Tech Biz

Two recently-published academic papers foretell the imminent implosion of Facebook. One review from Princeton employed disease modeling to suggest that Facebook could lose up to 80 percent of users in the next three years. The other was from University College London (UCL), a leading UK university. In UCL’s instance, Professor Daniel Miller wrote a blog Continue Reading →

Microsoft is rebranding its Office Web Apps to Office Online on Thursday, just a day after the company launched its OneDrive cloud storage replacement for SkyDrive. The new branding, revealed partially last month, is designed to simplify Microsoft’s free web versions of Excel, Word, and PowerPoint away from the bewildering Office Web Apps monikers. “We Continue Reading →

Facebook announced on Wednesday afternoon that it had reached an agreement to buy popular mobile messaging startup WhatsApp for an upfront total of $16 billion, including $4 billion in cash and about $12 billion in Facebook shares. Co-founder and CEO Jan Koum will join Facebook’s Board of Directors, but WhatsApp will continue to operate independently Continue Reading →

There’s not much in the way of surprises for Wednesday’s  announcement by Microsoft of the general availability of its cloud storage service OneDrive. The new name had already been previewed, and the product is largely the same as its predecessor, SkyDrive. New features include auto uploads from Android, adaptive personal video streaming a la Netflix Continue Reading →

After just under a year in preview, Google on Wednesday announced that it is now rolling out the new Google Maps to all of its users as the default option. Since Google announced the new version of Maps at its I/O developer conference last year, users were able to switch between the two versions. Still, Continue Reading →

Google Plus, the company’s social network, is like a ghost town. Want to see your old roommate’s baby or post your vacation status? Chances are, you’ll use Facebook instead. But Google isn’t worried. Google Plus may not be much of a competitor to Facebook as a social network, but it is central to Google’s future Continue Reading →

Bob Larson furrowed his brows at the screen. He’d been commanding my demon to tell him its name for about five minutes, and it hadn’t made a peep. “I torment you!” he said, for the fourth time, thrusting a silver cross at my head. He held it there, not breathing, waiting for the demon to Continue Reading →

When Amazon announced in the fall that it would start donating 0.5 percent of some customer purchases to a charity of the shopper’s choice, it was a reason for many nonprofits to rejoice. But the program, dubbed AmazonSmile, included one big hurdle to adoption: Would-be do-gooders needed to start their shopping at the Web address Continue Reading →

SlickLogin has been acquired by Google, just five months after launching at TechCrunch Disrupt. Word of the acquisition is confirmed by a notice on the company’s site, where they say that they’ll be joining Google in their efforts to “make the Internet safer for everyone”. We’ve also confirmed this news with Google. Exact details of Continue Reading →

This is the third (and final) column that looks at the forecasts I have made on events through 2013. As pointed out in the first two columns, the purpose of these columns is to analyze why forecasts were correct and, if not, what they might mean looking forward. As stated in the first column: “… Continue Reading →