ITGumbo: spicing IT up

Israel's hi-tech scene was in a bit of a lull during the week of June 29, 2008, perhaps because of July 4th in the United States. The biggest news was about Google AdWords killer, Peer39, which has a semantic search engine that brings back more accurate results and can thus display better ads. It also has the ability to differentiate between positive and negative contexts of words. After Peer39, Microsoft made headlines with two announcements. The first announcement was that it has partnered with Ben-Gurion University and the second was that MSN Israel will now be controlled fully by Microsoft and no longer jointly with Internet Gold. There was also a lot of technology investment-related news that took place. For these and the rest of the 12 technology-related headlines from the week of June 29, 2008, as well as a special bonus check below.


Technology
Microsoft and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev announce agreement

A First Look Inside Peer39 & Its Semantic Advertising Technology

Microsoft to take full charge of MSN Israel

Alvarion® Sets Off First Mobile WiMAX™ Internet Service in the U.S.


Business
Cleantech Index (CTIUS) Expands Globally, Adds 33 New Companies

Israel's high-tech culture must rejigger, VC says

Options trade points to stronger shekel

VMware Completes Acquisition of B-hive Networks

IncrediMail and Google Sign AdSense Direct Agreement

Metalink files to raise $25m


Miscellaneous
What Determines the Price of Oil?

Destination: San Francisco. And Still NoGoBoingo


Bonus
This past Tuesday, popular Israel Web 2.0 blog, the.co.ils hosted its annual web startup competition, TWS2008. Ten Israeli Web 2.0 companies were selected by an impressive list of judges and gave brief presentations about what they do. Some of the winners included, Nuconomy, Dapper, HiveSight and WorkLight. WorkLight securely brings personalized Web 2.0 into the enterprise. Here are two video clips of part of WorkLight's presentation:





About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

According to a news release, XMPie, Inc., a dynamic publishing software provider, will unveil its new look and latest products at the On Demand Conference and Exposition in Boston, MA this week.

XMPie is a dynamic publishing software solutions provider of software that

enables enterprises and their marketing service providers to efficiently develop and execute highly customized, information driven, cross-media campaigns.

Participants in the On Demand conference can expect to see demos of the XMPie Marketplace, which provides "an online resource designed to support users in the creation of personalized marketing materials," and the latest version of the uProduceâ„¢ Marketing Console, "designed to enable users to offer tracking and analysis of campaign results to their marketing customers in real-time."

uProduce can be added to XMPie's PersonalEffectâ„¢ -- an all-in-one software suite for the enterprise "that unites customer databases and creative content right on the desktop for personalized one-to-one marketing."

Marketing and IT professionals looking for CRM software that provides the resources for creating and managing personalized marketing campaigns from start-to-finish should add XMPie's PersonalEffect to their list of possible solutions.

Company Facts

Software unit of Xerox Corporation since 2006.

Jacob Aizikowitz, President.

Reuven J. Sherwin, Co-founder and Vice President of R&D in Israel.

Products: uDirect, PersonalEffect, uStore.

Website: www.xmpie.com


About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.