Web marketing

PALO ALTO, Calif.--It was only a matter of time before the crazy guy in the front row blew up. He had been fidgeting in his seat all morning. All it took was for author Andrew Keen to bemoan the public's loss if more struggling newspapers bite the dust. Left to right: Larry Lessig, Andrew Keen, Hal Varian, Tom Rubin, and Paul Cappuccio(Credit: Charles Cooper) Then it was Mount Vesuvius in the flesh with Nutsy Fagin shouting from his seat about a tangled conspiracy involving Gary Webb and the CIA and journalistic cover-ups. If you don't recall, Webb was an investigative reporter who authored a series of 1996 pieces for the San Jose Mercury News, reporting on a CIA link to Nicaraguan drug dealers in Los Angeles. The paper later distanced itself from the articles, and Webb wound up dead from what the police said was a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. ***

Correction: I updated the blog to correct a misspelling of Don MacAskill's name. This is how SmugMug now looks on a 1280x1024-pixel monitor. It looks pretty good, unless you're the frog.(Credit: SmugMug) SmugMug, a site popular among photography aficionados, has been retooled with a more adaptable interface and overhauled video-sharing technology. The new interface, which the Mountain View, Calif.-based company calls SmugMungous, automatically displays one of nine different sizes of a photo on the screen, with a patch of thumbnails of related images to the left side. The reason for the SmugMungous name: the largest of these images is 1600x1200 pixels, enough to fill up very large monitors. ***

BOSTON--As marketing gimmicks go, this one is pretty good: put a bunch of coders and tech evangelists on tour bus once used by The Who and Def Leppard and send them on a cross-country road trip. That's just what Adobe Systems has done with its AIR Bus Tour, which visited Boston last Friday. Ten employees of Adobe will making three two-week trips to tout Adobe Integrated Runtime, or AIR, Adobe's software for running Web applications on desktop PCs. At the Boston event on Friday, Adobe rich-Internet application evangelist Ryan Stewart (and ZDNet blogger) showed off a number of applications already using AIR. The FineTune music player can look at the listener's local iTunes file to suggest music from its Web radio service. ***

Late this afternoon Skype announced a deal that puts the Internet calling software on select laptop models across Toshiba's four notebook lines (Qosmio, Tecra, Satellite, and Portege). According to the release, the Skype software will come preloaded on Toshiba laptops that include a built-in Webcam; the marketing agreement also includes a Skype logo on the laptops' display bezel and a desktop icon that links to a cobranded Skype/Toshiba landing page. The deal initially applies to four of Toshiba's notebooks: the Satellite X205, Tecra M8, Qosmio F45, and the just-announced, AMD-based Satellite A215 series. ***

Underneath the software-as-a-service hype, large organizations have a real concern. Yup, security jitters again. Just as security slowed down the Web services train, it appears to be putting the old kibosh on SaaS deals. Why the concern about security? It isn't about basic safeguards like firewalls, desktop antivirus, or intrusion detection systems. It's about end-to-end security from user authentication to data privacy to physical security in data centers to off-site transport and storage of backup tapes. Before outsourcing my HR applications, you can certain that chief security officers will put service providers through the security "white glove" treatment and demand on-going auditing of security henceforth. What does this all mean? 1. SaaS vendors must become security beacons to succeed. ***

SAN MATEO, Calif.--Spurred by customer demand, Zimbra has completed a version of its open-source calendar and e-mail server software for Canonical's Ubuntu version of Linux. Zimbra offers two versions of its server software, the free Open-Source Edition and the certified, supported and fuller-feature derivative called the Network Edition for paying customers. The Network Edition previously was available just for Red Hat's Linux, ***

Microsoft and Novell on Monday fleshed out the technical aspects of their corporate partnership, saying that the two firms are committed to optimizing their respective products in the years to come. In November, the two companies signed a wide-reaching pact to make Novell's Linux server software work well with Microsoft Windows products. The deal is also meant to shield joint customers from any potential legal liabilities of using open-source software. In the area of virtualization, Novell and Microsoft on Monday said that Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10 will be able to run on Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 when a service pack is released in the second quarter of this year. ***

