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Just a day after Amazon.com halved itspurchase threshold for free shipping from US$99 to $49, e-tailerBuy.com has gone one step further,announcing it will offer free shipping with no minimum purchase Like Amazon's expanded offer for free shipping, the Buy.com deal will run for a limitedtime. But unlike Amazon, which said it will run its promotion f...

Earlier this spring, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said he did not foresee economic improvement during the next three months. He was not kidding. Oracle reported revenue of US$9.7 billion for its fiscal year ended May 31st, down considerably from the $10.9 billion recorded last year In the company's fiscal fourth quarter, revenue totaled $2.8 billion, a...

If Amazon.com were not such a class act, if it were not the undisputed e-tail champion, the company's Gold Box promotion would be a joke After all, it is incredibly transparent to anyone paying attention that Amazon is desperately trying to get people to buy things from certain categories -- especially those pesky kitchen accessories. On top of thi...

In an ongoing battle against Intel-based competition, Sun Microsystems introduced itslong-awaited four-processor "Cherrystone" server Cherrystone, otherwise known as the Sun Fire V480, has two processors and sells for aboutUS$23,000 in its base configuration. A four-processor configuration also is available....

Amazon.com has announced it will lower the threshold for free shipping to US$49 in a move that the company has called a long-term test to raise the stakes for itself and other online retailers Amazon said a trial of the service -- which halves the previous minimum order size of $99 for free shipping on certain purchases -- will run for three to six...

While scientists have been reaping the benefits of clustered computing for several years, using it to search for intelligent life in the universe and sift through vast amounts of data in hopes of making a breakthrough, business users have largely ignored this technology -- until recently. IBM product manager Barbara Butler told the E-Commerce Time...

Shopping carts have become standard equipment for online vendors. But software developers -- particularly those that make some of the larger off-the-shelf e-commerce packages -- are upping the ante by integrating additional features into their products For example, as companies become more sophisticated about selling online, developers are expandin...

In an effort to attract users from the small business arena, eBay has forged a deal with office outsourcer Regus to help businesses find and rent equipped offices The new service is part of eBay Real Estate, an online marketplace for realestate-related properties and services that was launched in August 2000....

Loudcloud, the closely watched follow-up effort of Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, announced it will sell its core managed services and hosting business to tech giant EDS for US$63.5 million in cash. In doing so, Loudcloud, which fought through the worst of the dot-com stock market rout to go public early last year, will abandon its original ...

The Internet economy is entering maturity, but not in the stock market or even in research and development labs. The dot-com sector is coming of age in a courtroom. And while analysts say many of the patent lawsuits, class-actions, merger-related filings and antitrust actions will result in little tangible damage, e-business finds itself scramblin...

Increased productivity, made possible by new technologies, has been responsible for many of the record-setting job cuts of recent years, according to a report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CGC). CGC said its survey of U.S. corporations found that the most productive industries top its list of companies that have made the lar...

In a preemptive strike against hackers, Microsoft has posted advisories on TechNet about newly discovered security vulnerabilities in the company's SQL Server software and three of its operating systems The most critical hole is in Microsoft's RAS (remote access service) software, which runs as an option in Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP....

Apple Computer is used to name-calling. Macs have been dismissed as geek machines, used by members of a cult-like community who appreciate design over function and an eye-candy interface over simpler, more humble graphics. However, that image has slowly begun to fade. Now, Apple is going after its toughest audience yet: IT managers....

In an attempt to thwart piracy -- and to find an online music strategy thatworks -- two of the United States' Big Five record companies, Sony Music andUniversal Music, have announced they plan to make downloading music from the Web less expensive for listeners After earlier attempts to provide digital downloads to consumers for higher feesdid not m...

An economic downturn means fewer dollars for salaries, business resources and, unfortunately, research and development. But is a poor economy synonymous with a dip in technical innovation, particularly at bellwether companies like Cisco and IBM? Not necessarily, according to analysts. "There's less money across the board, but the dollars that once ...

Amid the chaos of the past two weeks, when travel companies were tripping over one another to cut deals, merge and otherwise grab whatever they could while the grabbing was good, Priceline.com.com was just as busy as its competitors. But Priceline might have something the others don't: a plan. It might not be a workable plan, but it also might be ...

Internet media company Terra Lycos has launched a subscription-based online music service, Lycos Rhapsody, with the full cooperation of at least four major record labels. The new service is designed not only to deliver music to Internet listeners, but also to help Lycos decrease its dependence on ad revenue, which has dropped considerably for most...

More than half of all U.S. retailers said their online sales operations achieved profitability in 2001, and growth could top 40 percent in 2002, according to a joint report published by the Boston Consulting Group, Forrester Research and Shop.org. The study, called "The State of Retailing Online 5.0," predicted that online sales will grow 41 perce...

A company with a well-known brand spent millions building an e-commerce site with all the technological bells and whistles. Legacy systems were integrated, e-business processes streamlined and customer support programs fine-tuned But by the time executives were ready to introduce the new sales channel, their depleted budget had few marketing and pr...

Senator Conrad Burns (R-Montana) has announced plans to introduce a bill that would give the U.S. government more influence over ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the overseer of Internet addressing and traffic The statement comes just weeks before an ICANN reform committee is due to meet in Romania to discuss the organiz...