Articles by Nora Macaluso

Auto dealers are not using the Internet to their best advantage when seeking to lure customers to their dealerships, according to a study released Wednesday by research firm J.D. Power and Associates A key issue is that car dealers generally do not have a good idea of how they can use Internet-related technology to improve results, according to the...

An executive order signed Tuesday by U.S. President George W. Bush aims to makecomputers -- and the Internet -- more accessible to people withdisabilities, beginning with new requirements for government Web sites "The Internet brings a world of information into a computer screen, whichhas enriched the lives of many with disabilities," Bush said in ...

As more consumers gain access to broadband technologyand interactive television, a new market for the sale of audio and video content and streaming-media advertising is developing, according to a report released Monday by the Yankee Group Yankee analyst Steven Vonder Haar said the rise of "on-demand marketing" will be fueled by the widespread use o...

As the summer travel season gets underway and a new competitor -- airline-backed Orbitz -- enters the fray, online travel companies are bombarding consumers with new multimedia marketing pitches. However, analysts told the E-Commerce Times on Tuesday that even with the new TV and print ad campaigns, it will be difficult for any one company to dist...

Although sites that offer Internet services like free e-mailare growing fast, search engines, portals and online communities account for the bulk of allonline traffic in the United States, according to a report released Monday by Nielsen//NetRatings One out of every three Americans visits a portal site like America Online (NYSE: AOL) or Yahoo! (Nas...

7-Eleven (NYSE: SE) said Thursday itwill install Internet-enabled financial service kiosks in 36 stores in FortMyers and Naples, Florida, as part of an expanded test of financial servicesthat may eventually include online shopping The convenience-store chain already has Web-ready machines in 58 of itsTexas stores, and customers have "responded well...

Orbitz, the online travel company launched by a group of airlines earlier this week, said late Wednesday it plans to double its customer-service staff over the next three weeks, to more than 200, in order to deal with a "deluge" of business The Chicago-based company, controlled by five airlines that account for a combined 85 percent of the U.S. air...

Shareholders of office supplies retailer Staples (Nasdaq: SPLS) will get extra time to evaluate the company's plan to buy back the shares of its online unit, Staples.com, thanks to a court decision handed down Tuesday A judge said that Staples must provide shareholders with more information on the plan, which some investors have said unfairly benef...

Hotels and other businesses in the hospitality industry can make better use of the Internet to market and manage their businesses, according to a report released Monday by professional services firm Andersen While the industry has been a "comparatively slow adopter" of new technologies, the report found that executives do expect over the next few y...

Web portal Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) announced Monday it will now offer product ratings and buying guides from Consumer Reports on its shopping site, a move that Yahoo! said will attract more traffic to itsexisting merchants and provide revenue from pay-per-view content sales The deal involves both free buying guides and pay-per-view product ratingsfro...

Online travel company Travelocity (Nasdaq: TVLY) on Friday announced an advertising campaign touting the company as "more than just an online travel site." The campaign comes as Orbitz, a travel site backed by five major airlines, prepares to go live later this month. Orbitz, with a reported US$100 million investment from the airlines, could pose a...

UK brick-and-click retailer Tesco this week launched an online service that will allow blind people to shop over the Internet without using special equipment The system, which the company developed along with the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), uses technology that converts text to speech, describing products on the company's Tesco D...

Fast-food giant McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) is expanding its use of an electronic system that lets customers pay for their orders using a cash-free keytag system originally developed for Mobil gas stations, a company spokesperson said Monday Operators of more than 400 Chicago-area McDonald's restaurants recently agreed to give their stores the option of...

Internet auctioneer QXL Ricardo (Nasdaq: QXLC) reported a smaller loss for its fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31st and announced a newpartnership with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) on Friday The agreement will make QXL's servicesavailable over the software maker's Windows XP operating system and instant messaging service Windows Messenger....

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) plans to reduce its stake in name-your-own-pricee-tailer Priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN), although aPriceline spokesman said the planned sale of shares is not significant anddoes not change the business relationship between the two companies Delta reportedly filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission tosell 5 mi...

The booming market for outsourced Internet security services could provide a home for venture capital money previously directed to dot-coms, according to a reportannounced Tuesday by the Yankee Group Yankee analysts spent the last three months of 2000 interviewing andresearching companies that provide so-called "managed security services,"talking t...

AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL) picked up 17 U.S. cents to $51.77 in morning trading Tuesday, following news of a deal toprovide America Online services over Sony PlayStation 2 entertainmentconsoles AOL said it will work with Sony (NYSE: SNE) to develop "a new class of Internet-enabledentertainment," incorporating popular AOL features like instant mess...

Motient (Nasdaq: MTNT) gained 38 U.S. cents to $1.80 in morning trading Tuesday, following news that it plans to buy Internet consulting and services company Rare Medium (Nasdaq: RRRR) Motient said it will finance the deal using a combination of its own newly issued shares, shares of affiliate XM Satellite Radio (Nasdaq: XMSR) and cash.

Handheld computer makers Palm (Nasdaq:PALM) and Handspring (Nasdaq: HAND) fell in morning trading Monday following reports that Lehman Brothers slashed itsprice targets for the stocks At midmorning, Palm was down 61 U.S. cents at $7.12, while Handspring wasdown 69 cents at $10.26....

FreeMarkets (Nasdaq: FMKT) pickedup 22 U.S. cents to $11.36 in morning trading Monday following news thatdrugmaker Schering-Plough (NYSE: SGP) has signed on to continue using the company's online marketplace to buy and sell goods and services FreeMarkets said Schering-Plough executed a new two-year agreement touse FreeMarkets' B2B Global Marketplac...