Archive

In a bid to raise awareness of its free software service for enabling voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) calling, Skype is hoping that a tried-and-true approach for online advertising and sales will bear fruit in its battle for market share. Skype, which recently announced that it had surpassed 100...

Consumer and business demand for wireless networks will drive strong growth in the wireless local area network (WLAN) semiconductor segment for the next four years, according to a new report from research firm IDC. In addition to demand for existing technologies, IDC said it sees new technologies in...

Online retail sales grew by nearly 24 percent in 2004 and will grow another 22 percent in 2005 as consumers continue to be drawn in droves to the convenience of e-commerce and as retailers become better at converting online shoppers into buyers, according to a new report. The State of Retailing Onli...

Scientist Peiter "Mudge" Zatko makes his living anticipating and protecting users against the next generation of cyber threats. His problem is simple: When he talks, not everybody really listens. If they did, the next generation of cyber threats wouldn't be lurking around the next unprotected comput...

European Union regulators say they want an agreement in place by the end of the month on how Microsoft will comply with the sanctions imposed on the software giant last year, raising the possibility of additional monetary penalties if no deal can be reached. European Competition Commission member Ne...

As eBusiness drives more business, it is attracting more sophisticated marketers who bring with them classic training in marketing research methods from places like P&G. These marketers understand how critical customer research is in guiding their decisions in product development, messaging and ...

A host of gaming developers are using the Electronic Entertainment Expo to herald the widespread availability of direct-download games for mobile phones, a sign that gaming could join digital music and other services at the forefront of the mobile commerce trend. Electronic Arts, which is touting ei...

In the clearest sign yet that it wants to compete with rivals such as Yahoo and MSN in the portal business as well as pure search, Google has given users the ability to customize their Google home pages. The Google personalization feature enables users to fold a dozen different types of content into...

In a move that could at once spur the emergence of a fast-rising technology and possibly give an upper hand to traditional telecommunications companies, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted today to require most providers of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service to offer enhanced ...

America Online may have hit on the perfect way to get the name Netscape back into the midst of the browser wars with Netscape 8.0, unveiled today. At least one analyst has said that Web users should seriously consider switching to the browser, which has been in public beta testing since March. "In s...

Wal-Mart and Netflix have struck an agreement that calls for the retail giant to bow out of the online DVD rental business, a potentially huge victory for Netflix, but one that might only forestall the inevitable decline of the rental business amid the rise of video-on-demand. Under the agreement, N...

In a bid to beef up its instant messaging product and provide users with another reason to make it their Web portal of choice, Yahoo has rolled out an upgraded version of its Yahoo Messenger tool that features enhanced PC calling services. Yahoo launched what it's calling a "public beta" of its upgr...

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down some states' regulations limiting out-of-state shipments of wine. The ruling could help spur some e-commerce sales of wine, at least among individual vineyards. However, such sales are a small fraction of the overall market for wine, by most acco...

Pushing the boundaries of Internet video, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), has announced plans to test a program that would make full-length versions of its television shows available for download. The TV programs, which would be available free of charge, would be protected with digital right...

Hoping to spur wider use of mobile data services, especially among its key business customers, Verizon has rolled out support for a new high-end smartphone model and lowered the fees it charges enterprises to use hand-held devices to retrieve e-mail and perform other remote tasks. Verizon said it wo...