E-Commerce

Online advertising spending hit a record $9.26 billion in the third quarter of 2012, an 18 percent increase over the same period last year. The IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report for the third quarter of 2012, released last week by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers, ...

More than just a marketing gimmick, gamification has the potential to inject new life into a variety of industries and broaden the appeal of many new and existing offerings. The term "gamification" describes the use of game mechanics, such as challenges, achievements and rewards, to drive certain co...

It's no secret that business-to-business buyers have come to expect the same ease and convenience of online buying they enjoy for personal shopping experiences when it comes to making corporate purchases. With Forrester Research conservatively estimating nearly $560 billion in B2B e-commerce transac...

Google announced Thursday that it was selling its Motorola Mobility set-top box division, Motorola Home, to Arris Group for $2.35 billion. The deal, which has been approved by the boards of both companies, is expected to close by the second half of next year. Under the terms of the agreement, Google...

The U.S. mobile advertising outlook is a bit rosier, according to eMarketer's latest forecast. Native display ads running on sites such as Facebook and Twitter are leading the charge for the mobile channel. Overall spending on U.S. mobile advertising -- which includes display, search and messaging-b...

Facebook plans to launch video advertising that will autoplay in users' news feeds some time next year, but it's not yet clear whether they'll be more like silent movies or talkies. Advertisers reportedly will have the chance to buy targeted video ads in the first part of next year. The ads will be ...

Google announced Tuesday that it is extending its Scan and Match feature for its online locker service to the U.S. Users with Google Play accounts will get a message asking if they would like Google to scan their hard drives for music. If it finds a match in its own library, Google will add the song...

A two-year FTC probe into Google could be coming to an end. The Federal Trade Commission may close its investigation into the search giant as early as this week, and it appears that Google will avoid a consent decree, according to reports. This would mean Google would not have to agree to any formal...

Those delectable M&M's characters seen in commercials are making their way to the iPhone. An advergame app titled "M&M's Brand Chocolate Factory" recently became available on iTunes for $0.99. While many M&M's commercials involve the six characters in social situations trying to avoid be...

Those delectable M&M's characters seen in commercials are making their way to the iPhone. An advergame app titled "M&M's Brand Chocolate Factory" recently became available on iTunes for $0.99. While many M&M's commercials involve the six characters in social situations trying to avoid be...

AOL is shifting toward decentralization of its marketing efforts. The online company this week named Allie Savarino Kline as chief marketing officer of its Advertising.com unit. In the newly created position, she will have global oversight of Advertising.com and will handle marketing strategy for th...

The fact that the Internet has no boundaries of time or geography has changed the way businesses operate forever. One feature of the Internet is that it has allowed creative businesses to avoid, or at least minimize their tax liabilities. In particular, Google's business success means that it has to...

'Tis the season of giving and on Tuesday Facebook made it easier to give, as it added collections of wines to its Facebook Gifts catalog and made the program available for everyone in the United States. For some Facebook members, the season of giving started early, with the social network giant's Se...

Google has received multiple offers for the cable box division of Motorola, according to reports that surfaced Monday. It may now be considering bids for the set-top business from two companies, Pace and Arris Group, both of which are manufacturers of cable equipment. What makes a potential deal all...

Video games, often a hot seller during the holiday season, are seeing softer sales this year. That's according to data released by NPD Group that shows video game sales down 11 percent for the month of November, compared to sales figures from the same period last year. Sales for November totaled $2....