Business

Google chief executive officer Eric Schmidt has stepped down from his post atop the search engine world and will be replaced by the company's co-founder, Larry Page. Schmidt won't be leaving the company, however, and is set to become its executive ... chairman. Google CEO Shuffle to Streamline Decision Making According to Google, the changes are intended to "streamline decision making and create clearer lines of responsibility at the top of the company." The 55-year-old Schmidt has been with Google since 2001. In his new post he'll focus more on making business deals and partnerships with the ... (view more)

Just a week after Microsoft's cloud computing leader Bob Muglia announced he would soon be departing, another MS executive has revealed that he too will be leaving for greener pastures. Corporate Vice President of Windows Consumer Marketing Brad ... Brooks will soon be joining Juniper Networks. Not the First MS Exec to Jump to Juniper Juniper is an Internet Protocol products and services company with headquarters in sunny Sunnyvale, California. It's a growing firm that has acquired important Microsoft employees in the past, most notably former head of the Redmond-based company's Platforms and ... (view more)

A Russian Microsoft blog has revealed that the first Service Pack for Windows 7 may be on its way soon. Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) will bundle all of the updates and improvements made to the operating system (OS) since its October 2009 release ... into a single download. Late last week, the headline "Released Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2" was found on the Microsoft TechNet blog "Russian Windows Virtualization Discussion". The blog promised more discussion of the Service Pack would follow in the coming days. Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Release Date On Track News of a ... (view more)

Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates has always taken great pride in his philanthropic endeavors. While a great deal of funding has been provided to HIV and AIDS research over the years, it appears as if Microsoft will assume an even more ... active role in combating these and other fatal diseases. Microsoft's Altered Parasitic Organisms Back on July 9, 2009, Microsoft filed for a patent on "Adapting Parasites to Combat Disease" that laid out plans to unleash altered parasitic organisms inside human bodies. Knowledge of Microsoft's ambitions are only now surfacing and the imagery of ... (view more)

Microsoft is reportedly losing one of its most prominent and talented executives. Bob Muglia, who has been with the company nearly a quarter of a century, will be making his exit this coming summer. The news has generated much speculation from ... analysts, as the line of departing Microsoft execs grows longer. Cloud Computing Exec Looks to "New Opportunities" Muglia has been a part of Microsoft for 23 years. He's served a number of roles with the Redmond-based firm over that time, but in recent years has been a key part of Microsoft's shift toward cloud computing. It's not yet clear ... (view more)

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's highly-anticipated address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2011 was focused on one major theme: catching up in the tablet market. But he also took time to discuss other big products entering the new year, ... Microsoft Kinect for the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7. There's been a lot of talk in recent months about how Windows is going to fit into a very Apple-dominated tablet universe. Since its release last spring, the iPad has completely monopolized this market, with most Windows-based contenders, such as the ExoPC , are suffering from poor design and ... (view more)

Despite being available exclusively in beta form, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) has been downloaded more than 20 million times, Microsoft reports. It comes as one set of figures puts the browser behind Mozilla Firefox among European users for the very ... first time. Internet Explorer 9 Download Remains At Strong Pace It's tough to know exactly how many people have downloaded the IE9 beta, as the figure Microsoft gives may well include multiple downloads by the same user. But it's likely that the figure runs into many millions of people, which suggests that the audience goes beyond web developers ... (view more)

For years, hackers have turned the Internet into a never-ending game of " malware roulette," with virtually any web site running the risk of being compromised. In an effort to make the online community a safer place for everyone, Google has ... integrated a new self-identification feature into its search engine to inform users when a website poses a threat. Compromised Websites Weeded Out from Google Search Google created the feature with the average Internet user in mind. If the search engine detects that a website has been altered by a third party, it will display the following message: " ... (view more)

Microsoft has confirmed that a zero-day vulnerability exists in Windows XP, Vista, as well as Server 2003 and Server 2008. The bug, which first emerged in mid-December 2010, has evolved since the exploit was posted publicly. The bug was first ... discussed on December 15 at a security conference in South Korea. Since no one had yet exploited the vulnerability, there was not significant cause for concern. That's changed now that researcher Joshua Drake has released an exploit module via open-source penetration testing project, Metasploit. Exploit Opens Door to Total System Takeover Metasploit has ... (view more)

For the past few days, Microsoft's Windows Live support forums have been lit up by complaints of frustrated users who recently encountered emptied email inboxes, sent, and deleted folders upon accessing their Hotmail accounts. Microsoft on Sunday ... admitted many of its Hotmail accounts had been inexplicably wiped clean , and many experts speculated that the accounts were unlikely to be repair. Microsoft has since announced that the majority of email accounts have been restored to normal working order, but user complaints continue to be filed online forums. (Source: eweek.com ) Contacts Spammed ... (view more)