Articles by Tim McDonald

Americans are driving online advertising to new heights as a result of their increasing "per-person daily media use," primarily on the Internet, according to investment banking firm Veronis Suhler Suhler's 14th Annual Communications Industry Forecast, released Monday, predicted that Internet advertising will more than quadruple to $24.4 billion (US...

The Republican Convention 2000 in Philadelphia was supposed to be the first political convention held wholly in the Internet Age, the first to be subject to the scrutiny of 24-hour Web cams and digital wrist cameras, the first to become instant fodder for chat room debates. It was supposed to be thrilling, injecting new hunt into an old dog But the...

High-speed Internet access for Americans jumped dramatically last year, according a government report released Thursday In its second annual report to Congress, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said that the number of U.S. households and small businesses with "advanced telecommunications capability" grew from 0.3 percent in 1998 to 1 per...

Although a sharp rise in ownership of personal computers (PCs) worldwide is translating into widespread Internet usage, the digital divide is not closing at the same rate, according to a new study from Roper Research The study found that 3 in 10 consumers worldwide now own a PC, a six percent increase over 1998. Nearly one in five of those users we...

There is a perception in some quarters, generated and fed by the jittery souls among us, that e-commerce is in its death throes, or at the very least, is not what it was cracked up to be Look at venture funding, those anxious observers say. It has dried up like summer in the Sahara. Two-thirds of dot-com startups will fall by the wayside. There is ...

Although more Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are venturing into the free service market, a new study by International Data Corp. adds further evidence to the belief that the free services may not yet be worth the cost to consumers The IDC findings, released Tuesday, were based largely on the testing of several leading free ISPs, including BlueLi...

Try as I might, I can't work up much sympathy for Metallica, the Recording Industry of America (RIAA), any or all of the major recording studios, or anyone remotely connected to the music industry in its suit against Napster, Inc I'm no constitutional anarchist; I believe in law and the rights of artists to protect their intellectual property. This...

New data from Forrester Research (Nasdaq: FORR) shows that while the U.S. market for wireless has the potential to reach the heights that other areas of the world are enjoying, most Americans remain uninterested According to Forrester, many Americans have yet to buy into cellular technology. Less than half of U.S. households subscribe to a cellular...

The size of the Internet is much more immense than previously believed, and the Web is expanding so fast that even the best search engines can only scratch the surface, according to a new study The study was conducted by BrightPlanet, a South Dakota-based startup company. According to its findings, there is a "vast reservoir of Internet content," h...

The effort by the French government to keep its citizens from viewing Nazi-related material on a U.S. online auction site is intriguing for several reasons, but mainly because of the sensitive questions of national character and consciousness that the controversy raises A French judge recently ordered Yahoo!, Inc. to find a way to prevent French In...

One of the immutable laws of life, love and electronic commerce is that the haves will seldom give to the have-nots, unless forced to at gunpoint or knife-point -- or coaxed from the far side of a tax loophole. That is why I am constantly amazed by the bewilderment expressed by leaders of underdeveloped countries at the conclusion of an international financial summit...

The judge who in May ordered Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) to block French access to auctions of Nazi memorabilia being sold through its U.S. auction site granted the Santa Clara, California-based Web giant a three week reprieve on Monday In April, the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA) and the Union of French Jewish Students (UE...

Under increasing fire from critics, the Group of Eight nations said it will appoint a special task force to make recommendations on how to help poor nations bridge the growing global divide in Information Technology (IT) The task force will suggest ways to support the development of a communications infrastructure that most developing nations badly...

Members of the U.S. Congress are attempting to make it illegal for employers to electronically snoop on their employees without first telling them about it The proposed legislation would not outlaw electronic surveillance in the workplace, but would simply make it mandatory for employers to inform new employees of company surveillance policies and ...

We are on the edge of a new epoch. The moment that will usher in this brave new world will not be as dramatic as, say, dinosaurs disappearing in a great, cataclysmic convulsion as fireballs pelt the earth. It will be slightly more mundane: Microsoft will overtake Coke as the world's most valuable brand name. That's when we will know for sure the Internet has won the revolution...

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) is scrambling to keep users from being affected by the latest security flaw in its software, an opening that could allow malicious users to take over other computers The flaw in Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express software was discovered by two separate researchers, one in Australia and the other in South America. T...

Do you remember the incredible thrill you felt the first time you hooked up to the World Wide Web? Think back. Can you recall that feeling of -- for lack of a better word -- connection? That sense of being part of something so vast, so global, so post-modern? Great. Now, those of you who answered yes, can you remember the incredible irritation you ...

The White House and other U.S. government officials say they are working to give Internet users the same level of protection against "wiretapping" that they currently have when talking on the telephone The Clinton administration indicated Monday it would propose legislation to clear up the legal confusion surrounding government surveillance into pr...

Controversy continued to mount Thursday over the issue of Internet gambling, which appeared headed for a U.S. government ban earlier this week. A vote on a pending House of Representatives bill could come as early as next week The Internet Gambling Prohibition Act was the subject of heated negotiations in the House on Tuesday, and by Thursday the f...

On the same day that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates announced a new strategy within the so-called "Wintel" duopoly, the software giant sparked new concerns about its domination of world markets and also faced a direct challenge to its operating systems dominance in Japan The renewed fears of Microsoft domination center on the company's recently re...