IT Buoy

Intel Kirk Skaugen Intel loves to talk about Moore’s Law, its co-founder’s famed maxim about how rapidly miniaturization improves semiconductors. The company also prides itself on setting the pace, underscoring the strategy recently by deploying its most tiny circuitry in microprocessors for mainstream PCs. Then there’s Itanium. The high-end microprocessor line, originally developed with help from Hewlett-Packard, uses an entirely different technology than the x86 chips that Intel popularized in desktop and laptop PCs and low-end servers. Itanium models have tended to lag the production processes used to manufacture other Intel chips, but the disparity seems particularly stark with the latest version. Tukwila, the code name for a long-delayed Itanium model introduced Monday, is being built using manufacturing technology that creates lines of circuitry with features rated at 65 nanometers, or billionths of meter. That’s two technology generations behind the 32-nanometer process used in Intel’s latest x86 chips; the company earlier this year announced a $7 billion plan to accelerate the conversion of its U.S. factories to 32-nanometer technology

Online sales are up from last year through most of the holiday season. But it’s the largest Internet retailers that have been the big winners. One reason: Customers are more satisfied with their experiences with big e-commerce companies than with smaller services. The 40 largest online-retail Web sites achieved their highest level of customer satisfaction during the 2009 holiday season, according to a survey by ForeSee Results , an e-commerce consulting firm. These companies averaged a satisfaction score of 79 on ForeSee’s index compared with a score of 74 in both 2008 and 2007. But a similar survey of the 110 online retailers that ForeSee works with—which range from large to small—found that overall satisfaction dropped to a 73, compared with a 75 in 2008 and a 77 in 2007. The smallest companies took the biggest hits. “The strong are getting stronger and the rest of the pack is getting weaker,” says Larry Freed, ForeSee’s chief executive.

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Google is out with its latest earnings report, and, while not demonstrating the type of growth we were used to seeing several years ago, the company is still putting money in the bank at a healthy clip. For the search giant’s third quarter, they reported $5.7 billion revenue, up 7% from the same time last year. Moreover, the company generated $2.54 billion in free cash flow during the quarter, bringing the company’s total cash on hand to a staggering $22 billion. The significance of that, of course, is that it gives Google a war chest rivaled only by the likes of Apple and Microsoft to continue to invest in new products and make acquisitions. The company says as much in its earnings release , stating “we expect to continue to make significant capital expenditures.” There are already a number of majorly ambitious Google projects in the early stages requiring vast resources: Google Wave , Google Voice , Google Chrome OS , and Google Caffeine , just to name a few. With that type of money in the bank, they can certainly to continue investing in them for the long haul. Meanwhile, CEO Eric Schmidt offered some positive comments on the overall outlook for Google and the economy, saying “While there is a lot of uncertainty about the pace of economic recovery, we believe the worst of the recession is behind us and now feel confident about investing heavily in our future.” So far, Wall Street seems to be reacting positively to the news: shares are up about $11 since the news was released a little after 4pm ET. Image courtesy of iStockphoto , tforgo Reviews: Google , Google Voice , Google Wave , iStockphoto Tags: Google

Lots of negative feedback from our post the other day on Cash4Gold’s amazing growth and profitability . This year, their third year of operations, they are on track to make $160 million in revenue and $50 million or so in profits. All from encouraging people to send in gold jewelry in exchange for cash. A handful of comments pointed out the very funny Onion spoof on the company where the U.S. government uses Cash4Gold to pay down the national debt. But many of the rest say the company is a scam. Example: “They offer people significantly less money than their gold is worth and prey on people’s ignorance and desperation.