InfoWorld Enterprise Apps

Google's Chrome 6 is 17 percent faster than the version it replaced, putting it in a virtual dead heat with the speed leaders, Opera and Safari, according to benchmark scores.

Planning a purchase from a major IT vendor? In this still-tough economy, negotiating pros recommend being aggressive and creative, as well as analyzing your requirements first so that you don't buy more than you need and know where you can compromise.

Here are the top tips from consultants who help customers negotiate pricing, terms, and conditions with vendors such as Cisco Systems, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP. We've arranged them in three groups:

Google Wave, the social networking service canceled by Google, will morph into an application bundle for real-time collaboration, a Google engineer said this week.

Microsoft Office is in the enviable position of being on practically everyone's desktop or laptop, even though it hasn't offered anything new since the 1997 edition (or maybe 2002/XP version, which added hyperlinks support) that 95 percent of the users need. Yet users and companies pay $200 or so per license every few years because -- well, because it's a bad habit we've all gotten into that provides Microsoft huge ongoing revenues in return for, frankly, nothing.

It's certainly been a festive week in Google's browser division.

SAS Institute announced on Thursdaya new toolset aimed at giving business users the ability to work with predictive analytics software, which has historically been the province of specialized statisticians.

Predictive analytics refers to the practice of crunching existing data sets in an effort to determine patterns and predict future outcomes.

Google and AOL have renewed a long-term partnership that gives AOL Web properties access to Google search and advertising services.

The partnership, in place since May 2002 and renewed for the third time, provides revenue-sharing from AOL in exchange for search services. The new deal will expand to give AOL access to Google's mobile search products and Google subsidiary YouTube access to AOL's video content, the companies said in a statement.

An information security company will soon release a tool that will allow companies to test their ERP (enterprise resource planning) software for security threats.

The first version of X1 works with SAP business platforms, said Mariano Nuñez Di Croce, director of research and development for Onapsis. The company eventually plans to add modules for Siebel, Oracle and PeopleSoft ERP applications, he said.

Salesforce.com rolled out a new service on Wednesday that integrates business-contact information with its own CRM (customer relationship management) application and Chatter collaboration software.

Virtual appliances are great for the same reasons physical appliances took the IT world by storm: They make deployment a snap -- even instantaneous -- while at the same time reducing costs. It's a formula that made hardware-based appliances immensely popular for network security, backup, storage networking, file services, email, and many other single-focus solutions.

Can you remember the first type of CRM tool you used years back (before computers)? Maybe you worked with a Rolodex, invented in 1954. Maybe a simple black book of names and information. Today, most people use the contacts facility in Outlook or the built-in contacts application in Windows. But for ultimate contacts management, there's CRM software.

Google has made its fifth acquisition since the start of August, this time scooping up SocialDeck, a company that develops games that people can play against friends using iPhones, BlackBerry devices, or via Facebook on a PC.

Most of Google's recent acquisitions have been related to social networking and games, fueling speculation that the company plans to release a new social networking service, potentially centered on games, to compete with Facebook.

Google plans to begin rolling out to Gmail users on Tuesday a new feature designed to automatically rearrange messages in their inbox so that the most important and pressing ones appear at the top.

Called Priority Inbox, the feature will be released with the beta, or test, label and is being described for now as "experimental" by the company.

Autodesk is bringing its AutoCAD architecture, design, and engineering software back to the Mac OS after an 18-year absence, the company announced this evening. But the company plans to do more than offer a Mac OS X version of AutoCAD: It says it will release a free version of the software, dubbed AutoCAD WS, for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch that lets users review, edit, and share AutoCAD files on those popular mobile devices.

To determine whether or not the Office2 word processing and spreadsheet apps from Byte2 are a good fit for you, it’s important to understand your needs and Office2’s limitations.

Google has added new functionality to its real-time search engine, and moved it from an obscure feature buried in the options on the left pane of the standard Google search, to its own website. The new Google Realtime can be a powerful tool for businesses that know how to use it.

Apple's release of iWork 9.04 this week has a significant capability that could help transform document distribution: You can now export EPUB files from the productivity suite's Pages word processor. (The folks at Macworld explain how that works, if you're interested.) EPUB is the standard format for e-books used by a range of devices, including of course Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

Microsoft and Cisco may just have an unexpected competitor to their respective unified communications offerings: Google, with its newly announced integration of Google Voice with Gmail, is effectively opening up UC to the mobile masse

Rumors swirled once again this week regarding a possible takeover of Red Hat, this time by SAP, but a number of industry observers said Thursday that the prospect is unlikely at best.

With Microsoft and Yahoo officially teaming up in the search market this week, it's time to wait and see if this move could eat into Google's hearty lead over its top opponents.