David Needle

Webcasts, whether a speech by the company CEO, a new product rollout or educational content, are usually one-way affairs. There’s a speaker and an audience. But this week Webcasting service provider ON24 added a new wrinkle, bringing interactive, social media elements for a new kind of “social Webcasting” service. ON24’s service comes with a set […]

SAN FRANCISCO – About 500 Twitter developers gathered here at the Palace of Fine Arts to hear Twitter’s co-founders and other company executives detail the company’s progress and future plans at its first “Chirp” conference. Earlier this week, Twitter announced an advertising programit’s started to roll out that places relevant text ads atop search results […]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Google previewed new technologies and services here at company headquarters during its day-long cloud computing event dubbed ‘Atmosphere’ that the company said attracted 400 CIOs and IT executives. Bradley Horowitz, Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) vice president of product management for Google Apps, said the cloud is rapidly becoming the primary platform for […]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Back in 1999, Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff asked a simple question that led to the creation of the billion-dollar, software-as-a-service (SaaS) giant he founded: Why isn’t all enterprise software like Amazon.com? “That’s why I started Salesforce,” Benioff said here at Monday’s Google-hosted Atmosphere event for CIOs. “Today, I’m asking, ‘Why isn’t […]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – In the view of Google CEO Eric Schmidt, there’s not a lot different in where Microsoft and the search giant are headed. “The goal is to serve the customer, and all of us, including Microsoft, are trying to move to a Web model,” Schmidt said during a Q&A session wrapping up […]

Google has released a new version of its cloud-based Google Docs & Spreadsheet that’s moved from an HTML model to JavaScript for snappier Web performance and more collaborative features. A new standalone drawing editor is also included in the release. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) said the new apps will “feel” more like a desktop app in […]

Google’s “build it and they will come” business model has generated billions of dollars in ad revenue and profit for the search giant. But winning enterprise customers for its cloud-based suite of applications and services requires a lot more traditional outreach. Like other big enterprise suppliers, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has a direct sales force charged […]

The iPad has gotten plenty of positive coverage since its release last week as a slick mobile device for viewing all manner of Web content. But now Web performance analysis company Gomez is giving the iPad some unexpected kudos for Web site download times. In preliminary results covering four days (starting April 1 when only […]

Curiosity about just what makes the iPad tick reached a fever pitch following Apple’s release of the new device this past Saturday. And now, the curious can get a closer look at Apple’s handiwork. While tablets have been around for years, the iPad is considered a category-setting breakthrough that promises to spawn much broader user […]

Apple initially promised the iPad would be available by the end of March, but a short time later had to slightly revise that estimate to April 3. That small glitch and reports that some users are having trouble with the device’s Wi-Fi connectivity are about the only hiccups in an otherwise stellar launch. Following its […]