Articles by Mary Hillebrand

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), one of the computing industry's early innovators but now a company playing catch-up in the online shopping business, has launched its new MSN eShop in an effort to reach out to consumers and merchants alike The benefits of online shopping malls for consumers have already been widely touted by the hoards of companies ...

Ford (NYSE:F) and General Motors (NYSE:GM), two of the big three U.S. automakers, have announced separate but similar initiatives to broaden the supply side of their businesses by establishing links with their suppliers over the Internet Ford will enter a joint venture with Oracle Corporation, the database software maker, creating a link between th...

House Commerce Committee Chairman Tom Bliley's move to push the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act through the House of Representatives without the blessing of House leadership has backfired and resulted in defeat The measure, which was defeated Monday, garnered enough votes to pass under standard house procedures, but Bliley...

In an effort to co-market the top two holiday season gift items, clothing giant Gap, Inc. and online toy seller eToys, Inc. (Nasdaq: ETYS) are launching a holiday season promotional campaign Gap's two chains for children -- GapKids and babyGap -- will promote eToys on their Web sites and in their traditional stores. eToys will reciprocate by promot...

In a vote of 423 to 1, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill late last week to prevent the imposition of sales taxes on global Internet sales The bill, driven through the House by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-California), mirrors similar legislation passed last year to prohibit local governments in the United States from taxing electronic comm...

As online auctions expand into veritable sideshows and novelty acts, BMW has placed its new sports utility vehicle on eBay in an effort to drive sales and build notoriety BMW's new X5 Sports Activity Vehicle went up for auction this morning, about 42 days before the vehicle will be widely available for sale through BMW's regular distribution channe...

At a hearing on Internet standards yesterday, a handful of e-commerce watchers told the U.S. Senate Science, Technology and Space Subcommittee to let the market decide how and where global electronic commerce matures The witnesses largely echoed the sentiments of countless other Internet executives and researchers who have been telling anyone who w...

San Francisco, California-based MyWeb, Inc. announced Wednesday that it has forged an agreement with Chinese television channel TVSN China Ltd. to market the TV-based MyWeb Internet service and sell consumer goods advertised on TVSN MyWeb, a TV-based Internet portal available to many Asian countries, plans to sell TVSN's consumer products online, w...

As expected, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation yesterday that would bar the intentional registration of domain names that are identical to or deceptively similar to a distinctive trademark The practice, known commonly as cyber-squatting, is usually practiced by those who intend to profit by reselling the registered names.

Netscape co-founder and recently departed AOL executive Marc Andreessen made his official return to the Web world yesterday by unveiling Loudcloud, Inc., a new venture comprised of what he calls a "dream team" of Net innovators The freewheeling developer left his post as AOL's chief technology officer in September, just seven months after AOL bough...

Publicly held telecommunications giant GTE filed a lawsuit against TCI and Comcast yesterday in an attempt to gain access to the two companies' Excite@Home Internet service Calling the suit an "anti-trust" action, GTE is alleging that TCI, the cable division of AT&T, and Comcast have refused to allow other telecommunications providers to market bro...

A U.S. House of Representatives bill to bancyber-squatting, the use of trademarked names as Internet domain names by people who do not hold the trademarks, has passed the Judiciary Committee and could come up for a vote as early as tomorrow. The bill, introduced in the House on October 6th, is largely unchanged from the text of a bill sent over from the Senate on September 8th. That bill moved through the Senate in just five weeks, sustaining only minor alterations and little debate. The House version includes the same general prohibition against cyber-squatting, adding a section defining the illegal use of trademarks in Internet domain names to the Trademark Act of 1946.

In an effort to jumpstart its standing among Yahoo! and other leading power players, Internet portal Alta Vista unveiled its revamped look today The launch will be accompanied by a $120 million marketing campaign that Alta Vista executives hope will lead to increased recognition among Web consumers.

In a bid to compete with AOL and other industry leaders, Lycos, Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS) has unveiled a 1000-plus merchant shopping portal that it says more closely emulates a real shopping experience The Waltham, Massachusetts-based network has been working on LYCOShop and its "integrated marketplace" for the last year, and today touted the synergy bet...

Global financial services firm Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. (NYSE: MWD) has announced the launch of ichoice, a new Web site that will combine the online trading service of its Discover Brokerage subsidiary with the online financial information pages operated by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter The site "enables individual investors to choose simply a...

Operating on the assumption that all good domain names will soon be taken, Solutionhome.com, Inc. has opened a buying, selling and trading hub on the Internet to profit from individuals and companies who are willing to pay for a specific URL The company launched online auction houses for English and Spanish-language domain names, as well as a chat ...

In an effort to compete with top competitor Autobytel, online automobile resource Autoweb.com (Nasdaq: AWEB) has brought financial software company Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) and online business network Hoover's Online (Nasdaq: HOOV) into its stable of Internet allies Hoover's has signed up Autoweb.com as the exclusive sponsor of the auto information se...

The United States Federal Trade Commission released a set of rules Wednesday to implement the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, a law passed last fall amid heightened concern that children are being lured into making online purchases or sharing personal information that could threaten their safety As of April 21, 2000, some commerci...

Forrester Research (Nasdaq: FORR) launched its new PowerRankings service today, joining the crowd of research companies that are offering Web shoppers ranking services to help them navigate the merchant maze Forrester will now compete with research companies such as Media Metrix, PC Data and StatMarket, and dozens of consumer information services s...

As e-businesses continue to turn their attention to ethnically-oriented Web sites, some minority groups in the United States are finally beginning to reap the benefits of the Internet's relentless expansion With 30 million Spanish-speaking people in the United States alone, the revenue potential of Spanish-language Web sites and services is drawing...