Articles by Elaine X. Grant

When some shoppers walk into a retail store, their first act is to make a beeline for an employee to ask for help. This tactic makes sense: Retail employees can suggest a good book, help customers find a particular recording of Beethoven's Fifth, and even provide (hopefully)honest feedback on whether a pair of pants looks good.

A couple of years ago, money was no object when itcame to e-commerce. Companies spent lavishly ontechnology in their rush to establish a Webpresence. But the economic picture has changed significantly, and companies now are much more careful when it comes to such spending "The realization has sunk in that while B2C sales aregrowing and will continu...

The Senate Commerce, Science and TransportationCommittee is scheduled to debate a new online privacybill proposed last week by Senator Ernest Hollings (D-South Carolina). The bill would increase consumer privacy on the Web by forcing companies to obtain permission from individuals in order to collect and share information about them....

It is not an easy time for startup companies. The economymay be starting to recover, but investors are stillleery about pouring money into new businesses, especially in the tech sector In fact, the best advice for would-be entrepreneurs may be to hold off until the economic climate takes a more positive turn....

Lawyers kicked off the trial between Hewlett-Packardand Walter Hewlett, son of company co-founder Bill Hewlett, in Delaware Chancery Court Tuesday. They traded fire over whether HP had misled shareholders in anattempt to get them to approve its US$20 billion merger with Compaq....

The latest management change at AOL Time Warner's America Online unit has caused concern among shareholders on the eve of the company's first-quarter earnings release AOL named Robert Sherman as its new president ofinteractive marketing, replacing Robert Friedman, who was brought in to lead AOL's marketing efforts in August 2001. Friedman was named...

In an effort to improve the quality of onlineinformation and strengthen consumers' faith in theWeb, Consumers Union -- the consumer advocacy group thatpublishes Consumer Reports magazine -- has moved itssystem of objective ratings to the Web. The group's new siteis called Consumer WebWatch "As consumers settle into the realities of a worldwhere the...

Online shoppers' thoughts are turning to spring andsummer vacation plans, and they are using the Web toturn those thoughts into reality. According toInternet measurement firm Nielsen//NetRatings, traffic totravel Web sites grew 12 percent to 51.2 millionvisitors in March, up from 45.9 million in February NetRatings reported that about 43 percent of...

March was not a big month for e-commerce, according toInternet research firm Jupiter Media Metrix. For themost part, Web users put away their wallets andflocked to sites about religion and entertainment,though travel also gained ground among online users Easter and Passover observances during the month drove traffic to religion sites, according to ...

This week, the U.S. Postal Service made it official:The cost of a first-class stamp will increase from 34U.S. cents to 37 cents on June 30th. The rate hike undoubtedly will make e-mail an evenmore prevalent method of communication, but according toGartnerG2 analyst Kenneth Kerr, it also will boost the popularity of online billing....

Much to the consternation of the technology sector,tech spending has yet to turn the corner. But a new report from market analysis firm Aberdeen Group predicts worldwide tech spending will reach US$1.43 trillion by 2005, up from $1.21 billion in 2001 According to Aberdeen senior vice president HughBishop, total IT purchases -- including hardware,s...

Yahoo! reported a net loss of US$53.6 million in its first quarter, slightly beating analysts' expectations, and earned higher-than-expected revenue of $192.7 million "I would characterize this quarter as one thatdemonstrates strong performance and outstanding growthin a time of economic turbulence," Yahoo!chairman and CEO Terry Semel said in a con...

When IBM warns, the tech sector listens. The technology giant on Monday said it expectsfirst-quarter revenue and profit will fall short ofanalysts' estimates. The announcement was Big Blue's first earnings warning in more than a decade The warning sent IBM's stock down 10.1 percent to$87.41 and dragged some other tech stocks down withit. In early t...

Ticketmaster (Nasdaq: TMCS) is planning to launch two new features that willlet users resell unused tickets and bid for ticketsonline, rather than waiting in line at retail outlets,according to published reports One feature, called "TicketmasterMarketplace," will serve as an online venue for season ticket holders to sell unused tickets.

After just over a year at the helm, Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) president Rick Belluzzo has tendered hisresignation, to the surprise of many in the industry According to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Belluzzowill step down as president May 1st but willstay on staff through September "to ensure a smoothtransition."

As the April 15th filing deadline approaches, consumers areflocking to tax sites. But according to a new reportreleased by Jupiter MediaMetrix (Nasdaq: JMXI), most visitors are doingresearch rather than filing online Online tax preparation may have gotten off to aflying start in the early days, but the growth ofonline filing has slowed to a crawl, ...

In spite of a post-September 11th drop in online travelbookings, Jupiter MediaMetrix (Nasdaq: JMXI) expects online air, car,hotel and cruise sales will reach US$64 billion by 2007,up from $24 billion in 2001 In fact, the lagging economy is driving travel buyersto the Web in ever-increasing numbers. "A tighteconomy for the past year, coupled with th...

E-commerce companies made a lot of mistakes in theearly days, and the same errors torpedoed hopefule-tailers over and over. The Web is haunted by the ghosts of those faileddot-coms, but at least the ones that have survived nowhave a good understanding of what not to do.

It has been a tough year for the technologysector, but Forrester sees a light at the end of the tunnel The research firm said it expects that the tech sector, propelled by arobust U.S. economic recovery, will turn around fasterthan previous projections indicated. In addition, e-commerce is expected to remain strong....

Under fire from privacy advocates, EBay (Nasdaq: EBAY)has changed a new privacy policy that wasscheduled to go into effect Tuesday for new users and on April 19th for registered users The policy, posted on the site last month,told users that it was intended to be the lastword on EBay's practices, despite what the company mightsay on other parts of ...