E-Commerce

Victims bilked of their money by fake online ads are not the only ones hurt. "Blatant fraud, like the fake-news diet promotions and other online scams that have sprouted in recent years, only serves to undermine consumer confidence and eventually marketers and business as a whole," said attorney Bil...

In a scene reminiscent of Microsoft Cofounder Bill Gates' appearance before a Senate hearing on market dominance years ago, Google Chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt took the stand Wednesday to persuade U.S. Congressional leaders that the search engine giant is not violating antitrust principles.

The U.S. Department of Justice expanded its online gambling crackdown Tuesday when it filed a civil suit against the owners of the website Full Tilt Poker for defrauding thousands of members out of more than $300 million in what it called a "global Ponzi scheme." The suit alleges that Full Tilt co-o...

3D marketing is powerful -- and even more so, when it's delivered to the palm of your hand. Mobile 3D is becoming an increasingly common way of grabbing, holding, and entertaining consumers. From using current mobile technologies to create a sense of 3D, to creating actual images that seem to pop of...

Turn on an episode of Seinfeld and return with me to the 1990s! This summer the National Venture Capital Association released results for the second quarter of this year, showing that $7.5 billion was invested in 966 deals. This represented an increase of 19 percent in dollars and deals over the...

Google has premiered the first version of its Google Wallet app, officially kicking off the mobile phone payment system it first announced earlier this year. Google also announced that Visa, Discover and American Express have made the first move toward getting on board with Google Wallet. MasterCard...

Before planning the next set of revisions to your e-commerce website, you might consider that consumer behavior is changing -- and search engine optimization (SEO) is becoming less important. Thanks to improvements in trust and safety, as well as predictability enhancements that brands like Amazon ...

"I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation." Thus begins a blog post by Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, announcing a new change to the company -- a change that is almost guaranteed to further irritate an already angry and frustrated customer base. The change, in a nutshell, is this: In addition to c...

Gary Elliot, chairman of the Association of National Advertisers and vice president of global marketing at Hewlett-Packard, wrote a column in Advertising Age titled "ICANN's Promises Aren't Simply Speculation, They're Outright Fantasy." His arguments opposing ICANN gTLDs echo those of other advert...

Gaming fans pose two questions: First, "Why are Sony and Microsoft so worried about selling consoles? Can't they just focus on games and online services?" and second, "In a world where digital media's becoming popular, will online shops and downloads take down brick and mortar?" Consoles are still a...

You've seen the ad a thousand times on the Internet: "1 Tip for a Tiny Belly" says the hand-lettered headline above the crudely drawn swelling-and-shrinking belly. "Cut down a bit of your belly everyday following this one weird tip," it goes on to say. If starvation caused by having funds continuous...

Netflix cut its domestic subscriber forecast on Thursday by one million customers in the wake of a major change in the company's pricing structure that favors its streaming-only service. The company discontinued its $9.99 monthly streaming and DVD-rental plan and replaced it with two plans, $7.99 fo...

A new ad sales pact between Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL has the tech companies teaming up against a common enemy, Google. By selling ad inventory on each other's sites, the three aim to hang onto ad revenue that previously was lost to third-party networks. Their goal is to convince big Web properties t...

Travelers searching for flights can now look to Google. The search engine giant released its Google Flights feature Tuesday. Flights and travel packages were previously one of the few queries Google couldn't answer as quickly or thoroughly as its travel search competitors such as Kayak, Expedia, Orb...

You might not care about your friend's innumerable Foursquare updates detailing his stops at a bank, a bookstore, and finally a local Italian restaurant, where he's having spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. You can bet, however, that marketers do. After all, the more businesses know about where th...