Archive

Consumer spending on broadband-delivered online services -- from streaming music and video to voice over Internet protocol phone calling -- more than doubled last year, according to a new report that bears promising news for telecommunications carriers as well as e-commerce companies and their conte...

The trend for industries to consolidate through major mergers and acquisitions has made its way back to the e-commerce space, with No. 2 online brokerage E*Trade Financial reportedly posed to make a surprise US$5.5 billion bid to buy smaller rival Ameritrade. Neither company has formally acknowledge...

The dot-com crash that saw hundreds of start-up businesses on the Internet close up shop in 1998 and 1999 is not discouraging new Net entrepreneurs. A record number of domain name sales in 2004 shows that business presence on the Internet is stronger than ever. A domain name that reflects an organiz...

In a move that extends its strategy to break down the wall between its online kingdom and the rest of the Web, America Online today said it would open up its free blogging service to anyone with an AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) account. The move seeks to leverage AOL's IM platform -- easily its most s...

Google has released a beta version what is believed to be the first Web accelerator designed specifically for broadband users, a move that quickly met with criticism over privacy and security concerns. Other firms have developed similar technology, but it is designed mainly to streamline page downlo...

Spending on Internet advertising in 2005 will grow even faster than previously believed, a market research firm said, although it also predicted a slowdown in growth rates starting next year. EMarketer cited the booming first-quarter earnings results for the likes of Google and Yahoo as reason to re...

Yahoo, racing to stay ahead of its competitors who are eying the same technological niche and its potentially deep well of advertising dollars, has launched a public version of its video search tool. Yahoo Video Search, which had been in beta form since December, was formally launched by the portal ...

Google has filed a patent application for improvements to its widely used news search and aggregation feature, one that some say will result in a future version of the still-beta product favoring corporate-backed news sites. Currently, Google's news search returns results based on how recently a sto...

In what some see as a hint of more fallout to come from the first major enforcement action against spyware being planted through otherwise legitimate Web sites, Ask Jeeves has found it necessary to respond to accusations that its various sites enable downloading of unwanted programs. Meanwhile, the ...

Semiconductors sales grew by more than 13 percent in the first quarter, outpacing forecasts thanks to demand for chips installed in smartphones and other portable devices, a trade group said today. The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said sales for the first three months were US$55.3 billio...

New information technology outsourcing opportunities are largely going to India, thanks to India's long-standing advantages. Despite negative press coverage that India has received for problems at a few outsourcing facilities, India is set to maintain its lead as the high-tech outsourcing destinatio...

One of the first widespread mobile phone viruses has now been spotted in 20 countries worldwide, further proof to some that security issues threaten to stall the adoption of the types of robust wireless handsets and mobile services that will enable a mobile commerce industry to emerge. Finland-based...

Saying some corporate customers don't want it to merge with Qwest Communications, MCI has again agreed to be acquired by Verizon Communications after that firm made a sweetened offer, raising its price to US$26 per share and possibly putting an end to a lengthy bidding war with Qwest over the last m...

The Internet might be turning into the ultimate window shopping experience for online shoppers. Greater sophistication with browsing is making consumers more prone to comparison shop online before actually buying. Internet shoppers are more prone to visiting 10 or more Web sites before returning to ...

A plan by search giant Google to digitize vast stacks of library books in the UK and the United States is drawing the ire of European librarians, who want to launch a project of their own. The national libraries of some 19 countries on the European continent have signed onto an alternative plan that...