Google Search Just Keeps Getting Better

On October 4, 2009

Google Search Just Keeps Getting Better

Google keeps inching closer to something approaching what you could call almost-real-time search by steadily iterating on its basic search product. In order to keep its most devoted users up to date with this constant set of changes, the company has also started a "This Week in Search" feature on its corporate blog. The first one was posted on Friday by Marissa Mayer, VP, Search Products & User Experience. She writes that over the past week, Google integrated a "Hot Trends" graph on its results page. Google Trends has been a useful tool for content producers for a few years now, because it provides data about the online zeitgeist in ways that can help you make choices about which content...


On October 4, 2009

How To Create a One Page Business Plan

Many small business owners get overwhelmed when it comes to the necessity of writing their business plan.  It doesn’t have to be as hard as it may seem. Unless you are looking for major financial funding from a bank or other loan institutions, a simple business plan that includes answers to the following questions will be [...]


On October 4, 2009

Will Sony Never Learn in Gaming?

After falling behind both Nintendo and Microsoft in the console gaming market, after losing copious amount of money on over-designed products whose features weren't in demand, after displaying a suicidal degree of hubris, after the humiliation of having your decade-old product continue to beat the relatively new one, you'd think that Sony would have learned some lessons in the gaming market. But reviews of the PSP Go would suggest that maybe, just maybe, Sony management has failed to have benefited from its painful experiences. Instead, the company seems determined to stay the course, even if it leads into a category four hurricane.


On October 4, 2009

Health Insurers Seek Acquisitions While Rating Agencies Look Backward

One has to wonder about the three credit rating agencies. When their ship comes in, they'll be at the airport with an outdated ticket stamped "void." Just a few weeks ago at the annual reinsurers' conference in Monte Carlo, they were trumpeting their "doom and gloom" theory. While it's true that insurers' reserves aren't what they used to be when the market was higher, every indicator shows that their coffers aren't empty and, in many instances, they are ready to do deals. The latest indication came at an insurance conference in Ottawa, where the head of the financial institutions group for Scotia Capital predicted that Canadian insurers with bulging bank accounts might consider U.S. takeovers, or Asian joint ventures. "There...


On October 4, 2009

This Week is Small Community Air Service Development Week 2009

Every fall, airports jockey into position to try and get a little piece of the federal government's Small Community Air Service Development Program (SCASDP) funds. I thought last year was going to be the last, but here we are with a fresh new batch of applications. So it's time for SCASDP Week 2009 here on BNET.


On October 4, 2009

Ready to Count Out Microsoft? Economics Is Against It

There are a lot of people both inside the industry and out that don't like Microsoft. As in hate Microsoft. I've seen users who can't stand things going wrong and developers who felt that the company had done them wrong. The recent patent battles the company has found itself in are examples of how the anger, often valid and understandable, explodes. And that happens, but there are a lot of people who like to predict the momentary end of the behemoth. It's a harmless outlet, unless your business involves technology, in which case it's a potential strategy death wish.


On October 4, 2009

Making the Cloud Rain Business Productivity

As enterprises seek to exploit cloud computing, business leaders are focused on new productivity benefits. Yet the IT folks need to focus on the technology in order to propel those business solutions forward. As enterprises confront cloud computing, they want to know what's going to enable new and potentially revolutionary business outcomes.


On October 3, 2009

ModusLink Sees Changes in Retail Evolution Impact as Holiday Approaches

ModusLink has an interesting point of view on what is actually happening in the evolution of retail, and it sees the relationship between stores and their suppliers changing fundamentally. Those changes have become particularly evident as the holiday season approaches. Today, most product sold at major retail chains, outside of food, is sourced overseas, and ModusLink supports the global supply chain with the communications and other technology it manages. Lorcan Sheehan, ModusLink senior vp of marketing, noted in an email interview that critical changes include the growth of vanilla products and the capacity to drive goods into the market promptly when demand calls. Vanilla products are those that are created conceptually and developed with the notion that retailers will have...


On October 3, 2009

You ‘Auto’ Know: New York Ranks Best and Worst Auto Insurers

If you want to know the best - and worst - auto insurers, read New York State's just released annual report of auto insurance rankings, based on the complaint ratios of all major carriers operating in the Empire State. The top ranked insurer is Rhode Island-based Amica, a mutual company that generally ranks high on everyone's list, including J.D. Power's. It, and six other companies, had no complaints lodged. At the bottom is number 38, the small Long Island Insurance Co. What is most interesting, however, is where the major insurers rank. American Express Group's IDS Property Casualty unit placed 4th, also with no unresolved complaints while Chubb, with a history of no-questions-asked payments, but higher premiums, is number 8....


On October 3, 2009

Comcast’s Bid for the Future of TV

Years ago, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was asked at a conference what kept him awake at night. His answer: A new technology that would severely hurt the cable TV business. His fears haven't come to fruition yet. However, the growing popularity of watching shows, movies and other content streamed over the Internet or over cellphone networks make the cable pipe less important for video than it ever has been.


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