Articles by Paul A. Greenberg

In the midst of our national tragedy, some important due dates are likely to get lost in the shuffle. Such as October 21st, the day the current U.S. ban on new Internet taxes is scheduled to expire Those with a lot to lose or gain from how the Internet tax debate concludes are trying to make sure the deadline does not come and go without some actio...

It has been said that as New York City goes, so goes the country. I spent some time in New York after September 11th. The city's business community had at least temporarily shifted its focus from profit-making to recovering from the terrorist attacks. Not surprisingly, people were not spending much money....

No one in the dot-com world was pinning great hopes on venture capitalists before September 11th, and since our national tragedy, many believe such investors have all but disappeared The truth is that like the rest of us, they have not disappeared. They're simply regrouping and trying to determine what's next....

Two years ago, I bought a new car using the Internet in lieu of dealing with a high pressure salesperson The year 1999 was still considered early to be shopping, purchasing and negotiating a deal for a new car on the Internet, but I was determined not to go through the dreaded showroom experience.

When they write the definitive history book about the evolution of electronic commerce, 2001 may emerge as a pivotal year in the industry's growth That may sound surprising, particularly since the year so far has seen a bunch of dot-coms dying on the vine, not to mention general skepticism among consumers, investors and industry observers as to whe...

As the days take us further from the horrific events of September 11th, it becomes clearer that the tech industries have lost some of their best and brightest. Still, with the indomitable spirit that Americans typically display in times of crisis, essential online industries have hung tough. Chief among them is the online travel industry, a sector...

In a normal time, in a normal place, with summer nearly ending, e-tailers would be bracing themselves for the annual nail-biting and teeth-grinding weeks that precede the holiday gift-buying season Will holiday 2001 surpass last year's sales figures? Will struggling e-tailers be able to buy some time and find salvation in a rush of online holiday s...

Just as every American will forever remember where he or she was on September 11, 2001, the day may also be remembered as the greatest test for technology and the Internet Did the Internet and telecommunication play a major role in the horrific events that unfolded on Tuesday? Indeed they did, and in some cases technology provided the last moments ...

A few years ago a popular song asked, "How do you keep the music playing?" Owners of music file-sharing services and recording companies are now asking the same question, with a twist "How do we keep the music playing on the Internet?" is more like it these days. What seemed a highly progressive and potentially profitable idea is now teetering on t...

If you lost 100,000 customers in the course of one fiscal year, as Internet-only banks have, what would you do? Close up shop? Revamp your product line? Perhaps you would take the plunge and pour venture capital into a major marketing push.

Remember when the concept of a "paperless society" was all the rage? Offices would eliminate file cabinets, newspapers wouldn't need newsprint and the stationery business would become obsolete.

The ever-expanding dot-com graveyard added a new name to its roster over the weekend. Flooz.com, the company that dealt in Internet-based currency and electronic gift certificates, quietly closed its virtual doors. Among its other difficulties, Flooz was, according to early reports, a victim of massive credit card fraud of at least US$300,000 When ...

Aside from its obvious commercial potential, the greatest promise of e-commerce has always been its potential to be an all-inclusive forum. All of the interpersonal exchanges that seem to slight certain ethnic or minority groups offline were supposed to be less of a problem when doing business electronically, right? Not so fast....

The latest best friends in multichannel sales are Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and Circuit City (NYSE: CC) The news that the e-tail leader and the electronics giant are joining forces should come as no surprise to observers of the dot-com landscape. Powerful alliances are what it's all about, especially now that e-tailers are scrambling to redefine e-...

Throughout these pioneer days of e-commerce, the greatest challenge facing the industry has been creating and sustaining consumer need Do consumers need to buy houses, cars and groceries on the Internet? If not now, will they need to do so in the future? Possibly.

Sometimes it seems that if e-commerce ultimately emerges victorious as a true contender in the mass market, it will do so in spite of extraordinary obstacles Among them: public distrust, privacy complications, security glitches, under-capitalization, and perhaps most importantly, the need for speed....

You may never have heard of one Jim Geringer, but as governor of the great state of Wyoming, he is making some serious noise about taxing Internet purchases Joining a chorus of government voices from coast to coast, Geringer is prone to sweeping pronouncements about the potential of e-commerce to bankrupt state coffers and the injustice of imposing...

Several months ago, industry observers were writing the epitaph for name-your-own-price e-tailer Priceline.com Here we are less than a year later, and Pricelinejust turned a profit. Almost unheard of in the current new economy, Priceline actually made some real money....

Perhaps the most ironic development in the ongoing struggle of music file-sharing service Napster is that the site spawned an entire industry of digital music Because Napster has found itself more focused on litigation than on doing business, its archrivals in the recording industry have stepped up. In a matter of weeks, Napster could well be overs...

E-commerce is suffering from a severe case of nearsightedness As a result of their strenuous efforts to survive in a volatile economy, e-tailers are only able to see what's right in front of them. It's not easy being the novelty act when even the headliners are in a slump.