Nicholas Kolakowski

Oracle‘s April 20 purchase of Sun Microsystems, in a deal worth $7.4 billion, is but the latest in the company’s long line of acquisitions. In 2009 alone, Oracle has initiated a round of buyouts that included mValent, a group that produces configuration management solutions, and Relsys International, which develops drug safety and risk management solutions. […]

Twitter, the popular microblogging site that lets users post “tweets” of 140 characters or less, has hit a new milestone: Actor Ashton Kutcher became, at 2:13 a.m. ET on April 17, the first Twitter user to have 1 million “followers” attached to their account. Kutcher beat CNN, with whom he was publicly racing to hit […]

Google CEO Eric Schmidt discussed Twitter during the search engine giant’s April 16 earnings call. The popular microblogging site, which lets users post 140-character “tweets” about their status in real time, was rumored to be in Google’s acquisition crosshairs earlier this month. “I think Twitter proves that innovation is alive and well in Silicon Valley, […]

Google executives used the company’s April 16 earnings call as a chance to talk about the expansion of Google Android, their open-source operating system for mobile devices, onto mini-notebooks, known popularly as “netbooks.” News has been flying for weeks about Google Android’s possible expansion beyond the smartphone world. A variety of IT companies, ranging from […]

Green, Clean Next-Generation Cars at 2009 New York Auto Show by Nicholas Kolakowski No Title The third-generation Prius hybrid vehicle has more “oomph” under the hood than previous iterations, with an expanded 1.8-liter engine, 160 hp and roughly 50 miles per gallon for combined city/highway driving. No Title The third-generation Prius will feature a full […]

Google is actively seeking a way to monetize YouTube, its popular streaming video site, which reports have pegged at costing the company hundreds of millions of dollars per year to maintain. An integral part of that process, as mentioned during Google’s April 16 earnings call, is bringing movie and music studios to the table to […]

The Wall Street Journal released a free Apple iPhone App that features breaking news, video, radio podcasts and customized navigation. The price point will perhaps come as a surprise to Journal readers already paying more than $100 per year for an online subscription to the paper. A similar free application already exists for the BlackBerry, […]

Twitter grew 131 percent in March 2009, with its total site visitors cresting at 9.3 million, up from 4.3 million in February. The microblogging site, which lets its users post “tweets” of 140 characters or less on any particular topic, has been embraced by general users and the enterprise as a supple social networking tool. […]

Google reported revenues of $5.51 billion for the first quarter of 2009, which represents a 6 percent increase over first-quarter 2008 revenues-but also represents a 3 percent decline from fourth-quarter 2008 revenues of $5.70 billion. “You look at the economic situation, we’re still in uncharted territory,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said during an April 16 […]

Microsoft released its public beta of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 on April 15. The latest version of Exchange, according to Microsoft, has been “built from the ground up to work on-premises and as an online service.” Exchange 2010 introduces an integrated e-mail archive and a variety of user-facing features, and will be available in the […]

Google Chief Philanthropic Officer Dr. Larry Brilliant is resigning his position to become president of the Skoll Urgent Threats Fund, a $100 million endeavor founded by former eBay President Jeff Skoll to tackle major issues such as climate change, nuclear proliferation, Middle East conflict and water scarcity. The Urgent Threats Fund, as conceived by Skoll, […]

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft continued to lead the core online search market in the U.S. in March 2009, according to a report issued by research firm ComScore. The report found that Americans conducted some 14.3 billion core searches in March, a 9 percent gain over February 2009. Some 9.1 billion of those searches were done […]