Spotlight Features

Yahoo, Google and MSN hold a huge lead in search engine technology over open source alternatives. These search giants are competing in a battle among themselves to be a computer user's default search site for search. Where can a computer user go to find an adequate open source alternative to mainstr...

When Fox Interactive Media reported its first annual profit earlier this year, a message was sent to naysayers everywhere about the future of online advertising. Growth in advertising and search revenue at MySpace was largely responsible for the unit's profitability, and the result was a figurative ...

Electronic Arts -- the largest video game publisher, by sales, in the world -- made a statement in June when it announced it was forming a casual gaming division. Last month, the Redwood, Calif., company punctuated that statement with an exclamation mark by cutting a licensing deal with Hasbro, whos...

The fact that the name "Google" is often used interchangeably with the verb "search" today speaks volumes about the current state of the search market. "Right now it's Google's game to lose," Kevin Lee, executive chairman and cofounder of search marketing company Didit, told the E-Commerce Times. "T...

Making use of distributed computing, such as service-oriented architecture and integrated Web application services, means greater complexity and security design challenges for organizations and IT managers. Open standards play a big role in developing and making better use of efficient and effective...

Software designers and developers are being challenged to build efficient security measures into their project work as computing is increasingly distributed via Web application services and service-oriented architecture. Research recently conducted by the Ponemon Institute and CipherOptics found tha...

Retailers and the entertainment industry have been a combined force for years. Designers jump at the chance to drape their latest fashions across celebrity shoulders in an effort to reach the consumer. Until recently, however, that viewer would be hard pressed to actually locate that slinky little b...

The laptop computer has been gaining on traditional desktop PCs for some time. Replacing one's desktop completely with a portable computer that has enough power to handle any common task is now a feasible option for consumers, and more are heading that direction. Laptops are siphoning off sales of d...

The open source model of developing software is making a significant impact, not only in the software development and broader high-tech community, but more generally within corporations, other types of businesses and organizations around the world, as Part 1 of this series describes. Whether it's on...

Dubious pharmacies abound on the Internet, and they're posing a threat to both pharmaceutical companies and consumers. That's the main finding in brand-protector MarkMonitor's summer edition of its Brandjacking Index, released this week. "The data shows brandjackers are profoundly exploiting brands,...