The more headlines I read about the spat with Yahoo on one side and Microsoft and Carl Icahn on the other, the more the parent in me wants to call a time out and send everyone to their respective corners. At the beginning of the month, I titled a post,...
Is Chrysler truly desperate? Or GM, or Ford? Getting there, but not quite yet. Strike One: Fire-Sale Incentives All three of the Detroit Three recently resorted to incentive programs to try and sell down stockpiles of unsold cars and trucks. GM had...
Wikipedia may have some accuracy issues, but there's no debating it's home to a considerable collection of human knowledge. Now you can take it with you: Pocket Wikipedia offers some 14 million words and 24,000 images -- not the entire 'pedia, but hand-picked selections -- you can view on your...
A wiki is a server program that allows users to collaboratively contribute content to a website. Editing is done in a web browser using a user-friendly editing tool not too dissimilar to a stripped-down version of MS-Word. But a wiki is more collaborative than an average page authored by one...
If the words blog, wiki and RSS sound like an exotic language to you, read on as you'll soon be hearing more from these technologies that could be helpful in the way you run your business. Blogs, RSS Really Simple Syndication, wikis and podcasting aren't yet part of the mainstream...
There is a worthwhile debate brewing over the value of Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis and prediction markets to improve corporate communication. Even the US Central Intelligence Agency has fired up a knowledge-sharing wiki called Intellipedia, which recently celebrated its second anniversary. According to the CIA:...
In the publishing industry, one of the oldest and most respected brands in the world is the Encyclopedia Britannica. It's been considered the most authoritative encyclopedia for most of its 240 years on the planet, ever since it emerged during the Scottish Enlightenment, along with Adam Smith, Sir Walter Scott,...
Vince Casarez, vice president of product management at Oracle, explains how Web 2.0 technologies, such as tags, wikis, and mash-ups, can be applied within an organization.
My colleague David Weir has an excellent run down on the deal between WPP and Yahoo's online ad exchange (two failing giants huddling together in the cold, cold night from what I can tell). But the story out of WPP that's really lighting up the ad blogosphere is their decision...
Powerset has rolled out its semantic search engine and has managed to get a ton of attention. The larger question for me: Does it deliver? And where does Powerset make the most sense? Powerset on Monday introduced its natural language search for Wikipedia content Techmeme. This effort...
As regular Business Hacks readers know, I'm a big fan of using Jott for personal reminders: If I remember something I need to do and I'm driving down the highway at the time, a quick call to Jott sends a reminder to my inbox. But what if I'm in the...
A friend of mine recently was part of a merger that left him reporting to a boss in his mid-30s. Since my friend is 53 -- about the age of his superior's own parents -- he found the relationship more than a little awkward. So I was...
If you’ve got team members in multiple offices, you probably already use a fair amount of technology. But are you using the right tools for the right job? ...
In the real world, managing your reputation should be paramount. Showing up on time, being helpful to colleagues, and taking the occasional shower increase the reputation points you can leverage in any number of ways, including career advancement. Many of us spend a lot of time, if...
Few websites offer their search stats to the public. It's a real gem when you find one that does -- but it's a jaw-dropper when Wikipedia, the eighth most-visited site on the web, does. What can these stats offer you? A wealth of opportunity. For example, you can find that...
There's a disconnect about trust and authenticity on the Internet that gives you the opportunity to be a veritable "superhero" in your customers' eyes. Let me explain. Back in the day (i.e. pre-Web), anonymity was considered disreputable. The general opinion, in business and elsewhere, was...
As Wired editor Chris Anderson points out in a pretty cool article in this month's magazine, online businesses are starting to realize that Freeconomics is the new order of the day. It's why this post you're reading is available to everyone, and why Google has become one of the biggest...
A googling of GTD Getting Things Done and the word "cult" returns 143,000 Web pages. But for all this discussion of whether GTD and its devoted following constitute a cult, the idea seems pretty counterintuitive. What immediately differentiates GTD from a cult is that there isn't much in the way of...
On Thursday, a fun new instructional site called HowCast is launching. I was able to take a peek around the beta version of the site and came across a bunch of useful videos as well as lists and wikis. While the videos can be a little bit silly (for example,...
The most recent issue of SellingPower (full disclosure: I write for that magazine and BNET distributes their videos) has a cover story on How Wikipedia Impacts Buying and Selling. The article points out that Wikipedia plays a huge role in buying decisions because some 36 percent of adults use...
