Startups are a big part of President Obama’s economic plan, with more than $48 billion in tax breaks earmarked for small companies creating jobs, annually. The initiative was bolstered by a recent report from the Kaufman Foundation stating that fast-growth companies, while making up less than 1% of US employers, are responsible for up to 10% of national hires in a given year. …

For the last 3 or 4 years, social media has been the hot topic that businesses have been told will save them. It has come across as both a promise and a threat; if you get involved, it can help your business but if you don’t, you’ll go the way of the dinosaurs, lost with nothing to show for it but your fossil records. That is, at least, what everyone has been told lately. It may be true that some businesses have found success in social media and a majority still believe something is there, but few can say with certainty that the time and money they invest into Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, their blogs, and all…

For most, Facebook is an internet tool for keeping up with our friends and family while broadcasting the “interesting” things that are happening in our own lives. For businesses, it’s a relatively-untapped marketing tool that has a world of potential but that often doesn’t offer the results that are promised. People don’t want Facebook to be a marketing tool and Facebook is obligated to them more than businesses (for now). The key to success with Facebook is EdgeRank, the algorithm that Facebook uses to determine how high on a user’s feed your posts will appear. Chronology has a little to do with…

Microsoft may be trying (and failing) to slow Google’s emergence into business productivity with their Google Apps for Business, but Google is heading in the other direction by demonstrating that they may just have the technology end of it figured out. That’s been the complaint of Microsoft, but Google insists that their products can be just as slick. Their latest marketing video for business apps highlights the reason that some (not many yet, but some) are switching from traditional Microsoft products to the more-collaborative Google variations. Whether they can be robust enough for business…

It may not be the first time Microsoft has tried to use humor and aggressive attacks to go after Google, but this time it hits a little closer to home than they’ve done in the past. In attacking Google Apps as a work productivity tool, Microsoft invokes Wave, Gears, and Buzz as examples of how Google has completely abandoned projects in the recent past. This time, they’re going to try to help this particular Google product out the door before it can be successfully integrated into business. Playing on the word, “moonlighting”, this video tries to point out that Google Apps aren’t ready for the business…

When Facebook started rolling out their plan to put online stores on their platform in November, 2010, many believed that “F-Commerce” was the next big thing. It was heralded as a competitor for Amazon, a socialized shopping experience that allowed consumers to go to Facebook to find all of their favorite brands and buy products directly from the social network. The concept was flawed from the start and the cracks are starting to show as Gamestop joins a growing list of retailers who tried F-Commerce, only to abort quickly. Their Facebook store lasted 6 months, longer than many others like Gap,…

If this is the future of retail, I’ll be shopping online more often. Takashimaya, a department store in Tokyo, is working with Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro from Osaka University to demonstrate their concept of the next generation of retail merchandising. The timing couldn’t be better – the female mannequin is pushing their Valentine’s Day promotion as its first target. Ishiguro is known as the master of lifelike robotics and is best known for his work on the incredibly realistic Geminoid line of androids. This is the first time his work has been applied for commercial purposes. “I see this as the future…

In a great economy, it’s hard to start a retail company and get attention in industries where the major players have already hit the field. Things are rebounding around the country to some extent but it’s definitely not what most would consider to be “great.” That isn’t stopping one Southern California shoe company from making a splash by using the most important ally for growing businesses: social media. There are many huge companies in the women’s footwear industry that make it challenging for new companies to break through. A decade ago, success stories in this industry were few and far between….

The internet is rife with theft. People take content and concepts from others on a regular basis and pawn it off as their own. It’s so common that many websites (including this one) have given up on fighting content-scrapers, spammers, and intellectual property thieves altogether. If you can get by without being too-badly hurt by them, it often isn’t worth the fight. Sometimes, however, it is so blatant that it cannot be ignored. Such is the case with Y Combinator startup Curebit who took design ideas and code directly from 37signals. The startup just received $1.2 million in funding from Dave…

LinkedIn and Facebook may have the market cornered for building relationships between business professionals, many startups are starting to pop up that take it to the next level. One such startup is Favo.rs. I was first turnedonto Favo’rs a couple of months ago from an article on Wired. A “good ol’ boy” network, as they describe it, Favo.rs allows users to connect with other professionals just as LinkedIn and Facebook. The difference is in the accountability aspect; with Favors, users get to keep track of what they do for others and what others are doing for them. The interface is solid, keeping…