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Chrome OS to follow Google Apps adoption

SINGAPORE--Enterprise adoption of Netbooks running Google's Chrome OS will follow the path of its hosted apps, in which small businesses were the initial adopters, says a company executive.

Speaking at a press event here Thursday, Caesar Sengupta, product management director for Google's Chrome OS project, explained that Netbooks powered by the platform will be adopted first by smaller enterprises before garnering support from large multinationals.

Read more of "Chrome OS to follow Google Apps adoption" at ZDNet Asia.

TechCrunch 50, Demo collide again in 2010

Once again, rival start-up conferences TechCrunch 50 and Demo are being held this year on the same days, September 13 to 15. The September Demo conference is also moving from its traditional Southern California resort location to a venue closer to the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists it serves, in Santa Clara, Calif. (Demo also has another conference in March, in Palm Desert, Calif.)

Verbal sparring between the two event organizers has started. After IDG and VentureBeat, who partnered to produce Demo, announced their September dates, Jason Calacanis, who with with Michael Arrington produces the TechCrunch 50 event, said on Twitter, &… Read more

Web sites that shuttered in 2009

Despite a bleak economic outlook, 2009 saw the release of some incredible new Web services. But every year--recession or no recession--there are always a few sites that close their doors.

We've highlighted 15 sites that ceased operations over the course of the year. A number of them came from big companies like Google and Yahoo--the latter of which did some major restructuring in 2008 that left it with new leadership and a leaner, meaner mentality towards cutting things that just weren't working. Others were simply ideas that needed a little more time and money, but couldn't get … Read more

Tax prep preview: Which DIY app is right for you?

Article updated Tuesday, December 22 at 7:30 am PT with corrected pricing information.

Tax time. We're dreading it as much as you are, but the fact remains that soon after we ring in 2010, we'll be paying for 2009.

In anticipation of the 2009 tax season, we've gathered some preliminary information about tax prep software for the DIY tax-doers among you. There are noteworthy changes to H&R Block's and Intuit's software, the two developers that take up the lion's share of the tax software market and the two we therefore focus on in our coverage. The prices of some applications in the two product families have crept up $10 but others remain steady compared with last year.

If choosing among multiple products weren't confusing enough, you also get to determine if online or desktop apps are the way to go. To that end, we've rounded up pros and cons for these two tax prep approaches.

Taxes are complicated, and the software offerings are no different. We tried to keep information simple and organized in a chart below, but with extra charges for state returns and extra e-file submissions, it's easy to get lost. Keep in mind that this is a preview, not an exhaustive comparison, and that we'll return in early 2010--after we get our own forms in the mail--with in-depth reviews on some of the software products mentioned here. … Read more

Google's top antitrust defender: 'It's fun'

Editor's note: This is the fourth in a series of articles discussing how people in the tech industry are working with or around federal and state governments.

Either side of this fight would be fun for Google's Dana Wagner.

After nearly a decade of slumber, the U.S. government went into 2009 turning over rocks for potential antitrust violations inside the technology industry. Perhaps no company has been affected by this move toward legal activism more than Google, and perhaps no one within Google has the unique perspective on antitrust law and corporate rights of Wagner, senior competition … Read more

Yahoo's Bartz cancels CES keynote appearance

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has abruptly canceled her scheduled keynote speech at CES, arguably the biggest event on the technology calendar.

Tech Trader Daily noticed Tuesday that Bartz's name had disappeared from the list of keynote speakers for the 2010 CES, almost a month to the day that the Consumer Electronics Association announced her plans to attend the show. A representative of the CEA later confirmed that Bartz was no longer in the mix, and announced plans to have Qualcomm's Paul Jacobs keynote the event.

A Yahoo representative cited "changes in her calendar" that would prevent … Read more

Get a $10 Restaurant.com gift certificate for 80 cents

We interrupt your regularly scheduled tech deals to bring you this important bulletin...

Food!

Specifically, restaurant food. As many of you know, Restaurant.com sells gift certificates for a fraction of their face value. And right now, you can buy them for a fraction of that fraction.

For example, $25 certificates normally sell for $10, but if you enter coupon code ENTREE at checkout, the price drops to $2. And $10 certificates, normally $4, drop to just 80 cents. Yowza.

For those unfamiliar with Restaurant.com, the only real "string" attached is a minimum food or drink purchase. … Read more

Yahoo planning Santa Clara campus

Yahoo is apparently thinking about making a run for the border: the Sunnyvale border, that is.

Marketwatch reports that Yahoo is finally preparing plans for a parcel of land it acquired three years ago in Santa Clara, Calif., a few exits south on U.S. 101 of its current headquarters in Sunnyvale. The land has apparently sat vacant ever since Yahoo bought it in 2006 in hopes of expanding, which, of course, didn't exactly work out given Yahoo's financial performance over that time and the economic downturn.

It's not clear whether Yahoo wants to move the executive … Read more

Tech advice from Tim Berners-Lee

SAN FRANCISCO--When Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, entered the room for the final interview at the Web 2.0 Summit, the audience stood up for him.

Appropriately so, since most of those present here Thursday owe their livelihoods to his invention. In an on-stage interview with Tim O'Reilly, the audience was listening to Berners-Lee not just for his perspective but his guidance. While not explicitly called out in the discussion, there was good advice in what he had to say. Here's what I heard:

Don't build your laws into the Web. "Technology shouldn'… Read more