InformationWeek - November 7, 2008 09:20 AM

Microsoft competitors Marc Benioff of Salesforce and Dave Girouard of Google sound off on Microsoft’s Azure venture into the cloud.

salesforce.com in cloudcomputing courtesy of flikcr

By Thomas Claburn

The introduction of major new products in the tech industry invariably elicits comments from competitors about how the announcement validates the market.So it was at the Web 2.0 Summit during a discussion of cloud computing when panel moderator Tim O’Reilly mentioned the introduction last week of Windows Azure,Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s forthcoming cloud computing platform.

Yet few in the industry can hone the competitive forget-me-not into such a cutting quip as Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce (NYSE: CRM).com.

“I think it’s fantastic that they’re coming in and saying that they’re going to have something someday,” said Benioff with a hint of sarcasm, eliciting chuckles from an audience familiar with Microsoft’s habit of announcing products years before they appear.

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Silicon Alley Insider - Nicholas Carlson | November 10, 2008 7:49 AM

Google CEO, Eric Schmidt courtesy of smh.com.au | Reuters

Going forward in these uncertain economic times, Google will “be more careful with potential large expense streams, which are of uncertain return,” CEO Eric Schmidt told the New York Times in a weekend interview.

You’ve just witnessed business innovation at work, people.

Eric didn’t say so, but we think he and Google learned this lesson from YouTube, which the company acquired for $1.65 billion in 2006 but still earns less than 1% of Google’s overall revenues.

The CEO began to publicly call for the division to turn a profit late last spring and echoed the sentiment through several interviews over the summer. But as recently as mid-October, YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley confessed that when it comes to revenues: “I don’t think there’s going to be a silver bullet that answers all those questions.”

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IHT - Published: November 10, 2008

Barack Obama talked on phone with a potential voter at his campaign office before the Election Day. courtesy of Jae C. Hong/The Associated Press

By David Carr

NEW YORK: In February of 2007, a friend telephoned Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape and a board member of Facebook, and asked if he wanted to meet with a young man with an idea that sounded preposterous on its face.

Always game for something new, Andreessen headed out to the San Francisco airport late one night to hear the guy out. A junior member of a large powerful organization with a thin, but impressive résumé, he was about to take on far more powerful forces in a battle for leadership.

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IHT- Published: November 9, 2008

Obama supporters celebrating the Democratic senator's presidential election victory. courtesy of Evan Vucci/AP

By David Carr

NEW YORK: In February of 2007, a friend called Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape and a board member of Facebook, and asked if he wanted to meet with a young man with an idea that sounded preposterous on its face.

Always game for something new, Andreessen headed out to the San Francisco airport late one night to hear the guy out. A junior member of a large powerful organization with a thin, but impressive résumé, he was about to take on far more powerful forces in a battle for leadership.

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Informationweek, Nov 7, 2008 02:57 PM

Photo: Ballmer about to launch into his “Web developers” rallying cry, courtesy of istartedsomething.

Posted by Serdar Yegulalp

First Steve Ballmer was scratching his head about Android; now he’s murmuring about the possibility of using open source components in Internet Explorer. Small wonder so many of us are scratching our heads, too, but there’s a consistency in there, amazingly.

Every single one of Ballmer’s (and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s) recent moves vis-a-vis open source come down to two things: a) it’s OK as long as we can make it serve Microsoft in some fashion, and b) it’s OK as long as it’s not Linux. It’s not open source per se that’s the big enemy for them any more, but a specific open source platform that they worry most about.

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Information - Nov 6, 2008 11:31 AM

Steve Ballmer courtesy of Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Posted by Eric Zeman

Speaking at an investor meeting in Australia, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s Steve Ballmer said he doesn’t get the business model behind Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s Android platform. Some might say the same thing about Windows Mobile at the moment.

Ballmer just has the best quotes. Nobody says the stuff he does in public. At the very least, it provides for some entertainment on an otherwise gray Thursday morning (in the NYC metro area, anyway).

Ballmer was speaking at the Telstra Investor Day conference in Sydney earlier today. Eventually someone brought up Android. Ballmer said, “This is [Google's] first phone, they’re not easy. Let’s see how they do.”

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Silicon Alley Insider - Eric Krangel | November 4, 2008 5:45 PM

Obama's Electronic "Get Out The Vote" Plan: Cell Phone Messages image

Obama was using a high-tech method to get young people out to the polls today: Text messages to their cell phones. Bloomberg:

The Obama campaign plans to use the millions of cell-phone numbers