Matthew Hicks

On the heels of filing to go public, Google Inc. on Wednesday began testing a new e-mail list service as the company continues to expand beyond basic Web search. Called Google Groups 2, the service builds on Googles archive of more than 845 million Usenet postings and adds the ability for users to create and […]

Opera Software ASA on Wednesday released the latest version of its Web browser, redoing its user interface, expanding its e-mail features and adding support for chat and RSS feeds. Opera 7.50, which went into beta last month, marks the first release in which the company has synced its browser releases across all operating systems. The […]

Continuing its push into packaged applications, Nuance Communications Inc. on Wednesday plans to release a set of voice application suites aimed at vertical industries. The Menlo Park, Calif., company is announcing its Nuance Flexible Applications Suites, or what it is calling Nuance FASt, for six different verticals, said Joel Riciputi, a senior product marketing manager […]

Eolas Technologies Inc. on Tuesday officially rebutted a patent examiners early finding that a Web browser patent at the heart of a legal battle with Microsoft Corp. is invalid. Chicago-based Eolas holds a license to the patent from the University of California and last year won a $521 million jury verdict against Microsoft in its […]

Microsoft and MCI are teaming up on Web conferencing and other real-time communications applications, starting with MCIs launch Tuesday of its new Net Conferencing service. MCI Net Conferencing integrates the telecommunication companys audio conferencing with Microsofts Office Live Meeting Web conferencing service, and MCI plans to market it to both enterprises and small and midsize […]

Hoping to boost the use of Web conferencing within enterprises, Macromedia Inc. on Monday released a set of development kits for tying its Breeze Web conferencing platform into other IT systems. The San Francisco-based company introduced two “solution accelerators” that provide developers with sample code and documentation for integrating Breeze functionality with enterprise directories and […]

Google Inc. on Monday launched its first major revamp of its Blogger service since acquiring it last year, adding new ways for bloggers to post content and to interact with one another. Blogger now offers a comments section on blogs and lets bloggers post content through e-mail and create profiles of their background and interests. […]

Ask Jeeves Inc. on Friday completed an acquisition that is poised to double its market share in the increasingly competitive Web search market. The Emeryville, Calif., search company said it has closed its $501 million purchase of Interactive Search Holdings Inc., a privately held company whose Web properties include Excite and iWon. The acquisition makes […]

Search provider Googles highly anticipated initial public offering filing featured a folksy letter to shareholders, stellar financials and plans to allow small investors to purchase shares. But it also listed a technology project as a key risk to its business. Google Inc. says it is migrating its worldwide billing, collection and credit-evaluation functions to a […]

Novell on Thursday released the first beta version of an open-source development platform that allows developers to create Microsoft .NET applications for other operating systems. The Mono 1.0 beta release comes out of the Mono project, started in 2001 to create an open-source implementation of the .NET Framework. Novell Inc., with its purchase last year […]