Though I'm already quite involved in social media (through my job), there has always been a white spot on my map until now: Pinterest. "Something with images" was all I could say about it. I like text over images and anyway: who needs another portal? As I look around my circle of friends: obviously quite a few. Described to me as "a cross between a photo site, a constructive community and a virtual pin board with a high percentage of female members" by a friend, I seek to find out mainly one thing in my self-experiment: is Pinterest really the better Facebook as some say? Time to register!
When managers have a chat without firing off marketing buzzwords things get really interesting. Last week, Joe Belfiore, the man in charge of Windows Edge, announced the end of Windows in the mobile space as a side note. Windows 10 for cellphones will no longer be developed and users will only receive bug fixes and security updates until the end of 2019. That means there'll only be two big competitors left in the cellphone market, i.e. iOS and Android. Even though Windows Phone ran on only 1% of all cellphones it had a resounding effect. Rarely had it become so apparent where market power ends and how hard it is to close an innovation gap.
I'm always open to reader suggestions so this week's article is about PayPal, one of the world's biggest online payment services. What is PayPal, what are the advantages and how do you use it? How much does it cost and what do you need to make payments through PayPal? What about security? Why does the payment behavior of family members matter? And of course: what disadvantages and criticism apply?
Hotel portals are usually a delightful convenience. You enter the location where you'd like to stay plus how many, add the date and, just like that, you're presented with a broad selection of overnight accommodations. If, however, a handful of portals process 75% of all direct bookings, this can quickly lead to monopoly positions with the potential for abuse. It can even prompt the courts to take action over best price guarantees.
Last week, a piece of news shook the IT world. The US government had banned federal agencies from using security software from Russian company Kaspersky as the Department of Homeland Security was worried about potential connections between Kaspersky and the Russian secret service. In an unprecedented move, all Kaspersky software now has to be removed from all government PCs within 150 days. Looking closer, a couple a questions arise the most important of which is: is there anything left that is safe to install?
