Matthew Hicks

To search startup Blinkx Inc., keywords are passé. The future of search lies instead with bigger concepts. Blinkx, which last month quietly launched a beta of its desktop search application, is getting ready to take on the increasingly competitive Web search market. On Friday, it plans to formally launch the company and its new approach […]

Microsoft and Apple are being sued for patent infringement over the use of Web-based software-updating technology. London-based intellectual-property company BTG Plc. announced Tuesday that it has filed suit against the companies in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. BTG alleges that Apples and Microsofts operating systems, as well as Microsofts Office […]

Microsoft Corp. and Lindows Inc. have reached a $20 million settlement in their ongoing trademark feud, with Lindows agreeing to changes its name globally and Microsoft licensing digital media technology. The settlement, reached on Friday, ends a series of trademark infringement lawsuits that Microsoft had brought against Lindows in which it alleged that the Lindows […]

Macromedia Inc. on Monday delved deeper into enterprise Web publishing by combining separate publishing tools aimed at business users and Web developers into a single system. The San Francisco-based company launched the Macromedia Web Publishing System with the goal of offering a more comprehensive way for organizations to build and manage Web sites and intranets. […]

MSN continues to delve deeper into search with the acquisition of a 6-month-old startup focused on desktop search. Microsoft Corp.s Internet division announced late Thursday that it has bought Lookout Software LLC, the maker of a software add-on to Microsoft Outlook that indexes and searches e-mail as well as desktop files. Terms of the acquisition […]

Developers behind the XML syndication format called Atom have moved forward with their work to create a Web standard through the Internet Engineering Task Force. Atom supporters turned down earlier overtures from the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) to create a standards working group through that standards body, opting instead to stick with IETF, Atom […]

Microsoft Corp. is connecting its Office Live Communications Server with the major public instant messaging networks in a move that analysts say removes a major barrier to enterprise IM adoption. The Redmond, Wash., software maker on Thursday is announcing a deal with America Online Inc. and Yahoo Inc. to allow its enterprise IM server to […]

PALO ALTO, Calif.—Weblog search engine Feedster Inc. is moving beyond keyword search in its launch Thursday of a revamped site. The startup has added a beta feature called “Links” that lets users enter the URL of a site or a specific page to discover the other news feeds linking to it, Feedster president and CEO […]

PALO ALTO, Calif.—By trying to fit companies into old regulatory categories, the U.S. government is picking winners and losers in the telecommunications industry, said the countrys top communications regulator here on Tuesday. The Federal Communications Commission must follow laws that categorize companies based on the various types of telecommunications pipes—from the wireline phone network to […]

SAN MATEO, Calif.—Six Apart, the maker of the popular Movable Type Weblogging software, is expanding its executive team and international reach. The company has hired a new CEO as well as two new executive vice presidents and has acquired European blog provider Ublog, one of its founders said during an interview at its headquarters here. […]