Scarlet Pruitt

Internet daters appear to be wiping the stardust from their eyes, and instead are cocking an eyebrow and wondering, "Just who is this person I met online?" At least that's the view posed by the newly launched Web site Screenyourmate.com, which offers to do background checks on that special someone.

Microsoft Corp. is set to make a showing in the enterprise instant messaging (IM) and collaboration market Thursday with the release of a beta version of its real-time communications server software technology, code-named "Greenwich."

IT spending is expected to grow slightly in 2003, according to two new reports released Monday, as technology buyers grapple with a continued economic downturn and the prospect of a U.S.-led war with Iraq. Forrester Research Inc. predicted a 1.9-percent growth in IT spending this year over 2002. CIO Magazine, meanwhile, reported that CIOs it polled in February expected to spend 5.2 percent more on technology over the next 12 months, yet their spending expectations remained flat from January to February.

Vendors continued to heed companies' calls for more spam-fighting tools this week, rolling out new enterprise products and services designed to can spam.

Terra Lycos SA is hoping to bring the growing popularity of Web logs to the big leagues as the first major Web portal to offer users "blogging" tools.

Microsoft Corp. is looking to burn spammers targeting users of its Hotmail e-mail service with a lawsuit filed in a California federal court last week.

Cisco Systems Inc. has added its presence to Yahoo Inc.'s small business pages, setting up a "solution centre" that offers content on networking products and e-business technologies for businesses in a variety of industries.

Microsoft Corp. rolled out a set of new programs and services this week aimed at bolstering the reliability of its upcoming Windows Server 2003 software which it says will reduce customers' downtime.