Articles by Elizabeth Millard

Apple Computer is used to name-calling. Macs have been dismissed as geek machines, used by members of a cult-like community who appreciate design over function and an eye-candy interface over simpler, more humble graphics. However, that image has slowly begun to fade. Now, Apple is going after its toughest audience yet: IT managers....

Senator Conrad Burns (R-Montana) has announced plans to introduce a bill that would give the U.S. government more influence over ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the overseer of Internet addressing and traffic The statement comes just weeks before an ICANN reform committee is due to meet in Romania to discuss the organiz...

Mere days after announcing a US$4.5 billion buyout effort, USA Interactive is backing away from the deal, citing sour market reaction to the strategy The company intended to acquire all the outstanding shares of its subsidiaries Expedia, Hotels.com and Ticketmaster. But investors expressed wariness, sending shares down after the plan was unveiled....

When AOL bought Time Warner at the start of 2001, the merged company's future looked bright. The air was still fresh inside the Internet bubble, the deal created a company worth a whopping US$160 billion, and AOL chairman Steve Case boasted that the dynamic duo would build an unrivaled news and entertainment empire. But as history has proven time ...

As expected, Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has announced that the tech giant will cut 15,000 jobs in the near future. About two-thirds of the layoffs will take place by November 1st, with the remainder coming in 2003 Fiorina made the announcement at the newly merged company's first analysts' meeting in Boston, where Fiorina spoke about HP's fut...

The German government has decided to move its federal, state and local agency IT systemsto Linux, citing reliability issues and a desire to reduce its dependence onMicrosoft Toward this goal, the country has signed an agreement withIBM, which will providerelated hardware, software and services to the German government....

Despite concerns about privacy and fraud, recent U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) figures seem to confirm that consumers have gotten in the swing of shopping online, and the e-commerce cash register seems set to ring even more often in the future. Based on a survey of 11,000 retailers, the DOC reported that U.S. online retail sales dropped 11.9 p...

Last week The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) targeted another file-sharing service, Audiogalaxy, with its copyright protection campaign. The association filed a lawsuit against the Internet company, alleging that it encouraged users to copy and distribute copyrighted works, and that its filtering efforts were minimal....

Since launching its European auction site, Yahoo! has continually trailed far behind eBay. Rather than simply conceding to the competition, the company found a more lucrative strategy: It teamed up with its rival Under the terms of a multiyear agreement, eBay and Yahoo! Europe will pool their marketing resources to advertise eBay's sites via extens...

In an effort to entice customers away from America Online, the largest Internet serviceprovider (ISP) in the United States, Microsoft is readying a new campaign that targetsusers who are unhappy with AOL's services The Redmond, Washington-based software giant is determined to make leaving AOL easierthan dropping first-period Latin. Toward that goal...

Although Microsoft had to cut the priceof its Xbox console last week to keeppace with rival Sony in the gaminghardware market, the company is poised to announce a US$1 billion investment in anonline game service that could smoke the competition The Redmond, Washington-based software giant is aiming to become the biggest player in afast-growing mark...

Mothers were not the only ones delighted by the traditional flood of gifts and flowers last Sunday. According to Internet audience measurement service Nielsen//NetRatings, online retailers that targeted Mom as a gift recipient saw a significant spike in traffic During the week of May 5th, Web surfers visited sites that offer flowers, gifts and onli...

RealNames CEO Keith Teare was not shy about naming the company he holds responsible for shuttering his business. He cited Microsoft's refusal to renew its contract with RealNames as the catalyst for the firm's closure The RealNames service allowed companies to buy keywords, which, when typed into a Web browser's address bar, would take users to a p...

Many Microsoft customers are hesitating to sign up for the company's new upgrade program, called "Software Assurance," according to analysts. Despite deal sweeteners like discounts, only about one-third of the software giant's clients have committed to the plan -- and a July 31st deadline is looming ahead The overhaul of the Microsoft upgrade proce...