E-Commerce

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has issued a ruling that could spell the end of Net neutrality -- or merely redefine the battle terms a little. It's a matter of perspective. The court ruled that the FCC did not prove it had the authority to order Comcast to change it network m...

T-Mobile has launched a promotion offering credit toward the purchase of its high-end HTC HD2 to anyone willing to trade in an iPhone. The company reportedly is offering credits from $100 to $350. The HD2 sports a 1-Ghz processor, a high-resolution touchscreen and a 16-GB memory card. Its only seemi...

In a startling development, New York is now taking the position that sales of online services are subject to sales tax -- believe it or not -- as sales of canned software. In other words, the Department is alleging that there is no meaningful difference between purchasing an online service and, for ...

Many college students have been spending the week on the beaches of Padre Island and other balmy locales, soaking up equal parts sun and alcohol. Meanwhile, the families of America are starting to think about where they'd like to dig their toes in the sand for summer vacations -- if they're not alre...

Amazon has reportedly agreed to new pricing terms with two major publishers on e-books sold for its Kindle. Amazon forged new agreements with Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins Publishers. The new terms -- which mirror the deals the two companies struck with Apple for the iPad -- will allow most...

During this time of economic recovery, it seems that the Internet has remained fairly immune. E-commerce is on track to account for 53 percent of all purchases by 2014, according to Forrester Research. This represents positive growth, but when you put it into perspective based on the Internet's over...

Google, AOL, AT&T, the ACLU, Microsoft, Salesforce.com and other members of a newly formed coalition called "Digital Due Process" are proposing that the federal government update laws on government access to email and private files stored by third-party service providers in the cloud -- or any o...

Climate change, peak oil, and precarious food systems seem finally to have entered the realm of relatively mainstream discourse. Corporate employees now routinely discuss their gardening plans and dreams of a hobby farm over lunch. Photographs of whole foods guru Michael Pollan grace the covers of p...

The set-top box is the primary point of entry into the digital home for television services, including cable TV, DTH, and IPTV. This device has evolved beyond its historical role as a simple black box sitting on top of a large TV set into a smaller form-factor device supporting a variety of function...

Google has introduced a feature that gives advertisers another bite at the apple -- that is, it gives them another shot at potential customers who interacted with their company somewhere on the Google Content Network but didn't make a purchase. Google is calling the feature "remarketing." Introduced...

Cablevision broadcast the first high-def 3-D television program in the U.S. Wednesday night, a hockey game from Madison Square Garden. The broadcast was largely symbolic -- almost no one is watching TV in 3-D in their homes yet as television sets equipped to decode the signals are just beginning to ...

Three of the biggest names in the Internet industry are founding members of the Global Network Initiative, a consortium of companies, non-profits and academic groups formed in October 2008 to promote human rights and privacy around the world. However, now one of those companies, Google, finds itself...

Google's relationship with the Chinese government officially entered the brinksmanship phase this week with the announcement from the company that it is ending its Communist-mandated censorship of search results and directing queries to its unfiltered Hong Kong-based service. The Great Firewall imme...

Google is trumpeting victory in a European court ruling over its practice of selling trademarks to competing firms for use in the search giant's paid results program. However, the EU court also set a new standard for national courts that could ultimately reshape how the company's $23 billion adverti...

The USPTO has finally approved Amazon's 1-Click Patent, which has been the subject of much criticism and debate since it was originally filed back in 1997. Many critics cite concerns with the breadth of the patent protection applied for and subsequently approved. Others express concerns over the s...