Microsoft gained approval for an 18-month trial of a module data center, Data Plant, using biogas-powered fuel in a wastewater treatment plant in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

For over a decade print media has struggled to make a stronger digital connection. But do consumers really want print-to-Web technologies? In the end, should magazines even want them?

Publishers have been turning to native ad units integrated alongside content in hopes of reviving the downward slide of standard display ads and finding new means to draw in data.

Rather than just track behaviors online, can publishers also change user behaviors on the desktop by redesigning Web experiences to resemble the more engaging touch environments? USA Today appears to be trying.

Companies plan to increase their use of custom data to target ads in 2013, according to research conducted by eXelate, which provides data on purchase intent and behavior.

MIT researchers say they have developed an algorithm that predicts 90 minutes in advance what topics will appear on Twitter's trending list.

Although devastation caused by the "superstorm" Sandy put data and technology to the test Monday and Tuesday, The Weather Channel took the opportunity to move the traditional broadcast model online. Not with video clips, but around-the-clock, live-streaming, YouTube coverage of storm-related events.

Living-room behavior is changing. But programmers shouldn't expect it to be easy corralling distracted second screeners. We call it "personal" media for a reason.

Gartner predicts that in the next three years about 10 organizations will each spend more than $1 billion on social media. That's one stat in many Gartner attributes to the mounds of data companies will collect from a global economy on the Internet. The research firm estimates that by 2015, Big Data will have created 4.4 million IT jobs worldwide, and about 1.9 million IT jobs in the United States.

In a cool new use of eye-gaze behavioral tracking, two companies are partnering to reveal how shoppers actually see the in-store experience. Oh, but wait until you see the how shoppers will be armed with their own digital tool set.