Hewlett-Packard

__

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Popular searches on the Internet Wednesday include Google(GOOG) Previously, comments made on Facebook and other social networking sites did not show up in Google searches because search engines were unable to read Facebook's programming automatically. Now, Google will be able to read comments posted on Facebook using Facebook's Connect add-in for other Web sites. If a Facebook account holder signs into another Web site using his or her Facebook account and leaves a comment, that comment can now show up in Google searches. Comments left on Facebook alone are not yet being indexed. Lenovo is

SAN FRANCISCO Hewlett-Packard has named Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO and California candidate for governor, as its new CEO, pushing aside Leo Apotheker after just 11 months on the job. Whitman got the top spot because there are few available people with the experience to run complex technology businesses, a source familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Apotheker is being removed because the board lost confidence in his ability to lead the company long-term. The management shake-up represents yet another turnaround strategy at one of Silicon Valleys oldest, but most publicly dysfunctional, firms. Since joining HP

Amazon sites reached the largest global audience of selected global retail and auction sites in June, with more than 282 million visitors, according to ComScore research. That was 20.4 percent of the worldwide Internet population. Other top brands in the study included eBay, which reached 16.2 percent of global Internet visitors, China's Alibaba.com Corporation (11.3 percent reach), Apple.com worldwide sites (9.7 percent reach) and Japan's Rakuten Inc. (4.2 percent reach). Amazon and Apple.com worldwide sites showed more globally distributed audiences compared to most other brands in the study. Amazon sites attracted 35.4 percent of its audience from North America,

Bloomberg reported that Hewlett-Packard is planning to spin off its PC business and acquire software company Autonomy Corp in a $10 billion acquisition. Citing “people with direct knowledge of the situation,” the report said that HP may make its announcement as soon as today, when it gives its quarterly report. HP could not immediately be reached for comment. Read full article >>

Think back to the last time you were in the market for a new printer, camera or sofa. If you used a search engine like Google or Bing, chances are you were served up a mess of things from videos to news results to images. That mess probably included ads that were pretty far off the mark.

The tablet era has arrived at big-box retailers, which are now setting aside large swaths of floor space previously devoted to traditional PCs. Best Buy is probably the highest profile example of this trend — it's overhauled or is in the process of overhauling display areas. Tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Motorola Xoom, and Hewlett-Packard TouchPad now get prominent placement at stores, rendering the iPad just one among equals.

Personalization of the in-store customer experience will be a key objective for retailers over the next two years, according to two Aberdeen Group reports sponsored by HP. According to 100 senior retail executives surveyed 76 percent of retailers don't possess the technology tools or the business processes for executing web, catalog or special orders from stores.

While marketers are in business to sell products, a continued hard sell in email after email doesn't do much to engage readers. Innovative marketers try to find ways to keep their email recipients opening and clicking. They attempt to delight and amaze their readers, and connect with them. Consider occasionally including value-added content that creates an experience. There are many ways to accomplish this; here are six ideas to spur your thinking:

Regardless of the channels in which you sell, testing is invaluable to your business. And offer testing, in particular, is misunderstood in both practice and power. Yet testing seems complicated and time consuming. Is it worth it? The answer: You can't afford NOT to test.