Your wish is our command

<p>Here's some recent changes we've made to Reader that we thought you'd like to know about:</p> <p><img src="http://googlereader.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/reading-list-controls.png" width="281" height="90" alt="Reader list controls" align="right"><strong>Reading list ordering defaults:</strong> Your reading list can be sorted in different ways (by date or "automatically", which shows you more relevant items first). Additionally, it can have read items hidden or always visible. Until this week, the default combination was to sort automatically and show read items. Unfortunately, this meant that new items did not necessarily end up at the top, which was confusing to some users. We've therefore changed the defaults to sort by date and hide read items. If you prefer a different combination, these settings can be controlled by the links at the bottom of your reading list (pictured on the right).</p> <p><strong>Related subscriptions menu:</strong> When we made the <a href="http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2006/06/careful-where-you-step-were-moving.html" title="recent improvements">recent improvements</a> to reading by subscription or label, we neglected one use case, which was to see a list of subscriptions that have a particular label. Based on <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Labs-Reader/browse_thread/thread/ec3482d479d35d05?tvc=2" title="feedback">feedback</a> from our users, we've added a new menu, "Related subscriptions," that shows up when selecting a label or a subscription that has labels.</p> <p><strong>Starring in the mobile interface:</strong> Our <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/m/" title="mobile interface">mobile interface</a> is handy for when you're on the go, but occasionally you can come across an item that you would like to re-read when you're back at your computer. Until now, the mobile interface provided no way to flag an item so you could find it later. Now all items that you read have a "Add star" link at the bottom of the page, so you can easily add it to your starred items.</p> <p><strong>Bugfixes:</strong> As usual, with each release we try to polish Reader by fixing bugs here and there. Some recent ones that we've squashed include: better Safari support on the settings page and when marking items as read, better support for non-audio enclosures and better support for <a href="http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/2006/04/02/Relative-References" title="relative URLs in entries">relative URLs in entries</a>. <p>A lot of these changes were made in response to user feedback and bug reports. The best way to make yourself heard is to post in <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Labs-Reader" title="our discussion group">our discussion group</a>.</p> [more]

Spotlight on a Support Team Member: Yvonne Chen

By Yvonne Chen, Google Base Support

Hi, my name is Yvonne Chen. I have a business background in marketing and leadership, and am delighted to be a part of the Google Base support team. I started working at Google in May 2006 as an Online Operations Coordinator, and am responsible for reviewing bulk uploads submitted by our providers, as well as answering any questions they may write in about. The satisfaction of our providers is very important to us and we are constantly trying to improve processes so that Google Base is simple and useful for everyone.


My favorite feature in Google Base is its integration with Google Checkout. With this feature, you can include Google Checkout as a purchase option for single-item posts and bulk uploads. This means that you don't have to have your own website or buy any additional technology in order to process transactions. If you are interested in adding the Google Checkout feature to your Google Base items, please let me or anyone on the team know, and we will be happy to help you get started.

Looking for some tips? As far as Base goes, first, please make sure that your prices are correct. One of the quickest ways to get your bulk upload disapproved is to include the wrong prices. We really want to provide a quality user experience, and all know how annoying it can be to click on an item and find out that instead of $13.99 it's $139.99 . . . watch those decimals, folks. I also recommend that you try to use as many relevant attributes as possible. Some basic attributes such as: title, link, description, image_link, price, and id are required. However, if you would like to have a better chance of matching a "refinement" query, be sure to include additional attributes. If you'd like to view a list of our attributes, please visit:

http://base.google.com/base/help/attributes.html

And lastly, if you bulk upload your items, please make sure that you include working links. We know that you want users to be able to find your items when they click on your links in our search results. Before submitting your file, double check your item links to make sure that they are working and that they direct users to a specific item.

When I am not working on Google Base, you will find me snowboarding, playing the piano, cooking, trying out new restaurants, traveling, exploring San Francisco with friends, or pondering the idea of business school.

