Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

More than two years ago Inc. covered the “ Unconference ” trend

You won't believe the ways some big insurance companies take advantage of their customers

My company’s vice president of engineering, John Maddalozzo, attended the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival here in Austin a few weeks ago to learn all the cool things happening right now in technology. One of the panels he attended was called “Stop Listening to Your Customers” . John noted that the three companies Silverback, Usabilla, and Ethnio were mentioned during the panel.

Next time you're shopping online , be prepared for a chat. As live chat technology evolves, e-commerce sites are finding that virtual clerks are becoming crucial to customer support and sales systems. Earlier this year, Bold Software, a live chat and click-to-call service based in Wichita, Kansas, polled 200 of their customers—mostly online merchants who use the software to interact with customers browsing their sites—to see just how effective live chats really were

If you're reading this blog, chances are you are a small business owner or self-employed professional (at least that's our target audience - others welcome, of course). But are you a local business? What makes you "local"?

You've just had a gorgeous restaurant meal: Delicious food, attentive service and an atmosphere that made you feel both indulged and privileged. You already know to tip your server nicely, but what else can you do

Tablets. With about 50 of them launched at this year’s Consumer Electronic Show, some wry observers dubbed it ‘Tablet World 2011.’ Of course, the world’s best selling tablet, the iPad, wasn’t even there

Early adopters of the iPad 2 have only had the weekend to play with their new toy. That was enough time for the first reports of possible defects to come to the surface

Foursquare's rolling out details of yet another of its new features, a revamp of its merchant platform dubbed "Specials," continuing its recent trend of expanding its core checkin game. Foursquare's Merchant Platform launched in 2010 to "give businesses an easy way to reward their customers and find new ones," but Foursquare has now revamped the system to "give merchants a way to learn more about their best customers and start offering Specials to help them get new people into their location." So says Foursquare's blog posting revealing the revamp.