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IBM layoffs, Manifesto saga, Google tweaks

27.03.2009
IBM is laying off thousands more employees and is likely to ship more of those jobs overseas, news of which riled up a whole lot of people. A back-and-forth over a "secret" document regarding cloud computing -- of all things -- also stirred it up in some quarters, making us think that some folks really do need to get out in the sunshine a little more. Google brought some happiness to the mix, though, announcing it has added some semantic technology to its search engine.

1. and : IBM provoked ire this week with word that it will cut 5,000 employees in North America and potentially move more jobs overseas. Seems that Big Blue missed the memo that emotions are running so hot these days that this kind of action doesn't just give CNN's Lou Dobbs another reason to foam at the mouth, but could, in fact, hurt business.

2. , and : We have found the secret "Cloud Manifesto" brouhaha quite entertaining and await the next wrinkle in the ongoing saga. First, Microsoft criticized the drafting of what it claimed was a "secret" document about interoperability of cloud-computing networks. "Very recently we were privately shown a copy of the document, warned that it was a secret, and told that it must be signed 'as is,' without modifications or additional input," according to a middle-of-the-night Microsoft blog post. Then, the fellow who drafted the document spoke out to say that Microsoft had been involved in "active discussions" about the document. Then, InfoWorld got someone who worked on the document to spill the beans that IBM had been the guiding force pushing the document, which helped to explain Microsoft's foul mood over the whole thing. The manifesto is, by the way, due for release Monday.

3. : Google -- finally! -- added semantic technology to its search engine and coupled that with real-time data mining, which means that the engine will be better able to figure out the context of a search query and to look for concepts and associations related to it.

4. : This week's entry to bolster the case for those who simply do not get the appeal of Facebook came from one Tom Krieglstein, who noticed late Wednesday that he had administrative access to Microsoft, Southwest Airlines and American Airlines Pages at the social-networking site. To see if he really did have that kind of control, he sent out a link to a Star Wars group and it went to 825,000 people. Good thing he wasn't inclined to some real mischief.

5. : In a show of the desperation for good economic news, what would be an ordinary sort of product story got a lot of play at week's end -- Hewlett-Packard debuted its latest Pavilion laptop at an event in Singapore, where company executives said that they believe the worst of the slowdown in PC demand may be over. While we aren't quite ready to hop on the happy train just yet (and neither were analysts who were asked about the HP comments), a little optimism feels good right about now.