E-Commerce

Recently while presenting the findings of a Big Data survey to an executive team, I was a bit taken aback when the CEO stopped me and said, "I'll listen to what you learned from the survey as long as you don't use those two words again -- 'Big Data' -- I've already told my team there will be hell to...

This year men are doing more of the shopping, and they're not the befuddled dads TV shows project. They're purposeful shoppers looking for the best deals. This newly emergent breed is dubbed "mansumer" in BPN's 2013 Retail Trends Report. Mansumers take advantage of tools like online sites, price com...

This year's EMC Industry Analyst Summit included numerous highlights familiar to regular IT conference attendees: a self-generated report card on the previous year's activities and a discussion of plans for the year ahead, for example. Few, however, offer the level of access EMC does by holding cand...

Social game developer Zynga has taken a step toward another type of gaming, having filed preparatory paperwork in Nevada to offer real-money gambling games in the United States, according to reports. The Nevada Gaming Control Board confirmed that Zynga filed an application Tuesday for a preliminary ...

Amazon is enlarging its Kindle universe to expressly target children. It has rolled out Kindle FreeTime Unlimited, a service that offers several different types of content for children 3-8 years-old, including books, games, educational apps, movies and TV shows. The monthly price for Prime members i...

Speculation about Pandora's future is running high again with the company's release of its Q3 earnings and, more importantly, guidance for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2013. For the third quarter of fiscal 2013, Pandora posted total revenue of $120 million, a 60 percent year-over-year increase...

Yahoo acquired video chat startup OnTheAir on Tuesday in a move that may be more about deepening its mobile talent pool than adding a new service to its lineup. OnTheAir is a video broadcasting app that allows users to chat on a split screen or broadcast live video streams. The app was created as a ...

Zynga signed a deal with TV Everywhere provider Synacor that gives Zynga currency in pay-TV and high-speed Internet consumer bundles. The move puts Zynga games seamlessly on all screens for more stickiness potential. Synacor works with multichannel video programming distributors, including cable and...

When the first banner ads came out in the 1990s, they attracted lots of attention -- and lots of click-throughs. Since then, though, their effectiveness has plummeted, forcing businesses to think creatively about the future of online advertising. This future is likely to include a mix of social medi...

A U.S. district judge has given preliminary approval to Facebook's attempt to settle a class action lawsuit alleging the company violated members' privacy rights by using their images in Facebook's Sponsored Stories ad format. The settlement would give $10 each to those who objected to their images ...

In just a few short years, social networks have become deeply entrenched as a means for consumers and businesses to connect online. Consumers spend more time on social networks than on any other category of sites, according to the latest social media report from NM Incite/Nielsen. That amounts to ro...

Google has acquired the Canadian startup BufferBox, a package-storage service, in a move to expand its e-commerce offerings. BufferBox provides subscribers with temporary lockers accessible at all hours for receiving packages from online retailers. The company has teamed with 7-Eleven and public tra...

Google acquired retail coupon company Incentive Targeting, giving it a way to target consumers with deals based on their preferences and broaden its e-commerce presence. Incentive Targeting works with manufacturers of grocery and consumer products to design personalized, timely coupons and special o...

A Like on Facebook goes a long way. Seventy percent of consumers who engage in social media make purchases from brands they are connected to, according to a new study released by SocialVibe. Connections form when a consumer clicks Like on Facebook, Follows a brand on Twitter or interacts with a bran...

Google is integrating its Google Drive cloud storage service with Gmail, letting users send files 400 times larger than previously allowed. Gmail now will send links to files up to 10 GB stored on Google Drive from inside the Gmail interface. Additionally, since the file itself isn't transferred but...