Michael Hickins

Incorporating data obtained from observing user behavior can significantly improve the ordering of search engine top results. So-called “noisy behavior” — information on where users click, how long they stay on sites and whether and how they reformulate their queries — can improve search results by 31 percent, according to a new study from Microsoft […]

Salesforce.com may not have deep enough pockets to get into the venture capital business the way rival SAP did last week, but it has found a way to leverage venture capital indirectly on its behalf. The provider of on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) software today announced AppExchange OEM Edition, a way for independent software vendors […]

SAP wants more independent software vendors (ISVs) to build applications on NetWeaver. The $125 million venture fund it announced should help lure them in. The company already has 1,000 ISVs building applications on its proprietary NetWeaver platform, with more than 1,500 such apps already on the market. But SAP is hoping the venture fund will […]

A surprisingly high percentage of sponsored links returned by major search engines raised red flags in a new study published by McAfee SiteAdvisor. The study, which tested results of popular keyword searches on Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL and Ask.com, showed that on average, 8.5 percent of sponsored links led users to “risky” sites. By way […]

The much-ballyhooed world of on-demand software has arrived, and the question is not if, but when and where software-as-a-service (SaaS) will replace on-premise as the dominant application software model. Ever since the emergence of salesforce.com as a major player in customer relationship management (CRM), it has become obvious that SaaS is fast-becoming an important business […]