For the past 10 to 15 years, we have been treated to a mudslinging circus in the enterprise software market. We have seen name-calling, gross exaggerations, "leaked" internal memos, provocative earnings calls, "grassroots" user group blasts and a variety of other tit-for-tat antics. As Oracle OpenWorld starts this week, we can expect to see another round of mudslinging between Oracle and SAP--all of which may be fun for the media but thoroughly unhelpful for customers. Customers find themselves stuck in the middle, amid all the sound and fury, looking to our industry to provide real technology answers to their real business problems. They want solutions that take advantage of the systems they have in place, utilizing the best of their business processes and intellectual capital to help them get ahead as their business environments change. ***

SugarCRM plans to release an updated application suite next month, as the open-source business software company eyes new product areas. The release, called Sugar 4.5, is one of the most substantial application updates since the company launched two years ago, according to CEO and co-founder John Roberts. The application, due in mid-August, has a more interactive and customizable Web user interface, which company engineers made using AJAX techniques. ***

Mainsoft on Wednesday released software designed to bridge the gap between .Net and Java applications on IBM's WebSphere Portal server. Because they are written using differnet programming languages, applications written with Microsoft's .Net tools and Java programs cannot be tightly integrated, according to Mainsoft executives. The company's Visual MainWin for J2EE, Portal Edition allows developers to take existing Microsoft ASP.Net Web applications and recompile them to run on IBM's WebSphere Portal. Running Java portal and .Net programs on a single server, a move endorsed by IBM, provides better application performance for the end user, said Jenna Dobkin, director of marketing at Mainsoft. She added that Mainsoft's tools makes use of Novell's open-source Mono software to make .Net applications compatible with Java portals. ***

IBM on Tuesday announced a program to encourage business partners to tap IBM's software and consulting expertise to build modular, standards-based business applications. At a customer conference in London, IBM detailed a set of resources that IBM-aligned application vendors and systems integrators can use to build service-oriented architectures (SOAs), a system design for reusing individual programs. IBM will allow partners to get free trial versions of its WebSphere Business Integration Modeler, a tool to help system architects design and simulate applications under development. IBM is also offering partners access to training from IBM's consultants. Some partners can also get access to marketing-related resources, such as joint advertising. Analysts and vendors expect that corporate customers will upgrade systems with an SOA design in mind because it promises to lower development costs and improve interoperability between disparate applications. ***

Software maker Documentum, a specialist in content management products, announced Tuesday a new package designed to help publishing companies automatically reuse content in a variety of formats. The new Enterprise Publishing Solution package combines Documentum's main enterprise content management applications with other server software from the Pleasanton, Calif.-based company and its partners. The tools allow text, images and other content to be shared among a variety of systems, said Mark Arbour, director of product marketing for Documentum. Documentum repository that looks like a regular network drive, Arbour said. ***

San Francisco-based Salesforce.com has filed a false-advertising complaint against its rival, Upshot, in the U.S. District Court of Northern California. Salesforce.com said Monday that it is contesting three print ads that depict Salesforce lagging behind Upshot on various fronts. Two of them feature the headline, "The Better Online CRM Solution." Salesforce.com and Upshot compete in the market for software delivered as a service over the Web. They make applications designed to help businesses streamline sales and marketing functions, a process known as customer relationship management, or CRM. Both companies have cast themselves as the David of the business software industry, trying to overthrow Goliaths such as Oracle, Siebel Systems and SAP. ***

IBM is expanding the range of software and services it offers for companies looking to make wireless mobile devices more useful in the workplace. The computing giant on Tuesday will announce its Mobile Office Entry Jumpstart Solution (MOEJS), which is aimed at helping companies to pilot hardware, software and services for mobile devices. IBM's Global Services division is currently selling the package in the United States. IBM has been pushing standards-based technology to support the needs of customers using different devices and networks, which it refers to as WebSphere. With its MOEJS, IBM now supports operating systems that are used in 90 percent of the handheld market, including Linux, Palm, Symbian and Pocket PC. IBM added that it is supporting the Tungsten T and will support the Tungsten W and C soon. ***

