SMB

Funny thing about economic disasters: They tend to spawn a bevy of new businesses. It's not that a recession is the best time for pie-in-the-sky thinking; rather, it's when pie-in-the-mouth issues become most pressing. "The tantalizing successes of some startups, coupled perhaps with the rise in une...

The economy is still broken, and businesses are scampering to save money and entice back lost customers. Don't remind Brett Caine, though. As president of Citrix Online, he's too busy growing the company's customer base into a $100 million business that a few years ago didn't exist. As a young start...

As the business use of mobile devices such as laptops and smartphones proliferates, IT departments are scrambling to implement adequate security safeguards both inside and outside company walls. The cost of implementing security measures is problematic for many small-to-medium-sized enterprises, but...

As the frequent news reports of data breaches attest, maintaining data security is a tough row to hoe -- even for large enterprises. It's even harder for small and medium-sized businesses, which don't have the money or IT resources their larger counterparts have. The plethora of threats is daunting,...

One would think that the cost of doing business on the Web is so small that it would be almost negligible, but that's not the case with many e-tailers, which is why many of them fail. It's also why Prashant Nedungadi decided to launch IMshopping, an online company that's trying to emulate offline cu...

The report came out right before the economy nose-dived, before ad revenues started to shrink, before even online display advertising started feeling the recession's pinch. A February 2007 report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations -- the keepers of media buying/selling trends and standards for pu...

The global economy is changing. For many consumers, the credit card crunch is crumbling their ability to buy things online. In many countries outside the U.S., consumers do not have credit cards but rely instead on smart cards to swipe transactions directly through their banks. Often, children too y...

Software giant Microsoft announced Wednesday that it will offer a stripped-down version of its server software, targeting small businesses with fewer than 15 employees. Windows Server 2008 Foundation, priced at $1,000, provides small-business customers with the ability to run business applications, ...

Search engine powerhouse Google has launched a new venture capital fund, Google Ventures. The new fund will invest in early-stage companies across a broad range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, clean tech, biotech and healthcare, according to a company blog posted Tuesday. "This...

Spark Capital, one of the early investors in Twitter, Akamai Technologies and Novatel Wireless, has launched a new seed fund for technology entrepreneurs, specifically in the Boston and New York City areas. Called "Start@Spark," the program will provide up to $250,000 in seed money to business start...

In Italy, Biesse Systems is a manufacturer of substantial size; its American subsidiary, though, is by any measure a small business, with under 200 employees. Still, Biesse America's communication needs rivaled that of a large enterprise. It needed to communicate with its parent in Italy regularly, ...

A new streaming video startup, ZillionTV, has entered the crowded digital television sector. The Sunnyvale, Calif., startup, which is backed by Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, NBC Universal, Disney, Fox, Visa, Sierra Ventures, Concept Ventures and Blu-ray chip maker Sigma Design, expects to launch its ...

Small businesses have been reluctant to spend precious resources on a marketing medium that traditionally has not delivered -- at least to them -- on its promise. That medium is search engine marketing. However, they will find it worthwhile to take another look at this particular tactic. A lot of lo...

For a long time, small businesses were reluctant to embrace the latest in search engine marketing and other online advertising tactics. The SEM industry was unable to deliver to this group of typically local-interest, cost-conscious companies what they wanted the most: a means to assess how their in...

No matter where one turns on the Internet these days, it's virtually impossible to avoid being bombarded by advertising in one form or another. Banner ads. Video ads. Display ads. Search engine marketing. Ads on MySpace. Ads on Facebook. The only area of the Web left untouched by advertising may be ...