Spotlight Features

Memo to small business owners: If you are spending a fortune on software to run your business, you'll be interested to know you may be able to get almost everything you need for free. With more than 25.8 million small businesses currently in the U.S. and 671,000 new companies getting started every y...

Many e-commerce sites are terrible, but they don't have to be that way, according to Jim Wehmann. Wehmann is vice president for strategic marketing services for Minneapolis-based Digital River. The company, founded in 1994, is well-known around the world for building and managing online businesses f...

While many companies are focused on their business online, they tend to put up sites that turn off rather than turn on potential customers. Because there are so many potential options, a business needs to be careful about how it designs its e-commerce site. For instance, a visitor can't purchase wha...

Few industries in this online era can lay claim to a longer or more venerable history than newspapers can -- but today, it's no secret that newspapers are in trouble. The rise of the Internet has wrought changes to the competitive landscape that are drawing away both readers and advertisers, leaving...

At first blush, the recent Podcast and New Media Expo held in Ontario, Calif., might have looked a bit frivolous -- there was a guy with bright blue hair, a woman in a burlesque getup posing for pictures, and someone in a pickle suit handing out promotional buttons -- but doesn't every trade show ha...

Microsoft has the best products money can buy -- at least, that's what they would have you believe. However, remove money from the equation so MS buyers can't brag on the size of investment, and OpenOffice fans can't gloat about a freebie, who would win in an OpenOffice vs MS Office 2007 face-off? "...

These days, just about every business -- from the corner store to Wal-Mart -- has a Web presence. While the Internet's vast expanse provides companies with the ability to reach more potential customers, it also pits them against more competitors than ever before. As a result, it has become increasin...

Before the space shuttle Columbia's disastrous mission in 2003, NASA did not fully recognize the safety risk posed by the shuttle's protective foam. Following that tragedy, however, NASA buckled down and set to work, trying to come up with solutions. "As soon as NASA saw the foam as a safety problem...

Ask an IT executive to define service-oriented architecture, and there's a good chance you'll get at least some kind of a reasonable answer. Ask that executive's functional peers the same question, and the answer might not be so clear. SOA has become a hot topic in the IT world, and many view it as ...

Computer security company FireEye announced on Monday a new strategy for fighting the worsening threat to consumers and businesses posed by botnets. The company announced its new Botwall appliance, linked to a worldwide intelligence network coupled to local botnet analysis designed to thwart attacks...