Former high-flying business-to-business software maker Commerce One is pinning hopes for survival to a product overhaul, based on Web services, set to debut this month. The company next Monday is expected to deliver new business software, called Conductor, intended to help companies automate business e-commerce operations. The new, make-or-break strategy, is centered on Web services technology, and is a departure from the company's previous focus on electronic procurement applications. While the plan could help the company distance itself from a largely failed vision for business e-commerce, it also pits Commerce One against some of the biggest names in software, including IBM and Microsoft. Like other business e-commerce companies in the late 1990s, Commerce One placed its bets on the spread of wide-scale electronic networks, or e-marketplaces, where companies would transact business over the Internet. ***

update Software maker SAP on Thursday recruited Microsoft and IBM as part of a new initiative to simplify how companies build their business systems. SAP introduced a new bundle of products called NetWeaver, which will become the foundation many of the company's future products. NetWeaver packages some previously available SAP software--including Web portal and data analysis applications, and application-server software--with new tools for Web services-based software development. One of the key features of NetWeaver, according to SAP, is that it allows SAP customers to use software development and middleware tools from IBM and Microsoft for development and customization. The German company said NetWeaver will work with a range of software, including IBM's Java-based WebSphere and a variety of Microsoft .Net products, such as BizTalk Server and Visual Basic .Net. ***

German software maker SAP patted itself on the back as its e-business conference got under way Wednesday by unveiling a grab bag of customer deals and product announcements. The e-business software company officially launched something it calls xApps--for "cross applications"--which will be built by SAP and consulting firm Accenture. The xApps are intended to build on existing software, connect multiple applications from different suppliers, and use information from multiple companies. SAP also made the following moves: • Touted its SAP Business One, a package of tools for accounting, logistics, and sales force automation that is aimed at small and midsized businesses. SAP had announced the product in March and said Wednesday that the software will be introduced globally in stages. It will begin with Germany in the third quarter and move to the United States in the fourth quarter. ***

The latest version of Oracle's Small Business Suite moves into the lucrative and popular customer relationship management arena. The new version of the software, developed and hosted by start-up NetLedger and marketed by Oracle, now includes tools for storing product information and coordinating with marketing partners. NetLedger, financially backed by Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison, had already added sales and customer-service components to the software package last fall. The changes should widen the packages' appeal, according to NetLedger CEO Evan Goldberg. Currently sold mostly to companies with 25 employees or fewer, the upgraded version should appeal to companies with as many as 250 employees. Goldberg launched the company in 1998 with Ellison, to offer small businesses an alternative to off-the-shelf bookkeeping software from Intuit and Microsoft with an application hosted on the Web. ***

It took AOL Time Warner's ICQ instant messenger service just four years to hit 100 million members, but AOL's dream of turning ICQ into a business has yet to materialize. The media giant on Wednesday celebrated the passing of the 100 million mark by touting ICQ's popularity and rapid growth through "viral marketing and word of mouth." ICQ has quickly grown to be one of the most popular IM services on the planet. Along with AOL Instant Messenger, it gives AOL the two largest IM services based on usage. Still, AOL counts a registered user every time someone downloads the ICQ software on the Web and then establishes an identity with the service. ***

IBM is updating its tools for building e-commerce software. The company this fourth quarter will release a new version of the San Francisco Framework, a development tool that features prewritten Java code for applications. It will support Enterprise JavaBeans, a standardized programming model, an important change because previous versions of San Francisco used proprietary IBM technology, analysts say. The new version will include tools that will allow current San Francisco Framework users to migrate their applications to support Enterprise JavaBeans. "San Francisco delivers 40 to 60 percent of a completed application and then you get to complete it," said analyst Anne Thomas of the Patricia Seybold Group. "The migration to EJB means developers is not beholden to any specific application server. That makes the framework more appealing. ***