[more]

Teen read week

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Ryan Sands, Book Search Support Team</span><br /><br />This week is Teen Read Week, promoted by the American Library Association, and the theme for 2006 is "Get Active @ Your Library." We're excited by anything that gets more people reading, and Young Adult fiction is often where the freshest books are being released -- the kinds of unhinged stories that turn teen readers into lifetime book lovers. During this week, we hope that Google Book Search and the <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teenreading/teenreading.htm">Teen Read Week website</a> help teens and adults find books that spark their interest.<br /><br />On the Teen Read Week site, you can weigh in on your favorite Young Adult books of 2006 <a href="http://www.ala.org/trw06template.cfm?section=trw&template=cfapps/yalsa_trw/survey.cfm">by taking a survey</a> (I'm voting for <i>Peeps</i>, <i>Skybr eaker</i>, and <i>A Certain Slant of Light</i>). The site also includes <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teenreading/trw/trw2006/psa.htm">radio spots</a> by <i>The Princess Diaries</i> author Meg Cabot, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?as_q=&num=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_libcat=0&as_brr=0&as_vt=&as_auth=meg+cabot&as_pub=&as_drrb=c&as_miny=&as_maxy=&as_isbn==">many of whose books</a> are discoverable in Google Book Search.<br /><br />It's a wonderful time for Young Adult fiction, with exciting titles in all genres coming out each month. For those of you looking for a place to start, check out some of the books honored with the <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/printzaward/Printz%2C_Michael_L__Award.htm">Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature</a>. They represent a real ly cool swatch of contemporary YA fiction, and a number of the winners and nominees can be found on Google Book Search, including:<br /><ul><br /><li> 2006 Nominee <i><a href="http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0060743905&id=tdJU9jxxhI0C&pg=PA3&lpg=PP1&sig=tTEd0ilBm-xDYsxX-uA5UK4j7wY">Black Juice</a></i> by Margo Lanagan, a great collection of unique, dark fantasy short stories about families, elephants, and (what else but) clown assassins.<br /><br /></li><li>2005 Nominee <i><a href="http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0060531800&id=whh8tqQIcGEC&pg=PA1&lpg=PP1&sig=9AjGxzUQD57EMU_NKmU0QW4b6hg">Airborn</a></i> by Kenneth Oppel, an alternate universe adventure story about a teenage boy, airships, and exploration, set against a fantastical Victorian backdrop.<br /><br /></li><li>2003 Winner <i><a href="http://books .google.com/books?id=bLRcYvBQPlUC&vid=ISBN0525468633&q=postcards+from+no+man's+land&pgis=1">Postcards From No Man's Land</a></i> by Aidan Chambers, which follows two intricate narratives (one in the past, one in the present), depicting adolescence in times of war.<br /><br /></li><li>2000 Winner <i><a href="http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0064407314&id=dX5YBgIkFJ0C&amp;amp;amp;pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&amp;vq=monster&dq=monster&sig=TLbHDDZU2RM6W9oZ2cEgC3WoFQ4">Monster</a></i> by Walter Dean Myers, an unconventional novel as written by a 16-year-old accused felon, told as a makeshift screenplay/journal.</li></ul><br />That's only a taste. You can check out the complete list of <a href="http://www.ala.org%2Fala%2Fyalsa%2Fbooklistsawards%2Fprintzaward%2Fpreviouswinners%2Fwinners.htm+">winners and nominees</a> on the Teen Read Week site. [more]

Searching the Inside AdWords blog

The Inside AdWords blog has been running for 17 months, 8 days and 4 hours (give or take) and now includes over 200 posts. That's a lot of information detailing how you can use AdWords more effectively. If you haven't been following the blog the whole time, or if you want to get back to something you missed, you can use our search function to find information on just about any topic we've covered.

Take a look at the upper right corner of the blog. Just below the Google logo you'll see the search box, labeled "Search Inside AdWords", where you can type your query. Here's one query you can try: ad not showing. This will bring up all of the posts on this topic.

Since our search box is powered by Google, you'll see your search results on a page that looks like any regular Google search. Similarly, you can use all the handy tricks that you already use with Google search to find exactly what you want. Below are two of the more helpful search operators for searching the Inside AdWords blog, as mentioned in the very useful Essentials of Google Search -- specifically Phrases and Negative Terms.

