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One of the latest trends in notebook computers represents a 180-degree turn from what manufacturers have been trying to do for years, which is to make devices ever smaller. Now, some laptop makers are betting that bigger notebooks will attract a certain segment of the market. And these new behemoths are also cheaper and faster....

Travel site Expedia has announced plans to buy a privately held business travel agency and use the acquisition as the core of an effort to enter the market for corporate travel Expedia did not disclose terms of its purchase of Seattle, Washington-based Metropolitan Travel, whose customer base includes Nordstrom and Starbucks, but it noted that the ...

It's a sign of the times. In the afterglow of eBay's PayPal acquisition announcement, although the deal has few detractors, questions are being raised. They're somewhat tough questions, focusing on who, why and, perhaps most importantly, when. In the world after Enron, HomeStore, Tyco, Xerox and WorldCom, cynicism is to be expected. But eBay's pur...

When VeriSign launched in 1995, it touted itself as being the "only company focused 100 percent on digital authentication products and services." But since 2000, the company has ventured into several new -- and perhaps questionable -- markets. For example, VeriSign entered the domain name services market with a big splash when it acquired Network ...

On the heels of eBay's US$1.5 billion PayPal acquisition, Microsoft is making its own play to compete in the online payment space The Redmond, Washington-based software giant announced a partnership Tuesday with security software maker Arcot Systems. The deal extends Microsoft's Passport online identification system to include authorization of cred...

Multichannel retailing is on the rise in the U.S. and Europe, according to a new study published by Gartner Of the 375 companies surveyed between September and December of last year, roughly 75 percent said that they currently have a multichannel retailing strategy (MRS) or are planning to implement one....

XML (extensible markup language), with its potential for helping companies find common ground on which to exchange and interpret data between disparate systems, has started to change the face of e-commerce. In addition, XML is helping companies communicate outside the confines of firewalls. "It has really caught on in the last 12 months," Louis Co...

Hewlett-Packard on Monday officially launched its portfolio of Intel Itanium 2-based systems, products and services The worldwide rollout comes after nearly seven years of collaboration among HP, Intel and Microsoft....

In a widely anticipated move, auction giant eBay has announced it will acquire online payment company PayPal in an all-stock deal valued at US$1.5 billion. EBay said it will phase out its own Billpoint system, long a disappointment to the auction site, after the PayPal deal closes. The companies expect the buyout to be completed by year's end, pen...

At first, traffic counts were all that mattered to e-commerce. The number of people visiting a site was the single best gauge of a site's success in a new industry. But times have changed. As e-commerce has grown more complex -- becoming one of several channels through which consumers research, shop for and ultimately buy goods -- measuring the im...

In the few years since the Internet has become an important venue for commerce, communications and entertainment, so-called cybercops have tried to impose a variety of rules, regulations and guidelines to protect the interests of consumers and businesses. Unfortunately, however, no mechanism yet exists to enforce such initiatives....

A long, long time ago, before Amazon.com modified its "Earth's Biggest Bookstore" slogan to encompass all the other merchandise on its virtual shelves, e-commerce took its first baby steps by selling books to the worlds hungry readers. Now, almost exactly seven years later, the latest and hottest news about e-commerce is all about -- books. Has e-...

Amazon.com is reportedly exploring relationships with clothing retailers, a move that could result in yet another new market for the e-tailing giant Amazon could launch an online clothing store that features items from Nordstrom and Gap -- which includes Banana Republic and Old Navy -- as early as this summer or fall, according to a report in the N...

Companies took a break from laying off workers from Internet-related jobs in June, with just 684 layoffs announced, according to a report from international outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. By comparison, dot-coms cut more than 2,000 jobs in May. But the respite might be just a temporary lull in the action, as corporate failures ins...

In a move intended to attract Java developers, Microsoft on Monday released a new programming tool that rounds out its .NET software strategy Microsoft launched Visual J# .NET, a development tool designed to be used by Java-language developers building applications and services on the .NET framework. The tool complements Visual C++ .NET, Visual C# ...

To say that eBay has a devoted following is like saying the Beatles were liked by some teenage girls. While true, the statement does not reflect the full scope of fans' zeal. Analysts love the company, competitors fear its power, and users flock in ever-greater numbers to its homespun marketplace But the adoration is not universal. Recurrent compla...

In every quarter since the dot-com meltdown began gathering steam, industry analysts and investment bankers have been predicting a tech comeback. But many quarters marked by disappointing earnings reports have forced overly optimistic forecasters to retract predictions of imminent rebound.

Cisco Systems this week completed two acquisitions aimed at augmenting some of its product lines. The first acquisition, a US$173 million stock deal that closed Tuesday, involved privately held Hammerhead Networks of Billerica, Massachusetts. Hammerhead Networks develops software products that will expand Cisco's IP aggregation portfolio of cable,...

While WorldCom has been severely battered by revelations of improper accounting and accusations of fraud, the company has what it takes to survive the current crisis, according to a new report from research firm The Yankee Group. "Unlike other struggling telecommunications companies, WorldCom has assets, customers and a revenue stream, and will no...

Different experts might define e-commerce differently, but most agree on one thing: The sector represents a growing piece of the overall commerce pie, and its share is expected to increase steadily -- though gradually -- over the next five years For example, Forrester research director Kate Delhagen told the E-Commerce Times that online sales accou...