Archive

Netflix cut its domestic subscriber forecast on Thursday by one million customers in the wake of a major change in the company's pricing structure that favors its streaming-only service. The company discontinued its $9.99 monthly streaming and DVD-rental plan and replaced it with two plans, $7.99 fo...

The world's largest social network is going to delay its plans to publicly sell stock, according to a recent report from the Financial Times that asserts Facebook will be delaying its highly anticipated initial public offering until late 2012. An April IPO was previously rumored, but the Times repor...

Which cellphone network offers the best service for you? Simple question. The answer is a lot more complicated. When we walk out of the house each morning, we make sure we take our wallet, our keys and our wireless phone. We don't leave home without them. Our phone is our connection to our world. Ho...

A new ad sales pact between Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL has the tech companies teaming up against a common enemy, Google. By selling ad inventory on each other's sites, the three aim to hang onto ad revenue that previously was lost to third-party networks. Their goal is to convince big Web properties t...

Travelers searching for flights can now look to Google. The search engine giant released its Google Flights feature Tuesday. Flights and travel packages were previously one of the few queries Google couldn't answer as quickly or thoroughly as its travel search competitors such as Kayak, Expedia, Orb...

You might not care about your friend's innumerable Foursquare updates detailing his stops at a bank, a bookstore, and finally a local Italian restaurant, where he's having spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. You can bet, however, that marketers do. After all, the more businesses know about where th...

What risks do site owners run by having poorly written Terms of Service (ToS) or Click Agreements -- or none at all? If your company offers goods or services through its website (or for that matter, if downloads or advice are offered for a cost -- or even for free), when was the last time you looked...

California lawmakers have reached a compromise with Amazon over state sales tax, ending a back and forth battle that has raged all summer. State lawmakers approved a compromise bill that will give Amazon a one-year break from collecting state sales tax. Amazon's stock price rose nearly 5 percent on ...

VMworld 2011 occurred a couple of weeks ago, but the energized crowd of 19,000-plus attendees and the raft of VMware and partner announcements that accompanied it make it worth revisiting. Virtualization and cloud have become nearly synonymous. In fact, a few wily vendors tend to use the terms inter...

After six years of debate over patent reform, the U.S. Senate last week overwhelmingly approved the America Invents Act, a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. patent system that intends to weed out unnecessary patents and put the country more on par with international patent procedures. The bill, authored...

More than 50 percent of e-commerce shoppers cited shipping as a reason for abandoning their shopping carts online, according to recent research. Furthermore, 43 percent of consumers' retailer choices were influenced by their delivery experiences and options, another study found. When you consider ho...

First it gave Apple the preliminary injunction it was seeking against Samsung's Galaxy Tab. Then it suggested it might have been at least partly mistaken. Now the Dusseldorf court that has been hearing Apple's patent suit against Samsung's Galaxy 10.1 tablet, has confirmed that yes, Samsung's German...

In my previous commentary in this space, I suggested that the evolution of the channel in the cloud is entering a new stage in its development. Last month's Dreamforce conference, hosted by Salesforce.com, served as a showcase for a series of new channel initiatives which clearly indicate the growin...

Despite growing competition from Google, social network kingpin Facebook doubled its revenue in the first half of 2011, raking in $1.6 billion to bolster company growth before its rumored IPO, according to a Reuters report. Earnings from the privately held company aren't confirmed, but the world's l...

After the firing of Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz this week, the board is reportedly exploring a possibility of a sale. In coming months, there may be a sale of Yahoo's Asian investments, a purchase of a social media or content company, or partnerships that could help Yahoo get more money from its Web prope...