Susan Kuchinskas

Google is releasing Google Desktop 2, the latest version of its desktop search product, increasing the stakes against Yahoo’s personalization features and Microsoft Windows search. Tagging along is an intelligent RSS reader that automatically adds feeds and learns over time. When users install Google Desktop Search 2, they also get the Sidebar application, a long […]

After working to build a better, more secure browser, Microsoft spent a little more time to freshen up its face. The company showed off an updated logo for Internet Explorer (IE) 7, the new version of its Internet browser. In Microsoft’s IEBlog, Tony Chor, group program manager for the IE team, wrote that the new […]

It didn’t take a crystal ball for Google to foresee there would be trouble if it hired Kai-Fu Lee away from Microsoft. As documents filed in the Superior Court of Washington for King County reveal, Google promised to defend the former Microsoft executive if Redmond’s lawyers came after him. According to the addendum to Lee’s […]

REDMOND, WASH. — Microsoft is thinking outside the box — the software box. The company already has begun building out and testing an infrastructure that will let it deliver a hybrid of the on-demand model that connects full-featured Windows clients with additional information and functionality from free or subscription-based services. At Microsoft’s annual Financial Analysts […]

The end of the long road to Longhorn finally appeared over the horizon, with Microsoft’s release today of early test versions of its next-generation client and server operating systems. On Wednesday, Microsoft delivered the beta 1 releases of Windows Vista (formerly code-named Longhorn) and the still-code-named Longhorn Server. Microsoft executives said Windows Vista beta 1 […]

As the space shuttle Discovery soared into the sky on Tuesday morning, it opened a new era in U.S. space exploration. It also launched a new era in Internet video. The Return to Space Mission is the first to be continuously broadcast over the Internet, thanks to a partnership between NASA and Yahoo. Anyone with […]

Price isn’t the driver of the decision to use open source software, according to a report by Evans Data. The Santa Cruz, Calif.-based IT market research firm released Open Source Vision on Wednesday, a qualitative report focused on the business of open source software (OSS). While the lower cost of OSS is an important factor, […]

EnterpriseDB launched Monday with a public beta release of its first product, EnterpriseDB 2005, offering out-of-the-box compatibility with applications written for Oracle databases. EnterpriseDB 2005 (EDB2005) is built on the open-source PostgreSQL database but adds proprietary features targeted to enterprise customers. The EDB product includes EDB Database Server, the RDBMS engine, EDB Studio, a graphical […]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — At the Google Factory Tour, a press event held at the search leader’s main campus here, visitors got a high-level look at how the company plans to advance and intertwine its products. Marissa Mayer, director of consumer Web products, demonstrated the Google Personalized Homepage, a customizable start page similar to My […]

SAN FRANCISCO — With open source code proliferating within enterprise applications, businesses must take steps to avoid “SCO Syndrome,” intellectual property experts said. The second annual Open Source Business Conference, held Tuesday and Wednesday in San Francisco, focused on new business strategies for open source software (OSS) vendors, but also on what end-user businesses should […]