…IBM’s announcement of a new product called Lotus Connections. It wraps five social networking technologies up into one integrated package—similar to what Microsoft’s Office does for traditional desktop productivity software such as Word and Excel. And, if IBM handles this right, its package could rapidly spread the use of so-called Web 2.0 applications in the business world. “While social computing software is perceived as being at the fringe of most large businesses, it’s actually moving to the center fast—because it’s about how the next generation of employees communicate, and create and share ideas,” says Franks Gens, senior vice-president for research at tech market research IDC.

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There are 25 to 30 firms that are the most active practitioners of domain tasting, experts say. Executives at these firms point out that what they’re doing is legal and, in some cases, they can even provide a service. For example, if a Web surfer mistypes a Web address and lands on one of their sites, they can have an ad that redirects the surfer to the proper site. T. Salonen, manager of Mountain View (Calif.)-based Maltuzi, says his company is a “bulk registrant” of domain names, but says there’s nothing wrong with that. “We are actively buying domain names based on a variety of criteria,” he writes in an e-mail interview. “We…purchase those domain names which have certain traffic levels or pay-per-click viability and return those which do not meet those and other criteria.”

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The best piece of management advice I’ve ever heard came from a boss who said his job was to set the bar for performance incredibly high and cheer like crazy for his employees to clear it.

What has been most remarkable about Apple Computer (nasdaq: AAPL – news – people ) under the steely scrutiny of Steve Jobs is the number of genuinely big hits the company has rolled out. It certainly has not invented everything it sells. But because we’ve seen Apple with Jobs and without, the company is almost a laboratory experiment of the role of top management in turning an idea into a “perfect” thing.

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