Articles by Mary Hillebrand

Intershop Communications, Inc. and Cap Gemini -- a French management consulting and systems integration company -- have joined forces to push e-commerce solutions According to a joint statement, the two companies will share international sales opportunities, collaborating to assist telecom operators and service providers to "define their e-commerce...

A new Web portal says it has created a sheltered place for kids to surf the Web, in advance of rules from the Federal Trade Commission that will mandate certain online protections for children. This.com is launching its service Wednesday with what it calls a "friendly filter" that filters out Web sites, e-mails and chat rooms that are unsuitable for children...

While an 'end of the world as we know it' tune is still being carried by alarmists and others warning of the possibly dire consequences of a Y2K computer glitch, GartnerGroup, Inc. (NYSE: IT) recently issued a report indicating another area of concern Companies, according to Gartner, including e-commerce operations, should beware of those that prov...

Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL) this week announced the availability of its Oracle8i for Linux, a database designed specifically for the Internet that could end up being widely utilized by e-commerce operations The company commented that the release comes after "a successful early adopter's program," with over 50,000 downloads of Oracle8i from th...

It may be starting to look like advertising is taking over some Web sites, with traditional ad banners and jazzy new pop-up windows with rotating marketing messages closing in on the actual content space of most pages. That has not stopped Net-mercials.com from searching for new places to squeeze in some more ads The new Net-mercials fill the time ...

Red Hat, Inc. announced moves into the European Linux market this week. The Durham, North Carolina-based Linux vendor will work out of offices in London and Stuttgart, providing products and support The new European organization, functioning as a wholly owned Red Hat subsidiary, will expand upon the company's current distribution, engineering and s...

Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) is following the the nation's largest consumer electronics chain onto the Internet to push sales of TVs, VCRs, stereos and, fittingly, computer products. The company announced a plan to relaunch its www. circuitcity.com site Wednesday as an online store. The Web site has been primarily a source of product information and a store locator until now...

Having found success for itself on the Internet-crazy stock market of the late 1990s, Lycos, Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS) is now reaching out to help find funding for online start-up companies. The search engine operator this week founded Lycos Ventures L.P., a venture capital fund that pools money from a handful of Internet investors The Waltham, Massachus...

Linuxcare, Inc. recently entered into a strategic partnership with Densa Techno Tokyo K.K. (DTTS) -- a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Electronics Services Co., Ltd. -- to provide Linux-related technical service and support for the Japanese open-source market Under terms of the agreement, Linuxcare will provide high-level support for DTTS suppor...

London-based Ovum, an independent research and consulting company, has released a report stating that companies engaged in e-commerce need to shift to a reliance on software testing tools for evaluating the quality and integrity of in-house developed applications "The speed, transaction volume and lack of human sanity checks of transaction-based We...

Does spending less time worrying about bills translate to more time to spend on spending? PayMyBills.com hopes so, as it introduces its new service to take the worry out of monthly bill payments. PayMyBills.com has launched a new online personal bill management service, allowing consumers to securely view and pay all their bills via the Internet Th...

The nation's largest telecommunications company is opening its wallet to help minorities get on the Internet and get around once they are there AT&T said this week it will give $510,000 in grants to minority groups to build Internet-based "tech centers" in cities. AT&T had already pledged more than $700,000 to southern California communities for ge...

Despite concerns about Y2K readiness raised by the U.S. Congress' investigative arm, the National League of Cities says most of its members will be ready in time for the calendar to turn to the year 2000 The cities group released a study this week saying more than 90 percent of cities' computer-driven systems will be able to avoid the problems expe...

Recording industry executives, as well as online merchandisers, will be watching closely two new experiments in the use and distribution of digital audio via the Internet Virgin Megastores plans to marry Internet audio distribution with standard retail selling when it allows in-store customers to create custom CDs using music available on Internet ...

The nation's largest telecommunications company is opening its wallet to help minorities get on the Internet and get around once they are there AT&T said this week it will give $510,000 in grants to minority groups to build Internet-based "tech centers" in cities. AT&T had already pledged more than $700,000 to southern California communities for ge...

Perhaps hoping to puncture the high hopes China.com built up this week with its successful stock debut, top competitor SINA.com announced today it remains the top portal in China. SINA.com, which has been online since 1995, cited a recently released survey by the China Network Information Center, an official Internet statistics agency in China Acco...

A group of major Internet companies from all continents plans to offer governments and international organizations its e-commerce expertise in a conference at Paris' famed Louvre museum The group -- calling itself the Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce -- has slated the conference for September 13th and hopes to act as "the global voic...

The Federal Trade Commission Tuesday uttered the one word Internet companies have been dying to hear from the U.S. government: self-regulation FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky and three commissioners, testifying before the House Commerce Committee's Telecommunications Subcommittee, presented a report essentially agreeing with the private sector that In...

The name that has become synonymous with direct mail music sales is now about to swallow up one of the Internet's retail music pioneers. CDNow Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNW) plans to merge with Columbia House, the music and video club owned by Sony Corp. of America (NYSE: SNE) and Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX). Sony and Time Warner will each own 37 percent of the new company, with the rest owned by CDNow's shareholders...

In a strategically timed set of announcements, DoubleClick Inc. (Nasdaq: DCLK) and NetGravity Inc. (Nasdaq: NETG) said Tuesday they plan to merge, just as each prepares to report record second quarter revenues It was unclear how Wall Street would view the collective announcements in the long term, however. DoubleClick stock dropped $3.25 per share ...