IT Buoy

Microsoft bigwig Bill Gates got hip-checked off the top perch as the richest man in the world by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim (pictured here), on the annual Forbes list of the world’s Richie Riches. Slim came to the rescue of the New York Times (NYT) a year ago, forking over $250 million to help the cash-strapped media company. Often in the No. 1 spot, Gates actually got shoved off in 2008 by megainvestor Warren Buffett (now No. 3), with whom he is good friends. Gates returned to the top rank in 2009, and now Slim–a telecom-and-more tycoon–has surpassed Gates’s net worth of $53 billion slightly with a $53.5 billion kitty. Here are some of the other U.S. tech dudes–mostly based in Silicon Valley–on the list, in the Top 100: No.

Microsoft’s Bing search engine continues to gain share in the search market , thanks to organic growth, lots of advertising, and clever tricks like stuffing MSN.com full of links to Bing search queries . Read the rest of this story

Yesterday, the monthly search market share numbers from comScore (SCOR) were released, showing Microsoft (MSFT) Bing up, Yahoo (YHOO) down and Google (GOOG) maintaining its dominance. In today’s release by Experian Hitwise , Bing is up again, from 9.37 percent to 9.7 percent, while Yahoo is flat at 14.57 percent, and Google gave up a scooch of share to fall to 70.95 percent from 71.49 percent. This time it appears to be the vertical searches–such as autos and health–helping Bing, which has been its strategy to differentiate itself from the Google juggernaut. Here is that table, which you can click on to make larger:

Google announced last night that it is officially opening its Google Apps Marketplace — a store for online business software that works with Google’s products but is designed by outside developers. AFP/Getty Images The internet homepage of the British version of the search engine Web site Google As the Journal’s Jessica Vascellaro and Nick Wingfield reported last month , the store is Google’s “latest attempt to get customers to switch to its online offerings and away from Microsoft programs.” In a post on its blog , Google said it was creating the store in part because “there are hundreds of business applications for which we have no particular expertise.” The company, which said more than 50 businesses were now selling applications in the store, also highlighted a few of the initial offerings, including an online payroll application from Intuit and a free project-management application called Manymoon.

From Gary Hamel’s Management 2.0 : In my last post I summarized the core elements of Apple’s strategy—a strategy that : Focuses heavily on design. Fuses hardware and software Integrates a broad array of complementary technologies Locks up customers with velvet handcuffs Harnesses the efforts of independent software vendors Leverages the company’s deep competencies into new markets AFP/Getty Images A picture taken in Paris shows the Apple logo. Nevertheless, I don’t think it’s a particular strategy that makes Apple Apple. Nor can you attribute all of the company’s success to the executive abilities of Steve Jobs. Instead, I believe the company’s extraordinary run of success reflects an unstinting devotion to a particular set of values. Within the universe of inventors, designers and artists, these values aren’t particularly remarkable; but within the universe of Fortune 500 companies, they are as rare as a rose in winter. Before going further, I should make it clear that my take on Apple’s signature values isn’t the product of any in-company research I’ve conducted. Steve Jobs lives down the street but he’s never invited me over for a chinwag and I haven’t talked to anyone on Apple’s senior team