Articles by Mary Hillebrand

Online entertainment site amuZnet.com spiced up its offerings this week with the addition of electronic commerce and digital audio downloads. Site owner MediaX Corp. says the moves are a response to an overwhelming demand for the latest interactive features A new section called "Merchandize" highlights amuZnet.com's transformation. For its first fo...

AIRbots, Inc. has launched Freescrip.com, a computerized prescription service that will enable doctors to write prescriptions electronically, track their status and make changes. The company believes that their Internet-based service could save physicians over an hour a day According to AIRbots, physicians spend an average of 75 minutes per day on ...

According to BizRate.com's second quarter Consumer Online Report, computers and related accessories continue to lead the charge of consumer buying on the Internet Sales figures from the second quarter showed that computer goods accounted for 41.4 percent of all online sales from April through June. Overall online sales for the period -- $2.56 billi...

Three Internet veterans with experience at Microsoft Corp., Apple Computer Inc., Pointcast and American Digital Network are hoping to revolutionize personal Internet use with the launch of iDirections.com, a combination of free services, electronic commerce, content and community features Despite claims that iDirections will "change the way people ...

Citing the extreme volatility and fast pace of today's stock market, Stocksystem.com, Inc. is now offering online investors a software program that will help them avoid critical mistakes. The program, called the Position Cost Averaging 2000 stock investing system, utilizes built-in mechanisms that prevent users from making unwise or impulsive moves...

Musicland Stores Corp. and NetFlix.com began a cross-promotion program yesterday with links on NetFlix.com and Musicland's SamGoody.com retail site. The partnership is designed to promote awareness and sales of the digital versatile disc (DVD) DVDs are about the size of music compact discs, but carry movies and other video and audio content. The tw...

This week, a trio of powerful Internet companies and the United Nations launched what is being billed as "The world's most powerful site to fight extreme poverty." The opening of NetAid by U.S. President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former South African President Nelson Mandela was both symbolic and practical, as it channeled the power of e-commerce into the arena of social responsibility...

Hewlett-Packard Co. announced Friday that it is teaming with StarMedia Network (Nasdaq: STRM), the largest Spanish-language and Portuguese-language online service in the world, to help merchants put their wares online HP plans to bring its "Commerce for the Millennium" integrated e-commerce solution -- which the company has successfully deployed in...

In a move designed to coincide with the start of the new school year, Student Advantage, Inc. (Nasdaq: STAD) is expanding its Internet sales operation by bringing in five new online retail partners. The company is also expanding its marketing efforts through the brick-and-mortar stores of its current partners Student Advantage added textbooks.com, ...

DUTYFREEZONE.com, an online version of the stores seen in most international airports, is offering cigarettes, popular gift items and other hard-to-get products in their "Duty Free Shop." In the meantime, international trade groups continue to debate e-commerce taxation rules "Operating in strict accordance with international customs laws and duty ...

According to the Consumer Policy Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, trans-border electronic commerce could become a wide-open market if consumers felt more comfortable about other nations' online laws The committee, which is meeting in Paris this week, plans to iron out guidelines for its 111 member countries to...

In a new twist on a tried-and-true e-commerce concept, DollarDiscounter.com launched a Web site Monday that plans to sell online shopping dollars for 95 cents each. The virtual dollars will only be valid to buy items from online merchants in the DollarDiscounter.com mall The concept of an online mall is not new, nor is the idea of offering shoppers...

A Houston entrepreneur has joined the recent wave of creative auctions by attempting to sell off minority ownership in his online company through the eBay auction service. Neal Verma put Priceman.com, Inc. on the block shortly after midnight Tuesday, seeking to raise $10 million (US$) for a 47.39 percent stake in the company. The auction runs until next Tuesday...

UK-based EarthPort.com PLC has teamed with Dutch company TNT Post Group to market its Globalcollect invoice-based cash collection service. This partnership will create an online holding account for shoppers who want to pay cash for their purchases. Once Internet surfers send money to EarthPort to create an account called an "EarthWallet," they can draw it out to pay for purchases from countries all over the world, in any currency, as long as the merchant is a member of the EarthPort network...

Despite the fanfare surrounding the debut of "digital wallets," it appears that the average consumer has yet to embrace the online shopping tool. This disappointing revelation has sent digital wallet promoters scrambling, as the fall shopping season gets underway without them A BizRate.com survey of 6,800 online shoppers shows that few even know th...

A wide range of high-level e-commerce leaders met in Paris Monday to discuss the pressing issues that face the industry. Participants at the summit, hosted by the Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce (GBDE), included U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley, Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin, Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Middlehof and a number of other industry players from around the globe...

Microsoft and MasterCard are the marquee names behind a new 12-city tour by Clarus Corp. (Nasdaq: CLRS) to promote business-to-business electronic commerce. The trio recently launched a new WebPurchasing initiative providing end-to-end corporate purchasing tools to make it easier for companies to shift their buying processes to the Internet Clarus ...

Many August Internet surfers were happy to throw their cash into online purchases, but some were less happy with the results they got, according to a new Web site collecting data from online shoppers. Calling the outlook for this year's holiday shopping season "a case of the good, the bad and the ugly," e-BuyersGuide.com says shoppers want improved customer service from electronic merchants...

The National Retail Federation is bringing together some of the Internet's biggest commercial technology names to provide guidance for companies looking to create a retail presence on the Web. IBM, Intel Corp., Oracle Corp., Netcentives and Net Perceptions agreed to join the newly-formed Internet Commerce Council. The group is headed by eGain Communications and BeFree Inc...

Movie-goers who check the Internet before choosing their movie destination say buying tickets online would be the logical next step in their online excursions. In an AC Nielsen ReelResearch study commissioned by America Online, more than half of AOL members said they would buy tickets online through AOL's Moviefone.com site While the survey specifi...