Rafe's Blog

AIM gets into Outlook

Aha, so now it becomes a little more clear why AOL so easily gave up its corporate IM product: It now says it has plans to integrate with Outlook to let people you communicate with see your AIM presence.  Very smart. Presence is the next big thing.

Update: Get it here.

From my "Business Buzz" on CNET.com - work.cnet.com.

Microsoft's new small business portal

The company you love to hate has a new small business portal that's not half bad. Of course, it leads you down the garden path of upgrading your software to newer Microsoft products. But it also has some useful tutorials and a solid community section where you can share tips with other owner/operators.  Small biz blogger Ramon Ray has more.

From my "Business Buzz" on CNET.com - work.cnet.com.

Encrypt your backups!

Bank of America reported that it lost backup tapes in transit last week. The tapes contained data on more than a million government credit cards. This is a big story, but it should not be. The tapes should be encrypted. After all, we encrypt data when we send it over the Net. A similar protocol should apply when we send information by mail.

From my "Business Buzz" on CNET.com - work.cnet.com.

IM is not a toy

Despite the exit of AOL and Yahoo from the corporate instant messenger market, IM is a serious business tool. On March 8, Microsoft is expected to roll out its latest IM tool, It's supposed to integrate with Microsoft's email systems. That's just the beginning of what I'm sure will be an increasing awareness of presence-enabled applications in business.

From my "Business Buzz" on CNET.com - work.cnet.com.

You can't make me! Oh wait, you can.

Microsoft is finally terminating support for old versions of Windows XP; it will force users to move up to SP2. This could mean extra work to handle the upgrades by people who haven't scheduled it. Reminds me of Intuit's "sunset policies" that force users to upgrade to new versions of Quicken that do less than the old ones they are using.

From my "Business Buzz" on CNET.com - work.cnet.com.

Air Money

Tomorrow's credit card may have an RFID chip in it, so you'll be able to make credit card transactions by just waving your card in the general direction of the card reader.  The downside: If you process credit cards now, you'll have to get and install a new reader. The other downside: Think of the fun hackers will have when they can walk down the street with a portable card scanner and pick up credit card info.

From my "Business Buzz" on CNET.com - work.cnet.com.

Your customers deserve better

Online payroll site PayMaxx took down its automated W-2 site last week when it was revealed that anyone, given one user's ID code, could easily get other users' records, just by adding one to the known ID number. The company's initial reaction was to claim that, "no system is 100 percent secure from a sophisticated and determined hacker."  And you do have to be pretty sophisticated to add one, after all.  This comes on the heels of the related story about ChoicePoint getting hacked -- not by malicious computer wonks, but by social engineers.  So for our small business readers out there, a plea: Invest all you want in security systems, but don't forget, carelessness trumps technology every time.

From my "Business Buzz" on CNET.com - work.cnet.com.

Search strategies

An important part of doing business today is figuring out how to take the best advantage of search engines like Google.  There is a whole mini-industry devoted to search engine optimization, in fact.  But in the future, you’re going to have to worry about more than just the general-purpose search engines.  Specialized search sites are popping up in key industries, and winning over both users and advertisers. Eventually there will be a consolidation among specialized search companies, but for the next year or two (at least), expect to be further confused as new search tools pop up that you can’t afford to ignore.

From my "Business Buzz" on CNET.com - work.cnet.com.

The business of Whuffie

Ted Cho has a very interesting startup, Opinity, that aims to sell reputation engine technology. I covered the company in my biweekly "Rafe's Radar" column for Release 1.0.

Related and required reading: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Cory Doctorow.

Make your small business look big

Small businesses no longer have to install high-end PCs or buy expensive enterprise-class software to get the capabilities – and the apparent professionalism – that big business enjoys. From accounting applications to CRM (customer relationship management), to even phone service, almost any business function can be rented over the Internet today.  So what makes a business big? We leave that as an exercise for the reader.

From my "Business Buzz" on CNET.com - work.cnet.com.