Small Business Technology News Round-Up - 02/05/2008

Here is this week’s round-up of technology news small business owners may find informative, useful or entertaining: 

• Companies May Be Held Liable For Deals with Terrorists, ID Thieves - US small businesses must beware of new legislation that may mean they need to vet their customers more carefully
• A Google Prototype for a Precision Image Search - Google may soon be able to search for images in a completely new way. They also announced plans this week for ‘Google Ocean‘, a 3D map of the world’s seas that will complement Google Earth & Google Sky
• Average Web Page Size Triples Since 2003 - In the past five years the average data per webpage has trebled
• The Mac in business: it’s easier than you think - An article about the growing usage of Mac products in the business world
• Happy spamiversary! Spam reaches 30 - Thirty years ago tomorrow the first ’spam’ email was sent
• Performance showdown: Flash drives versus hard disk drives - Testing reveals only a tiny speed advantage from solid state drives
• Xerox touts erasable paper, smart documents - New environmentally friendly paper can be re-used 100 times
• Entrepreneurs and Tech Startups: Who’s Doing What When? - A new study shows a large number of new tech startups are owned by entrepreneurs in their 50’s
• Web in infancy, says Berners-Lee - The creator of the Internet believes we are still just getting started and reflects on what would have happened if he had never released the code into the public domain
• Amazon, or online, tax will hurt small business - A tax ruling in New York will also damage Amazon small business affiliates
• Smaller Businesses Learn From Enterprise : Integrating Business and Technology Initiatives Matters - An article examining how SMEs in Canada use new technology
• Microsoft device helps police pluck evidence from cyberscene of crime - A special USB device supplied to the police by Microsoft acts as a back door to all the data on a Windows PC
• Report: Microsoft close to hostile bid for Yahoo - The talks currently remain ‘friendly’, although news this week regarding a fall in Microsoft’s quarterly income may put the deal in jeopardy
• Dell: We’ll install XP for you, even after the deadline - Dell have bravely gone behind the back of Microsoft and will not acknowledge the June 30th XP cut-off date, whilst the release of XP SP3 was delayed this week due to compatibility errors
• Vista struggles to bust out as business customers snub it - It appears to be reaching make-or-break time for Vista and convincing the corporate world to update will be crucial
• Mobiles help SMEs win more businesses - SMEs are embracing mobile technology like the Blackberry to become more responsive to the needs of their customer base
• Modern technology can help small traders to expand business - Businesses in Kenya are starting to realise the importance of technology in helping their SMEs to grow
• Scented text messages patented in Germany – A new mobile phone chip will soon allow you to send messages that smell
• Building your first business website - A helpful article about creating a web presence - don’t forget to check out OnlineOffice for more help

One Response to “Small Business Technology News Round-Up - 02/05/2008”

1. Sahil Parikh
   http://www.deskaway.com
   
   Said on May 3rd, 2008 at 4:14 am

   Hey Stefan,

   Just happened to stumble upon your blog and i must say that its pretty impressive. Some useful links there - especially the one about ’small businesses learn from enterprise’. I’ve just been through some of your other articles. We both have similar interests i guess - i am the founder of a Project Collaboration Tool called Deskaway and the product is mainly focussed on SME’s. I dont think i saw any articles that you wrote which mentioned Project Collaboration i.e. issues with resepct to managing tasks, setting milestons, creating alerts, sharing information via blogs, creating work in progress wikis etc - and more. Project Collaboration tools such as Deskaway and others as well - have all of the above mentioned tools in one single package.

   On another note, i think you write about the ‘processes of small businesses’ really well. And some of the articles you have linked up there show your deep understanding of small business problems and the key to those solutions. I would love it if you did a review on Project Collaboration Tools for Small Businesses and outlined to your readers - the importance of collaborating in various ways.

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