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Algorithms for Rent: The Price Is Right March 12, 2013 If you've been in the market for almost anything recently, you've probably noticed price fluctuations. You place a bicycle on your Amazon wish list at one price, only to see it shoot up a hundred dollars more a few days later, then drop to a hundred less a week or so after that. Everything from airplane tickets to apartment rentals seems subject to dramatic price changes from one day to the next.

FirstRain Showers Sales Reps With Real-Time Intelligence March 12, 2013 FirstRain has debuted FirstRain for Touch, an enterprise customer intelligence application built for the Salesforce Touch Platform. "What we did was create a component version of our application that was then easily dropped into the Salesforce.com Touch platform using their SDK," said Penny Herscher, CEO of FirstRain.

Avaya's New CEM Platform Makes Everyone a Customer Agent March 11, 2013 Avaya unveiled the latest iteration of its customer experience management platform last week, introducing new analytics functionality and a multichannel focus on communication. The new platform's big-picture mission is to foster holistic customer service -- an experience that will become a differentiator for that business, said Laura Bassett, director of product marketing for Avaya CEM and emerging applications.

How to Drink from the Big Data Firehose Without Drowning March 11, 2013 The arrival of big data means the end of the status quo for the enterprise. It means more than just sorting the sheer volume and velocity of information now available to companies. To be able to derive the most value from big data, large enterprises now have to consider its impact on issues such as security, risk and governance.

Facebook's Rejiggered News Feed: The Ads Have It March 09, 2013 Facebook unveiled its new look this week, providing bigger photos and more links in users' News Feeds, along with additional ways to view specialized streams based on topics of interest, such as music. This is apparently an attempt to corral all the random musings and disjointed pictures users are accustomed to sorting through. Facebook's move seems geared toward bringing order to the chaos.

IBM's Big Bet on Cloud Analytics March 08, 2013 A growing number of established and emerging software and technology vendors are seeking to take advantage of the convergence of Big Data and the cloud. None has made a bigger bet than IBM. Since 2005, IBM has spent more than $16 billion on 35 acquisitions to boost its analytics capabilities. The company is hoping that this investment will generate approximately $20 billion in annual sales.

Swamped Servers Barricade SimCity From Players March 07, 2013 Virtual city planners faced a crisis this week as a plague of server issues kept SimCity 5 gamers from connecting. This meant that building virtual roads, zoning communities, and all other jobs involved in creating a city in the game couldn't be accomplished. While essentially a single-player game, SimCity 5 requires that players have an Internet connection to play.

China Starts Arm Wrestling Android March 07, 2013 Android -- and, by extension, Google -- has too much control over China's smartphone industry, according to a white paper from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Android is used by handset manufacturers such as Huawei and ZTE, as well as Samsung, which has a solid footprint in China.

Google May Take a Whack at Same-Day Delivery March 06, 2013 Google reportedly is planning to broaden its reach into the e-commerce space with Google Shopping Express, a service similar to Amazon Prime. The subscription fee would be $10-$15 cheaper, and another draw would be same-day shipping from brick-and-mortar stores. However, it's not clear what Google stands to gain from such an initiative.

EU Fines Microsoft $731M for Flubbing Browser Deal March 06, 2013 After Denmark announced it was seeking US$1 billion in back taxes from Microsoft, the tech giant was hit with a $731 million fine from the European Union. The fine is for Microsoft's failure to promote a range of Web browsers, not just Internet Explorer.

E-Commerce's Fast Boat to China - and Beyond March 06, 2013 When Brooklyn-based PruneDanish.com sends shipments of its electronics, accessories, and home and garden products to customers overseas, it uses Swedish stamps. As odd as that might seem, it makes sense for the e-commerce company. PruneDanish.com uses the services of Direct Link, a U.S. subsidiary of Sweden Post.

Facebook Denies Promoted Post Hanky-Panky March 05, 2013 Facebook has flatly denied the suggestion by a New York Times columnist that it might be gaming its own system -- that is, that the way it pumps up views of fee-based promoted posts could be by limiting the sharing of ordinary posts. "This is not true," Facebook says in a post labeled "Fact Check."

FBI Wins Skirmish in War on Dotcom March 05, 2013 Kim Dotcom experienced a legal setback late last week when the New Zealand Court of Appeal overturned a lower court ruling that had required the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to disclose all of its evidence against him. However, his fight to avoid extradition is nowhere near closure.

For Microsoft, There's Something Costly in Denmark March 05, 2013 Little Denmark is looking for a big check. In one of the biggest tax cases in the history of the Scandinavian country with a population of 5.5 million, the Danish tax authority is seeking $1 billion from Microsoft in back taxes. The case stems from Microsoft's 2002 purchase of Danish software company Navision.

The Time of a Mobile Ad's Life, Part 1 March 05, 2013 There is a long-standing debate in the email marketing community about timing -- that is, whether time of day makes a difference in open and click-through rates. In other words, will an email marketing message sent early Monday morning be more likely to be opened than one sent Wednesday around noon or one delivered late on a Friday afternoon in July?

Rumored Specs, Tantalizing Ad Fuel Galaxy S IV Launch Excitement March 04, 2013 Samsung is poised to introduce the next generation of its flagship Galaxy smartphone next week in New York City. It will be the first U.S. launch of a Galaxy handset in three years, and Samsung is heralding it with a "Samsung Unpacked" advertising blitz. It's official that Samsung will debut the Galaxy S IV, but apart from the name, all the details circulating are still rumor.

German Lawmakers Get Weak on Google March 04, 2013 Google and other aggregators won a partial victory Friday in the lower house of the German parliament, where lawmakers approved legislation that would allow publishers to protect their digital copyrights by charging to fully reproduce their content. Questions remains about whether other countries -- particularly the U.S. -- could follow Germany's example.

Demandbase Tech Targeting Trims B2B Marketing Waste March 04, 2013 Demandbase has incorporated a new filter in its Demandbase Company-Targeted Advertising platform. The filter, called "Technology Targeting," lets users target and personalize display ads based on the technology they use. In other words, users can now include the specific criteria of 'technologies used' as part of their campaign targeting requirements with the Demandbase platform.

China Returns US Cyberattack Volley March 01, 2013 What, China was just going to say nothing? On the heels of a report that China's military has for years been engaging in cyberespionage against the U.S., China's Ministry of Defense claimed that a pair of its military websites were attacked more than 100,000 times per month in 2012.

Mason Marches, Groupon Regroups March 01, 2013 A day after posting disappointing quarterly earnings, Groupon ousted its founder and CEO Andrew Mason. The company's stock jumped 4 percent in after-hours trading as the news became public. "I've decided that I'd like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding -- I was fired today. If you're wondering why... you haven't been paying attention," Mason said in a letter to employees.