MV Tech MV Tech (September 24, 2004)

By Kristine D. Dworkin

Pizza delivered via the Internet

The founders of Google won't be showing up at your front door with a pepperoni pie. But the future of local advertising is starting to look like a Google search.

Type in "pizza" followed by your zip code and several featured links to local restaurants will appear at the top of your results. Any one of them will provide you with a phone number, address and even a map to the establishment's front door.

Thinking of the Web as local may be strange to some but Google is focused on bringing local advertisers within its search engine. Once both users and advertisers begin to consider the Internet as a more local venue, a new and powerful revenue stream could finally start flowing from the Web.

For more information on Google, visit www.google.com.

A domain name high

VeriSign released its quarterly domain name report, and it's loaded with stats showing the continued worldwide proliferation of the Internet.

The biggest nugget is that worldwide domain name registration has reached an all-time high of 64.5 million. This increase puts the number of domain name registrations past the levels of those seen during the Internet boom in the late 1990s.

This king-sized domain name base is also being utilized more than ever before. Renewal rates for .com and .net names were up 71 percent in May 2004. In addition, VeriSign's global Internet registry for .com and .net is also processing, on average, more than 14 billion hits per day, more than three times the number of phone calls made per day in the U.S.

Interested in reading VeriSign's Domain Name report? Check it out at www.verisign.com/domainbrief.

Birthday candles for software group

Veritas Software celebrated its 15-year anniversary by reflecting on the past, thanking its innovators and looking toward the future.

Known for its backup and data protection software as well as it high-availability disaster recovery software, Veritas has grown from a company comprised of only a small group of software engineers to employing more than 7,100 people and conducting business in more than 40 countries around the world.

Check out the Veritas milestone map and get insights from its engineers at www.veritas.com.

Making music with Marimba

Houston's BMC Software, Inc has completed its acquisition of Marimba, Inc. Marimba's shareholders approved the acquisition during a July 2004 meeting at its Mountain View headquarters.

The union is expected to strengthen BMC's Software business management offerings and provide a more complete answer to BMC Software customers' change process and configuration management problems. There is no word yet on whether any of BMC or Marimba's work forces will be trimmed as a result of this merger.

If you're interested in keeping tabs on this merger, visit www.marimba.com.

"MVTech" is a roundup of news from Mountain View's high-tech industry. Please send news items, comments and suggestions to Kristine D. Dworkin at mvvoicetech@yahoo.com.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.