Businessweek said today it has launched a new iPad app called Bloomberg Businessweek +. Bloomberg Businessweek + allows users to access live information on companies, including current stock prices, performance history, and recent news. Bloomberg personalities are also featured via …

We often take for granted the results we get for any given web search. When we search, we expect to find what we are looking for. That’s the way it should be. The average user doesn’t normally consider what it takes for a search engine to deliver those results, but there are so many factors at play, working behind the scenes and coming together to (hopefully) deliver the user the information they seek.

Many of BusinessWeek’s staffers have used the micro-blogging platform Twitter for some time, but now the publication is taking things a step further by syncing comments left on its social networking site, Business Exchange, to Twitter.

BusinessWeek has put together a list of the ten companies it believes are the most influential in the world. Not a scientific poll–a 14-member advisory board made the selections–but still worth taking a look.

There’s a new Viewpoint column about Twitter, over at BusinessWeek. Before I go on, it’s important to note that Viewpoint’s are guest columns, not written by normal BusinessWeek staffers.

The Wall Street Journal would have to increase traffic to their site by 12x to make up for the lost subscription revenue. WSJ.com is going from paid subscriptions to free online access.

A report from Bear Stearns analyst Spencer Wang made the prediction based on advertising rates for banner ads.

Given both the state of the U.S. economy and the time of the year, “reorganization” is a euphemism that we’re seeing more and more.  BusinessWeek started things off with a slightly different term – “transformation” – but it is nonetheless laying off 12 employees.

The launch of its developer platform might make LinkedIn more like Facebook, but in another respect, the professional networking site is sticking by its suit-and-tie regulars; the first platform partner is BusinessWeek.

I can be a somewhat cranky person, and as such, there is a fair amount of stuff that annoys me.  It turns out that a lot of writers share my dislike for one particular thing, though: in-text advertising.

BusinessWeek magazine has a piece about user-generated content and how it’s old and busted now — people really want professional content, apparently.

It was only a matter of time before the pinkies went up along with the gates. Social Networking may have egalitarian roots, and the masses can gather at the public pool if they want – if you want into certain places, you’ll have to bring your Members Only jacket.

Voice over Internet Protocol provider Skype is developing its own software platform to launch a cell phone built with 3 Mobile, a wireless provider in Europe, Asia and Australia.

Wal-Mart plans to begin reselling satellite based broadband from Hughes Communications.

Bellbottoms, the Beetle, even lava lamps – the visual appeal of some things seems to operate in a sort of cyclical nature.  And as search engines start to jazz up their appearances, some see a return to past (read: pre-Google) trends.

The upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction is heating up as Apple is the latest rumored to be interested in joining Google, DirecTV, and eBay in bidding on a piece of the band currently used by broadcast television.

Google’s not making as many friends as it used to. The latest group to sour a bit on the company are venture capitalists.

Of course, business isn’t really about making friends, but that hasn’t stopped VCs from complaining that Google swallowing up prime acquisitions.

I don’t know if it’s a human nature thing or a Western civilization thing, but it seems a lot of the time we focus on winners, damn the rest, and assume that when one supplants the other the other drones on eternally in obscurity rather than the two coexisting. We do this even though Coke and Pepsi, McDonald’s and Burger King, Wal-Mart and Target all coexist in free market bliss.

A lot of big companies – from Google to CNN – are interested in “going local,” and, to be honest, it seems that those companies have the money to do whatever they want.  But “going local” isn’t easy; Backfence.com, which focused on a number of smaller communities, is going out of business.

Whatever happens with web radio from this point forward will depend on whatever concessions webcasters can wrest from SoundExchange and the record labels that back it.

It’s easy to imagine Yahoo chief Terry Semel went home limping after yesterday’s meeting with shareholders, and promptly crawled inside a bottle of fermented comfort. Shareholders weren’t happy with his performance, and they told him so.

Salesforce launched an incubator for startups.  It is a similar proposition to the Socialtext Coworking space, but has a cost for the startup and is structured as a partnership program.  A BusinessWeek article interviewed me about it.

As a small business owner, I’m concerned about the growing costs of health care. This year our insurance went up 16%…nothing to sneeze at. We also upped our company contribution to 60% (from 50%), so I’m acutely aware of this cost on our bottom line.

A few weeks back, BusinessWeek ran an interesting story called Get Healthy–Or Else, about how Scotts, the lawn-care company, is tackling the high cost of health insurance. Some might argue their approach is forward thinking (one employee’s life was saved by being nagged to go to a physical) or invasive (another employee was let go for failing a drug test for…tobacco.)