A large tech company has to offer a free email service to be relevant these days, I suppose, particularly if they delve in search. Build a pretty site, add lots of features, and offer the accounts free. Sure, there will be targeted ads polluting the site to generate some revenue for the company, but I […]

I’m surprised the story isn’t getting a lot more coverage. The other day, it was reported that Microsoft is taking a $6.2 billion write down because their $6.3 billion purchase of an online ad service, aQuantive, in 2007, was a waste of money. Why aren’t Microsoft’s stockholders screaming? Now the reason Microsoft bought aQuantive is […]

If you can believe Apple’s ubiquitous iPhone ads, Siri is a magical and absolutely brilliant digital personal assistant who can answer all your questions cheerfully, sometimes with an appropriately pithy and even humorous response. If you can believe a certain disgruntled customer from New York City, who recently filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple, Siri […]

It must be frustrating for Microsoft. Apple gets nearly all the attention these days, even though Windows still dominates the world’s PC desktops by a huge margin. Yes, the share is eroding somewhat, mostly because the Mac is growing faster, but Microsoft still makes loads of money from Windows licenses. At the same time, Microsoft […]