Friday in the New York Times. The Times reported, based on interviews with company executives and others, that Microsoft approached Google within the last two months but that […]

Discuss This in the eWEEK Forum SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Judging from the opinions of users gathered at this week OReilly Mac OS X Conference here, the recent release of Mac OS X Panther could help Apple Computer Inc. gain more Mac converts in the enterprise. Apple officials themselves have heralded the server version of Mac OS […]

Microsoft Corp. is revving the launch of new voice recognition software for handhelds and smart phones that will allow users to speak commands to access information and launch applications. The Redmond, Wash., software maker on Monday will release the Voice Command software, which works on devices using the Windows Mobile 2003 operating system, a company […]

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—A recent supercomputing coup for Apple Computer Inc. may help the computer maker make larger inroads into high-performance, scientific computing. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universitys supercomputer running 1,100 Apple Power Mac G5s and announced last month already is attracting the attention of other academic institutions and offers to build commercial clones, said […]

The World Wide Web Consortium is seeking a reexamination of a Web browser patent that it says threatens to undermine the smooth operation of the Web. The patent is at the heart of a legal wrangle between Eolas Technologies Inc., which holds a license to it from the University of California, and Microsoft Corp. Microsoft […]

AgentWays Software Inc. later this week will launch a client software product that will allow IM users to add security and management features to consumer IM services from the desktop. In a separate announcement, PushMessenger has unveiled its server software for allowing users to conduct multiple IM sessions on a range of wired and wireless […]

WebEx Communications Inc. on Thursday will launch the latest version of its main Web conferencing service that adds the ability to initiate meetings while working in other applications. The updated WebEx Meeting Center also includes a new note-taking panel and the automated delivery of meeting transcripts, presentations and shared documents as well as new multimedia […]

Adobe Systems Inc. is launching a new authoring tool for developing 3-D multimedia environments both for the Web and for its PDF files. Adobe Atmosphere, scheduled to be available on Nov. 19, allows Web designers and document creators to build interactive environments and scenes where users can navigate and interact with the multimedia content as […]

Propelled by its controversial SiteFinder service, VeriSign Inc. recorded the largest gain in visitors to its Web sites during the month of September. The number of unique visitors to VeriSigns sites, led primarily by its SiteFinder site that appears when users mistype a Web address or enter a non-existent one, jumped 540 percent in September […]