Phrases - Putting your search terms in quotation marks will search for posts that contain those terms in that order. For example, if you only wanted results about the Google network, then you should enclose your search term in quotes, "Google network". (Please note that while we've capitalized Google in this example, the search itself is not case-sensitive -- so a search on "google network" would give you the same result.)

Negative Terms - You can take out words that you're not looking for using the negative operator (the "-" sign). If you search for report center -analytics, for example, you'll only find posts on The Report Center that do not mention analytics in your search results.

For more tips on using Google search, check out this printable cheat sheet. And, if by any chance you do a search for a topic that's important to you and get no results at all, please let us know. You may have just discovered the next post we should be writing! Happy searching!

Posted by Trevor, Inside AdWords crew

[more]

Video post: AdSense at San Jose SES

Back in August, the AdSense team landed at the Google booth at the <a href="http://adsense.blogspot.com/2006/07/do-you-know-way-to-san-jose.html">Search Engine Strategies Conference</a> in San Jose, CA. We had a blast meeting all of you in person, providing optimization advice on the spot, and listening to what you had to say about AdSense. Whether or not you were able to attend, I'm excited to share with you a video recap of the conference.<br /><br /><embed style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8113978340557621536&hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed><br /><br />Didn't get a chance to meet our optimization specialists at SES? Don't worry -- you can read through their helpful <a href="http://adsense.blogspot.com/archives/2006_08_01_adsense_archive.html">'Optimization Month' posts</a>, or visit our <a href="https:/ /www.google.com/adsense/tips?sourceid=aso&subid=ww-en-et-asblog_2006-10-30&medium=link">Optimization Tips page</a> to learn more about how you can optimize AdSense for your site.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Dan Friedman - AdSense Product Marketing</span> [more]

Now anyone can Talk

Google Talk is now open to everyone! Until now, users needed a Gmail account to use Google Talk. Now, anyone can use the service by creating a Google Account.

Happy Talking!

[more]

Google and Creative Commons

Because of the important work <a href="http://www.creativecommons.org/" title="Creative Commons">Creative Commons</a> accomplished over the past year, Google has decided again to donate $30,000 to their cause. Here's an update on some of the awesome work they've been doing:<br/> <ul> <li> <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CcHost" title="ccHost">ccHost</a>, the engine that powers <a href="http://ccmixter.org/" title="ccMixter">ccMixter</a>, developed further support for more media types (audio, video, image, text). It also won the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/6026" title="LinuxWorld Product Excellence Award">LinuxWorld Product Excellence Award</a> for "Best Open Source Solution" in August 2006.</li><br> <li> <a href="http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CcPublisher" title="ccPublisher">ccPublisher</a> can connect to other media repositories (such as the In ternet Archive), and has been localized.<br/></li> <br> <li>Creative Commons established an <a href="http://developer.creativecommons.org" title="open source developer's community">open source developer's community</a>, a portal for discussion lists, projects and challenges that focus on the standards and technology that support the Creative Commons licenses.</li><br><li> From January 2006 to July 2006, CC license linkbacks grew from 40,000,000 to 140,000,000, indicating a near exponential growth in CC license adoption.</li></ul> <br> [more]

Announcement from the Emetrics Summit

Today, in a speech to the entire Emetrics Summit audience, Brett Crosby from Google announced the beta launch of a new tool, Website Optimizer.

Website Optimizer is a free tool that helps AdWords advertisers test different landing pages and determine which one drives the most conversions. A true multivariate testing tool, Website Optmizer allows you to test variations of headlines, promotional copy, and images. The tool allows you to update your site with the winning test combination and continue to experiment.

The beta launch of Website Optimizer is a limited release that is offered to AdWords advertisers on a sign-up basis.

Professional, consulting and implementation services for customers will be provided by select Google partners such as Optimost, EpikOne, and ROI Revolution who include Website Optimizer within their suite of professional offerings.

For more details, read the Google AdWords Blog post.

