Internet-based applications and services - News, Features, and Slideshows

Features

• How to Ensure Your Social Media Privacy

  Living a genuinely private life in today's increasingly social and interconnected world requires an equal measure of patience, research and ingenuity. Of course, digital marketers say you worry too much.

• Salesforce at 15: Industry disruptor wards off midlife crisis

  Salesforce.com recently celebrated its 15th year in existence, and as the SaaS (software-as-a-service) vendor races toward US$5 billion in revenue its influence on the industry is being felt more than ever. At the same time, some signs indicate that Salesforce.com is having a few growing pains, as well as showing some trappings of the mega-vendors it once mocked with its "End of Software" marketing campaign.

• Why C-Suite Executives Need to Shine on Social Media

  Most CIOs -- and other C-suite executives have at least a LinkedIn profile, but social media requires much more these days. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and others are no longer exclusively personal, but also reflective of your role in the larger organization.

• How to Use Social Media to Improve Your IT Recruiting Strategy

  Social media is ubiquitous in today's digital world, so you can bet your next star employee is out there sharing, liking and tweeting. Here's how to leverage social networking technology to effectively target and recruit IT candidates.

• How to Make Meetings More Productive

  With the right collaboration tools and an open-minded management team, the phrase 'productive meeting' doesn't have to be an oxymoron.

• Social Media Getting More Spontaneous and Less Personal

  Deliberate status updates are losing luster as quick, impromptu, short-lived activity on social media gathers momentum. If the first phase of social media was a massive effort to share our online identities, this current wave is all about fleeting encounters.

• Trust issue looms large for tech companies capitalizing on personal data

  As tech companies increasingly rely on analyzing and selling user data to boost revenue, trust is emerging as one of the defining issues of the year for the IT sector.

• The future of Dynamics in a Nadella-led Microsoft

  Microsoft's Dynamics ERP and CRM product lines seemed safe immediately following former CEO Steve Ballmer's sweeping reorganization of the company last year. But now that longtime Microsoft executive Satya Nadella has been named Ballmer's successor, the time is ripe for more focused speculation on the future of Dynamics. Here's a look at what could be in store.

• Could Bitcoin's frothy venture funding dry up?

  Bitcoin: What is it, really? A digital currency? An investment? An Xbox game? For many people it's not clear, but that hasn't stopped venture capitalists from going gaga over it.

• Top tech stories of 2013: Big Brother, wearables, and the struggles of aging tech giants

  Politics collided with the world of technology this year as stories about U.S. government spying stirred angst both among the country's citizens and foreign governments, and the flawed HeathCare.gov site got American health-care reform off to a rocky start. Meanwhile, the post-PC era put aging tech giants under pressure to reinvent themselves. Here in no particular order are IDG News Service's picks for the top 10 tech stories of the year.

• 14 Ways to Use Twitter to Market Your Business

  Twitter experts, marketing pros and business leaders share their top tips on how to turn 140 characters into online marketing gold.

• By the numbers: Twitter vs. Facebook IPOs

  Facebook's IPO was considered an early bust while Twitter's has been deemed a success. In terms of orderly market activity, that's without question. But what about prices?

• Here comes the age of ambient everything

  Trends in social, search, mobile, wearable and the Internet of things will alter our perception of reality. Change is in the air, says columnist Mike Elgan.

• The new killer app is a real human

  The future was supposed to be automated and computerised. But it turns out that automation is creating demand for the human element.

• Wall Street Beat: Does Twitter IPO signal a tech bubble?

  Despite the frothy headlines stirred by Twitter's initial public offering, tech is not in a bubble of the sort that arose before the 2000 dot-com crash.