Intel throws hat in the Web 2.0 ring

What do the world's most popular provider of web search, the world's most popular provider of desktop operating systems and the world's most popular provider of PC microchips have in common? They're all eying the Web 2.0 space. Google is moving toward a full Office 2.0 suite, Microsoft has tipped their hat toward AJAX apps and now even Intel is entering the Web 2.0 space. The chip-maker announced a new software offering, called SuiteTwo, at the Web 2.0 summit in San Fransisco yesterday. The suite will compile Web 2.0 apps that the company has identified as "best of breed," from companies like Six Apart, Socialtext, NewsGator and SimpleFeed. The suite, which will provide web-based applications for blogs, RSS feeds, Wikis and social networking, will be integrated and supported by open-source company SpikeSource, under contract to Intel.

Though the individual apps that make up SuiteTwo have traditionally been marketed toward consumers, Intel sees an opportunity to repackage and re-purpose these web technologies for the SMB market. "We tried to figure out a way…that small and medium businesses could get a solution already integrated and have support attached to it," said Lisa Lambert, managing director of Intel's software and solutions group. As Web 2.0 and open-source software adoption in the enterprise continues, a future where enterprise software is centralized seems more and more likely.

For more on Intel's SuiteTwo:
- see this ZDnet article

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