E-Commerce

If you're perusing Staples' website anytime soon looking for boring old printer cartridges or what have you, you may be surprised to see a listing for 3D Printers. A 3D printer, for the uninitiated, is a device that's capable of producing a three-dimensional object from a digital design. It employs ...

Vu Digital is a new search tool for the Internet that helps you locate content. This very interesting startup, which launched just over a month ago, does not replace traditional search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. It goes beyond them. You will still use traditional search engines, but Vu find...

Mississippi AG Jim Hood has called on his counterparts in other states to join him in confronting Google for not doing enough to prevent illegal online activities including the sale of prescription drugs by rogue pharmacies. Hood invited Google CEO Larry Page to discuss his concerns but did not rece...

In an effort to enable rich, interactive ads for its Windows 8 platform, Microsoft on Tuesday announced Ad Pano, a brand-new advertising platform that runs across Windows 8, apps, Bing, Xbox and Skype. Debuted at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity being held this week in France, A...

Video streaming service Netflix on Monday announced a new, multiyear partnership with DreamWorks Animation whereby it will bring many of the studio's beloved characters to the TV market via a branded collection of shows. Marking the largest deal for original first-run content in Netflix's history, t...

Movie studios and TV networks increasingly are turning to social media for help with generating buzz about their upcoming releases and programming. Communities are building around favorite movie franchises like the Twilight and Avengers series and TV shows like Downton Abbey and The Walking Dead. Ha...

Time Warner Cable appears to have come up with a strategy to help stem the flow of cord-cutters: offering incentives to content providers to withhold certain properties from online entertainment platforms. Limited distribution is clearly an entrenched practice in the entertainment industry, but it s...

In an effort to manage acquisition fees, Pandora Radio has acquired a terrestrial radio station based in Rapid City, S.D. The move enables Pandora to be subject to licensing fees and royalties for broadcast radio stations rather than streaming stations. Internet radio companies such as Pandora, Spot...

Comcast this week announced new software for its set-top boxes, opening a window into how cable TV companies hope to retain customers tempted to move their eyeballs to online-only alternatives. Comcast X2 blends cable offerings like on-demand movies, program guides and digital video recording with o...

Google has finalized its acquisition of Waze, developer of a crowdsourced mapping app, with the goal of expanding its location-based and social maps offerings while providing users with a way to outsmart traffic. Israel-based Waze has a worldwide user base of about 50 million people who log in to ac...

For many Western companies, a lack of confidence and basic local knowledge is stifling opportunity for international expansion. There are two key markets that I consider to be low-hanging fruit for U.S. merchants: Russia and China. First, develop a simple strategy for processing international paymen...

Facebook will simplify its advertising structure in an effort to make it easier for marketers to determine which products will help them best reach consumers, the company announced this week. Advertisers currently face a choice of 27 different formats on the social network, but the streamlining effo...

Amazon reportedly is rolling out a grocery delivery service that could allow it to expand into a mostly untapped e-commerce market. The company already runs AmazonFresh, a grocery service that delivers food and home products to several Seattle neighborhoods. A similar service reportedly will launch...

Zynga is slashing 18 percent of its workforce in an effort to better allocate costs as it attempts to develop more gaming hits across multiple digital platforms. It will eliminate about 520 positions by August. The cuts were necessary but not something the company ever expected to face, CEO Mark Pin...

DirecTV and two other unidentified bidders reportedly are offering upwards of $1 billion to buy Hulu. DirecTV could be planning to add Hulu's digital offerings to its TV packages. Hulu offers both free and paid content, with about 4 million subscribers to its premium Hulu Plus service. Together, ads...