Posted by Alden DeSoto, Google Analytics Team

[more]

What we're reading

There are some pretty fantastic resources on the web for people who use Google Analytics, and those interested in learning more. We want to mention a few blogs on web analytics generally and on Google Analytics that we've been reading. We highly recommend these to all of you who use data to back up your online decisions.

ROI Revolution Blog
ROI Revolution is a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant (GAAC). This frequently updated blog contains interviews with web analytics experts, as well as Google Analytics tips and in-depth explanations of reports with screenshots. Great reading. Take a look at these two recent posts:
Start at the Beginning: Making Sense of the Google Analytics Toolbox by Meredith Smith
Understanding Google Analytics' Data Over Time Report by Michael Harrison


GA Experts Blog
A European GAAC affiliated with Omega Digital Media and a very informative Google Analytics-focused blog addressing practical questions and offering some pretty ingenious solutions. Learn about a new filter called "Override Bid Term Filter" that will show you the actual search keywords that brought a visitor to your site, not just the keyword that you bid on in your PPC account, in the recent post How to Get Detailed PPC Keyword Data from Google Analytics

This Just In
Written by Justin Cutroni who works at EpikOne, a one-stop, do-it-all GAAC on the east coast, which has its own informative blog. Justin posts helpful, troubleshooting articles that help clarify Google Analytics and make it even more understandable, useful, and accessible. Check out Justin's recent posts:
Google Analytics: How to Tell When Something is Wrong
Google Analytics Configuration Mistake #3: Third Party Domains


Occam's Razor
Written by Avinash Kaushik, head of web research and analytics at Intuit, and a vocal and visible analytics practitioner, advocate, and thought leader. Every web analyst, marketer, webmaster, IT specialist, and executive should read his recent post: Seven Steps to Creating a Data Driven Decision Making Culture


Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

[more]

Custom Search Engine Support

Last night Google launched the <a href="http://google.com/coop/cse/">Google Custom Search Engine</a>. (You can read more on the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/eureka-your-own-search-engine-has.html">Google Blog</a>.) We added support for this to the AJAX Search API so you get results from your Custom Search Engine through GwebSearch(). <br><br> Your Custom Search Engine is identified by its ID, which shows up as a "cx" value in the search box code (e.g., "000455696194071821846:reviews"). In order to restrict a web search to only search results from your Custom Search Engine just call .setSiteRestriction() and pass it its unique ID. You can read more about this in our <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/documentation/reference.html#_class_GwebSearch">online documentation</a>. <br><br> It's not our style to leave you hanging with just words, so we put together a <a href="http://www.google.com/uds/samples/cse/index.html">sample application</a> that uses Custom Search Engines with the AJAX Search API. The sample application uses four Custom Search Engines: one that's all about product reviews, one for price comparisons, one for forums and message boards, and one for shopping. In addition, we threw in a tab for Blog Search, one for unrestricted Web Search, and one for News. For a little color, there's a <a href="http://www.google.com/uds/solutions/videobar/index.html">Video Bar</a> across the bottom as well. In addition to demonstrating Custom Search Engines, the sample also shows some advanced CSS styling and coordination of multiple search controls from a single search form. We hope you find this useful, and we'll look for your comments in the <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/Google-AJAX-Search-API">developer forum</ a>. [more]

Custom Search Engine Refinements

On Tuesday we announced our support for Custom Search Engines. We asked you for your input and many of you suggested that we add support for Custom Search Engine Refinements. This evening we launched support for Custom Search Engine Refinements in a way that complements what many of you are trying to build. We extended .setSiteRestriction() so that in addition to passing the Custom Search Engine Id, you can also pass a Custom Search Engine Refinement label. See the code snippet below:

 var cseId = "017576662512468239146:omuauf_lfve"; searcher = new GwebSearch(); searcher.setSiteRestriction(cseId, "Lectures"); 

To demonstrate this new capability, we have produce a new sample. The AJAX Search API based Curriculum Search Sample performs parallel searches over a Curriculum Search Engine as well as the engine with a "Lectures", "Assignments", and "Reference" refinements. This sample is based on the full blown Curriculum Search Engine hosted on code.google.com/edu. As always, please continue to provide feedback.

