Stories about: Google

Facing uncertain economic times, enterprises may be more likely to turn to cloud computing services -- such as SaaS (software as a service), Amazon-style utility computing, and managed service providers -- for the lower up-front costs, the faster time to market, and the ability to add capabilities quickly without investing in new hardware.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer revealed a few details on Wednesday of a forthcoming operating system that will help developers write Internet-based applications.

Officials from companies such as HP and Joyent debated the merits and even the definition of cloud computing Monday during an event at eBay headquarters, emphasizing efforts underway and noting limitations to cloud computing on the software side.

The Internet is a scary place. Criminal malware lurks on legitimate and illegitimate Web sites alike, looking to steal your money one way or the other. Vendors have been scratching their collective heads attempting to make more consumers safer, more often. One of the results has been a class of anti-malware software that I call sandbox protection products. These items encapsulate Internet browsers (and e-mail programs and sometimes any other program you can run) within a virtual, emulated cocoon designed to keep malware from reaching and modifying the underlying host computer.

Worries about consumer spending, advertising and the ability of IT companies to raise money appear to have hit many tech stocks harder even than the overall market on Monday, one of the worst days on Wall Street since 1929.

Mozilla beat its own schedule by patching Firefox late Friday to fix a password bug it had inadvertently introduced earlier in the week.

Developers working on WebKit announced late last week that the newest build of the browser engine, which powers both Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome, has aced all of the requirements of an important Web standards test.

Just a day after it released Firefox 3.0.2 to fix 11 vulnerabilities, Mozilla said that an overlooked password bug requires a fast-track update it hopes to launch this week.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last Thursday emphasized the company's ambitions in search and virtualization while offering his perspective on the current nervous US economic situation.

Critics of Google's proposed advertising deal with Yahoo stepped up the pressure on the US Department of Justice last week, as the agency decides if it will oppose the deal.

Security researchers have warned that a new class of vulnerabilities dubbed "clickjacking" puts users of every major browser at risk from attack.