Matthew Hicks

In a move furthering the reach of Web conferencing, WebEx Communications Inc. announced Thursday that it has integrated its online meeting service with a major telephony vendors IP communications platform. WebEx has tied its MediaTone Network into Siemens Information and Communication Networks Groups OpenScape, its Session Initiation Protocol-based unified communications software. The integration means that […]

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—While it may be making headlines, local search remains in its formative days as search engines and traditional yellow-pages companies figure out how to attract users while also snagging often-elusive local advertisers, panelists said Wednesday at a search conference here. Part of the challenge is striking the right balance between satisfying Web users […]

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Two days after announcing the next version of its Windows CE embedded operating system, Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday revealed new voice-over-IP features for the release and unveiled a string of VOIP partners during the Spring 2004 VON Conference & Expo here. Windows CE 5.0, in beta now and due out this summer, will […]

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—A new breed of networking gear has been developed to shepherd and control the connection of multiple VOIP networks, but whether the functionality of these session border controllers will eventually move directly into other networking equipment stirred debate during the Spring 2004 VON Conference & Expo here Monday. Networking executives disagreed on the […]

Vonage Holdings Corp. has sued AT&T Corp. for trademark infringement, alleging that the name of AT&Ts newly launched VOIP service is confusingly similar to its company and product name. In its lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, Vonage alleges that AT&T is infringing on its name by launching a VOIP […]

Microsoft Corp.s MSN division laid out more of its Web search plans Friday, saying it will launch separate Weblog search and news search services later this year. The two services—MSN Newsbot for news and MSN Blogbot for blogs—will likely come out ahead of MSNs introduction later this year of its own algorithmic Web search engine […]

Google Inc. wants to make search more personal. The search giant on Monday unveiled two projects from its labs that let users receive customized search results and e-mail alerts. Google Personalized Web Search lets users set preferences that are used to tailor search-engine results to a users specific interests, Google announced. With Google Web Alerts, […]

As Google Inc. and its competitors race to scour the far reaches of the Web for the most relevant results, a new breed of search engine is focusing on its own virtual corner. GlobalSpec Inc., a search and directory site for applied engineers, this week relaunched the site with its own search engine that is […]

SAN FRANCISCO—A day after Microsoft Corp. entered the speech technology market, the two leading speech vendors on Thursday echoed the message that speech is hitting its market stride during a keynote here at the AVIOS SpeechTEK 2004 conference. Executives from Nuance Communications Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., and ScanSoft Inc.s SpeechWorks division, which together account […]

SAN FRANCISCO—Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday launched Speech Server 2004 during a trio of conferences here, showcasing a range of customers and announcing pricing for the two versions of the software and a development platform for creating and running speech applications. Bill Gates, Microsofts chairman and chief software architect, unveiled Speech Server 2004 during his keynote […]