[more]

The Blogger Outages (a novel)

<span style="font-style: italic;">It was a dark and stormy night. The air was quiet. Too quiet. Yet stormy. Suddenly, a beep rang out from a bedside pager. The engineer woke up, grabbing a soda to sharpen his senses. Blogger was down. He needed to bring it back up.<br /><br /></span>When I get the chance to write my pulp story of a gritty Blogger engineer struggling to keep the site alive, I may look back on this past week as a prime source of choice dramatic fodder. Until then, I, like many of you, will look upon this past week with irritation, disappointment, and maybe even a bit of anger.<br /><br />You need to look no further than our <a href="http://status.blogger.com/" title="status blog">status blog</a> or perhaps your own experiences to know that <span style="font-weight: bold;">Blogger had a significant number of unplanned outages this last week</span> (forgive me my euphemisms?) and a handful of planned one s to clean up from the unplanned ones. It’s been a Murphyesque cavalcade of power failures, fileserver trouble, and wonky network hardware, and I hope you’ll believe me when I say that the Blogger staff is even more sick of it than you are.<br /><br />First up, <span style="font-weight: bold;">our apologies</span>. We really regret these outages, which were a nuisance (or worse) to you. The past week’s performance was <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> representative of the kind of service we want to provide for you.<br /><br />More importantly, though, what are we doing to prevent this in the future? Some good news:<br /><ul><li> In the short term, <span style="font-weight: bold;">we’re replacing quirky hardware and increasing our monitoring</span> to stop problems before they start (forgive me my clichés?). This afternoon’s planned outage did just such a thing. </li& gt;<li> In the long term, <span style="font-weight: bold;">we’re developing a new version of Blogger</span> with some great new features that is built on technology and hardware that has proven, Google-quality reliability. The current Blogger infrastructure is — albeit in a very <a title="Abe Lincoln’s axe" href="http://desertcraftsmen.com/Abe.shtml">Lincoln’s axe</a> way — the same that Google acquired four years ago. Sure, we’ve built on it and expanded it significantly since then, but the truth is we’ve more than out-grown it. The new version is ground-up more scalable and less error-prone.<br /></li></ul>The news gets better: We foresaw the need for the long-term solution, well, a long time ago. Long enough ago that <span style="font-weight: bold;">it’s almost done, and you can use it</span> as the <a href="http://beta.blogger.com/" title="new version of Blogger in beta">new version of Blogger in beta</a>. If you can switch to it (see <a href="http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=44404&topic=9083" title="requirements">requirements</a>) you really should. The new version of Blogger is better in almost* every way, including reliability. (It’s worth pointing out that none of this past week’s trouble affected the new version of Blogger or its blogs.)<br /><br />It’s been a bad week for Blogger, and, as I hope you can tell, we’re not denying it. Instead, we have taken and will continue to take specific steps that make Blogger a more reliable, overall better service for you to use.<br /><br />Oh, and as a final <a title="dogfoodish" href="http://buzz.blogger.com/2006/10/chowing-down-on-dogfood.html">dogfoodish</a> note, I’m pleased to point out that our <a href="http://status.blogger.com/" title="status blog">status blog</a> is now powered by the new version of Blogger. Thi s means that we will be free of the Catch-22 of problems with the current version of Blogger preventing us from reporting about the problems with the current version of Blogger. (And we’ll fix that bug that makes it look like all the posts came from me. We’re on it.)<br /><br />* The new version of Blogger is available only in English, which we will remedy very shortly. Also FTP publishing isn’t there yet, but that’s coming soon, too. Once these are in place, the new version <span style="font-style: italic;">will</span> be better than the current version in every way. [more]

Join a User Study

We're currently looking for bloggers to participate in a user study to improve our product. You've given us feedback and we've listened, and now we're looking for more. If you're interested (and if you've been maintaining a blog for at least 3 months), just fill out this form. We are especially looking for people in New York City and San Francisco Bay Area, but others are welcome as well!

