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With consumer confidence beginning to ebb, brick-and-mortar stores are implementing new strategies designed to lure consumers across their thresholds. But for retailers trying to balance an actual store with an online presence, the challenges of attracting customers seem even fiercer Such retailers must compete not only with each other, but also wi...

In a move to woo subscribers away from competing Internet service providers(ISPs), EarthLink has released a new feature that allows Web surfers to block pop-up ads The company said its Pop-up Blocker is designed to prevent advertising windows from appearing above or under a customer's main browser window. Each time an unwanted ad window is suppress...

In a move almost certain to draw heat from its many critics, travel site Orbitz has created a direct link to the ticket supplies of its major backers, saying that the move will help airlines and consumers save money According to Orbitz, American Airlines will be the first to launch its supplier-link technology, and three more airlines, including US...

As consumers seek relief from bleak news about war and the economy, experts say entertainment could spawn the next wave of lucrative niche opportunities on the Web Yankee Group program manager Paul Ritter told the E-Commerce Times that Hollywood could prove to be a blockbuster. According to Ritter, online purchases of movies and videos will ramp up...

Sounding the death knell for its hopes of providing round-the-clock trading for investors, Nasdaq has halted plans to move forward with Nasdaq Japan, saying it will withdraw completely from the troubled effort by October 15th But the exchange will not disappear completely. The Osaka Securities Exchange (OSE) plans to continue to run it under the te...

Dell has announced second-quarter results that fell slightly short of analysts' estimates, but the company said it expects third-quarter earnings and revenue to increase as it continues to steal market share from competitors. On Thursday, Dell executives said the company reversed year-ago losses in the second quarter, with revenue up 11 percent to...

Just as a museum helps visitors learn lessons from the past, a monument dedicated to bad e-commerce ideas -- perhaps called the "hall of e-commerce oblivion" -- might offer a similar kind of education to those who sell on the Web Such a collection of bad ideas could impart a key truth: While users will flock to sites that make their lives easier, t...

Interactive media has gone retro, and it's long overdue. They say the classics never go out of style, and the same can be said for good old-fashioned media fundamentals. While it's still very stimulating to discuss wireless advertising and experiment with complex targeting technologies, we're now seeing more interactive media professionals talking about GRPs (gross rating points). A couple of years ago, you would have expected an interactive guru to think that stood for "Generate Real-Time Platforms." ...

The Nasdaq stock exchange has given BarnesandNoble.com just over two months to either boost its stock price or face delisting, an often fatal blow to a public company's fortunes BN.com, which launched a US$420 million IPO in the dot-com heyday of 1999, received the warning notice because its stock price remained below $1 for 30 consecutive days....

AOL Time Warner has admitted that three deals involving payment to its AOL unit from third parties, amounting to US$49 million, might have been erroneously declared as advertising revenue Calling the $49 million paid into the AOL unit over six quarters "an insignificant portion of the company's revenues," AOL Time Warner nevertheless said the payme...

The high-profile financial crimes at companies like WorldCom and Enron might lead some to wonder whether high-tech companies are magnets for fraud But Andrew Bartels, a Giga Information Group analyst, told the E-Commerce Times that the industry does not have a genetic defect that makes it more prone to fraud. "It is not fair to single out tech or t...

Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy said Tuesday that he believes a surge of programmers will cross party lines and begin using Linux in the coming years McNealy told an audience at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo that he expects to see a 30 percent increase each year, and he urged companies to get behind the Linux wave of popularity....

Two years ago, e-commerce was still in its growth spurt. It would go to sleep at night and wake up half again as big. And last year, e-commerce was supposed to be tested for real. No more growth hormones, just old-fashioned business practices. But there were mitigating circumstances, such as tax rebate checks. Everyone from Amazon to Yahoo! rushed...

While layoff announcements at IBM have been sporadic, the company reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it has pink-slipped more than 15,000 employees, fully 5 percent of its workforce In a separate filing, company president and CEO Sam Palmisano and chief financial officer John R. Joyce also confirmed the veracity of I...

As e-commerce goes mainstream and stands on its own two feet, experts say the industry can no longer count on receiving the kid-glove treatment from the U.S. government. Nevertheless, as long as the economy remains fragile, it is also unlikely that the government will lift the current tax moratorium or repeal other hands-off policies.

Most of us hit our heads against a wall and learn, quickly, that it hurts. Some people never learn, but those people just might be the ones to take the Internet to the next level. Take, for example, the e-book crowd. On the surface, it seems clear that these people just don't get it. It has been two years now since Stephen King tried his e-book ex...

Amid harsh criticism from the competition, Sun Microsystems has introduced its first general-purpose Linux server. The play marks a shift in Sun's strategy, which was built on the company's ability to deliver high-end servers running its own Solaris operating system....

Kids and teenagers made up nearly 20 percent of the overall online population in the month of July, highlighting the group's growing importance for Internet commerce and marketing, according to a report from Nielsen//NetRatings The research firm said that about 20 million of the 100 million people who went online in July were younger than 17. That ...

America Online has snubbed rival Microsoft by using Netscape browser technology in the newest iteration of its software for Mac OS X, a move that could indicate the company might eventually oust Microsoft from its PC offerings as well "They are certainly thinking about it," Rob Lancaster, an analyst at the Yankee Group, told the E-Commerce Times....

Amazon.com has finally turned the corner on the road to profitability, eBay set earnings records in the second quarter, and brick-and-mortar chains are buying into the e-commerce channel in droves Does this mean the e-tail shakeout is finally over? That depends on whom you ask. Analysts have differing positions about whether or not we have seen the...