P.S. Just to let you know, filling out the survey doesn't guarantee you'll be contacted.

P.P.S. Thanks in advance. Studies like this are immensely helpful, letting us make Blogger as fun and useful as possible for all of you.

[more]

API Changes Take Effect Today

As we first announced on April 11, 2006, today marks the start of the new AdWords API Beta program terms and conditions. Starting today, the current developer quota limits have been abandoned and developers will begin to accrue charges at the rate of $0.25/1000 quota units consumed (or local currency equivalent). We believe these changes will result in more flexible and scalable system for quota allocation and consumption.

You can find more information on the billing process at http://www.google.com/support/adwordsapi/bin/answer.py?answer=46894.

If you are having difficulty accessing the AdWords API, please verify that you have completed your registration and have incorporated your approved Developer Token and Application Token into your API request headers.

-- Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager

[more]

Tips for Handling Error 129

It seems that some of you have recently encountered Error 129 (“You can't use the API until you complete the signup process and are approved”).

If you encounter this error, please check the following:

• Have you completed the API registration process? If you have not completed the process, you should see warning messages on the AdWords API Center prompting you to complete the necessary steps.

• Did you update your request header to incorporate the new developerToken and applicationToken arguments? And are the proper tokens entered for each?

• Have both your Developer Token and Application Token been approved? You can check this from the AdWords API Center.

If you answer ‘yes’ to all of these questions, and are still encountering error 129, then please send an example of your SOAP request and response for which you get this error to api-migration-help@google.com. Please keep the other headers intact in the Request XML and replace your password with "xxx". If you need help, the sample code section of the AdWords API site shows you how to get these SOAP traces in various languages.

-- Jon Diorio, Product Marketing

[more]

WEB OFFICE COLLABORATION IS KILLER APP

In all of the breathless coverage of a possible suite of Web-based productivity applications, a few level-headed types have pointed out that the only way to guarantee adoption is to provide apps that deliver a better experience than what is currently available on the desktop. Unfortunately, that largely hasn’t been the case to date. Google Spreadsheets is [more]

HOW TO CLOSE THE ITBUSINESS COMMUNICATION GAP

All too often, it seems as if IT and the business just aren’t speaking the same language. Business types have a tough time conveying their requirements to IT in language they understand. And IT often doesn’t explain the value it brings to the organization in plain enough English — enough about “uptime” already. So it’s good to see some [more]

ULTIMATELY REMOTE SECURITY IS UP TO USERS

A story at VARBusiness, which reports on a survey from Cisco and InsightExpress, offers many facts and figures on how well remote workers guard security. Indeed, the second page of the story simply is a recap of all the questions asked and responses received. Respondents’ answers are broken down according to country. The survey can’t be seen [more]

THE QUICKLY EVOLVING WORLD OF WLAN SECURITY

It’s easy: The big names in wireless local area network (WLAN) security are, according to this Processor story, WEP, WPA-PSK, WPA-EAP (also known as WPE-Enterprise), WPA2-PSK, and WPA2-EAP. But you knew that, right? Okay, we didn’t either. The point is that like so many things in modern telecommunications, WLAN security is a huge and complex afterthought: Consumers [more]

MIXED MESSAGES ON BANKS AND OFFSHORING

As someone who used to work in the financial services trade press, I was interested in the results of a recent Datamonitor survey discussed in the Business Banking Review, which found that bankers seem largely impervious to the offshoring trend. According to Datamonitor, just 18 percent of retail banks had offshored business processes, while 40 percent had [more]

REDUCED TECH SPENDING ISNT NECESSARILY A BAD THING

In a recent blog entry, Nicholas Carr uses the results of InformationWeek’s recent survey of the InformationWeek 500, the companies it recognizes as among the most innovative users of IT, to support his continued contention that IT is becoming less strategic and is little more than a cost center for most companies. We are a little [more]

WANING WORTH OF IT CERTIFICATIONS

What are companies looking for in their IT employees? Broader business and problem-solving skills? Check. IT certifications? Not so much, according to a recent survey from Foote Partners. The firm found that compensation for 129 certified skills dropped 2 percent in the third quarter of 2006. During the same period, pay for non-certified skills rose 1.4 [more]

WILL PAULSON MAKE SARBOX REFORM A REALITY

People have been talking about changing or doing away with Sarbanes-Oxley since it became law four years ago. Many have even attempted to turn that talk into action, either within the regulatory framework — by proposing new Securities and Exchange Commission rules – or with new legislation. So far, nothing concrete has come of these efforts. If what we’ve read [more]

SEC TO TAKE SARBOX SUGGESTIONS IN DECEMBER

A news brief posted on WebCPA today reminds interested parties that the Securities and Exchange Commission will be accepting recommendations for changes to Sarbanes-Oxley (aka Section 404) at an open meeting in two months. So will Treasury Secretary Paulson’s “posse” have submitted all of their respective proposals before then? The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, which also has Paulson’s [more]

SARBANES OXLEY WHISTLEBLOWERS IN FOR LONG HAUL

One of the first people to seek protection under the whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is still awaiting resolution of his case. According to a CFO.com story, David Welch alleges that he lost his job as CFO of a financial institution in 2002 after questioning the company’s internal controls and refusing to sign off on [more]

DOES LATE FORM 4 SIGNAL STOCK OPTION BACKDATING

Months after many brushed off the revelation of widespread option back-dating as something that would just blow over, at least 100 companies have filed financial restatements as the result of internal investigations, high level executives have left their companies and/or face criminal charges, and the Securities and Exchange Commission has issued new rules on executive pay disclosure. And [more]

VOTING FOR SARBANES OXLEY REFORM

No matter how strongly you feel about the issues, we’d venture to guess that you’re sick of campaign signs cluttering the landscape and political ads invading your downtime in front of the television. Thankfully, by this time next week it will be almost over. Before we get there, though, consider this: An analysis posted at Financial News this [more]

HPS PROBLEM IS SARBANES OXLEYS FAULT

We’ve written before that it’s far too easy to blame the tough requirements in Sarbanes-Oxley for business or market failures: If we’re losing money, it’s because we had to spend so much on Sarbox compliance, darn it. Certainly, the U.S. stock exchanges are losing listings to London and other markets because Sarbanes-Oxley is too burdensome. So [more]

FRANK NO RUSH TO REFORM SARBANES OXLEY

Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, who is slated to take over for the retiring Michael Oxley as head of the House Financial Services Committee if Democrats gain control of the House in tomorrow’s elections, is proving Foley & Lardner attorney Tom Hartman’s point. Last week, we noted that a Financial News piece quoted Hartman as saying that the push for [more]

ACCOUNTING GIANTS SEEK FINANCIAL REPORTING REFORM

The current financial reporting system “is broken,” according to a KPMG representative quoted at MSNBC recently. Six of the world’s top accounting firms (PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, KPMG, BDO and Grant-Thornton) say the quarterly financial reports put together and verified according to Sarbanes-Oxley requirements need to be replaced by real-time, Internet-based financial information that [more]

INDUSTRY BUZZING AGAIN WITH TALK OF ORACLE LINUX

Has it been six months since we last heard Oracle CEO Larry Ellison making noise about jumping into the open source market with an Oracle version of the Linux operating system? The only thing Oracle needs to offer a complete software stack, he told the Financial Times back in April, is an operating system, and [more]

DOES RED HAT HAVE A CHOICE

Analysts and pundits alike haven’t stopped talking since Oracle made the big announcement (that it would offer inexpensive support services for Red Hat Linux) and Red Hat responded in “tough guy” fashion that it will continue to compete in the market — without dropping prices. Most have been critical of Red Hat’s approach, thus far. iTWire’s Stan Beer says the company [more]

MICROSOFT LINUX PART 2 RED HAT RESPONDS

It didn’t take long for Red Hat to comment on the Microsoft-Novell agreement, which will pit the leading Linux distributor directly against the software juggernaut. An Ars Technica piece published over the weekend quotes Red Hat’s executive secretary as saying that the company will be the only player in the Linux market a year from now. The Microsoft-Novell deal, [more]

WHATS THE REAL SOA STORY LET THE READER BEWARE

Everyone who reads the IT trade press knows that SOA has moved from the hot trend stage to mainstream adoption. And how do they know? By reading the IT trade press. Granted, there’s a certain circular logic here. But the people who need this knowledge –  like CIOs or developers trying to build the right skill [more]

APPLIANCES NOT FOR DUMMIES

The name of the first executive who used the term “appliance” to describe an IT product is lost in the annals of IT history, but the concept of trying to make complex processes simple for the user – pretty much as simple as a toaster – lives on. It’s an interesting idea, but have we gone [more]

SOA VENDORS SELL BUSINESS BENEFITS

An interesting bit of information came to light in a recent informal conversation with a vendor of process integration solutions – notably, the quote-to-cash process. The company in question uses Web services and SOA to create its solutions, and its initial marketing efforts involved touting the SOA approach to IT organizations. The IT people were [more]

AJAX THE HERO OF LONG TAIL APPS

Ajax has been a hero in the Trojan War, a popular cleaning product, an acronym, and now, according to Ron Schmelzer of ZapThink, a style of programming that puts more power in the hands of individual employees and gives credence to the newest fad in business thinking, “long-tail” economics. Ajax appeared on the media radar in [more]

IS METADATA WORTH IT

The Butler Group, a respected IT consultancy, has produced an interesting statistic.  Enterprises waste 10 percent of their total salary costs because employees can’t find the information they need. Did we really need a survey to tell us this? But seriously, the 10 percent figure and others like it are often used by consultants and vendors to [more]

TIME TO ENCOURAGE WEB 20

In a recent interview with JotSpot co-founder and CEO Joe Kraus, we went a little beyond our normal focus on data and process integration and uncovered some perspectives that may have huge implications for the enterprise. To take a step back, JotSpot’s product offering is a corporate wiki. A wiki, as almost everyone now knows due [more]

BOILING THE OCEAN AN OVERWHELMING DATA ISSUE

We always like unambiguous responses to our efforts, and reader Matt Stitz came through for us in his comments about a recent IT Business Edge interview with Ron Schumacher, the CTO of Initiate Systems. “What a useless column/article!” wrote Stitz. He was referring to the question of “which data should [be in] a central hub master, and [more]

YES ITS NAGGING BUT REGISTRIES ARE CRUCIAL TO SOA

David Raab and Kathy Campbell of CRM Buyer provided a brilliant insight in a recent article on choosing a CRM system: “Projects like this almost always originate with a very specific business problem.” While their point was related to CRM, it’s equally valid for SOA, where this problem-oriented approach can be a problem in itself. When [more]

SOME GOOD NEWS ON OFFICE 2007

There is a fair amount of commentary regarding the new Office 2007 suite coming out this fall, most of it positive. John Carroll, blogging on ZDNet, said the ribbon-based GUI takes a little getting used to, but in the end is a very intuitive approach that gets you where you need to be quickly. Mac users, meanwhile, [more]

COMBINING STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION AND ILM

A couple of key questions surfaced this week regarding storage virtualization and its ability to adequately track and monitor data being shuttled between a growing multitude of sources and destinations. One writer from McDATA was quick to point out that seemingly new technologies like virtualization and information lifecycle management are the modern equivalents of device emulation and heirarchical [more]

MOVING AHEAD WITH IPV6

Computer Sciences Corporation’s decision to deploy IPv6 got us thinking about whether enterprises will see any benefits besides enhanced security if they, too, adopt the protocol. It turns out there are a slew of operational bonuses as well. Not only will it improve communications and management capabilities between HQ and remote offices, it will help lower costs and [more]

THE DRIVE TO IMPROVE THE DATA CENTER

Data center issues have been front and center for most enterprises for the past several years. From powering and cooling to backup and recovery, it seems like a lot of investment is being made to ensure that the business stays up and running during an emergency and files and records remain handy in case the [more]