E-Commerce

As I got ready to jump off at the next stop on my whirlwind tour of travel-planning Web sites, I found myself in the grip of something close to excitement. Trying out Priceline.com was going to be a new experience for me as well -- but it already felt familiar, thanks to my beloved William Shatner (...

Facebook and Twitter must have felt like the belles of the social media ball Wednesday. Both companies announced agreements with search engine suitors Google and Microsoft's Bing to integrate their status updates and tweets into search results, bringing with them the likelihood of more real-time res...

For many in the West, Asia is viewed as a large monolithic geographic area with some slight differences among regions. However, a more-informed understanding is that there are several market segments, and an understanding of some of the key differences between segments is valuable to developing effe...

Word of mouth has long been a priceless asset to any business, and technology has expanded the playing field in a whole new way with mobile messaging and social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and more. Every day, it seems hard to avoid the buzz about social media -- who's on it, what th...

If the Internet is indeed "a series of tubes," as famously described by former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, then the mother of all plumbing snakes would be needed to unblock the press releases and emails sent over the last two weeks by those backing and opposing Net neutrality. That would include Mon...

Cloud computing is perhaps the most talked-about shift in the technology industry today. The concept of running applications from the cloud is quickly evolving from a futuristic vision to a commercially viable alternative for mainstream business. A recent survey of global 2,000 companies revealed th...

Jeff Bezos named his company after the longest and largest river in the world. So it's appropriate that the past week has shown just how influential Amazon has become in both the online and offline retail spaces, as competitors and the Seattle-based e-commerce giant threw a series of punches and cou...

Hotwire is a discount site that sells off unsold inventory by masking the identity of the hotel or rental car service or airline until the purchase is complete. I have to confess the concept never appealed to me that much -- it conjured up visions of middle-row airline seats and secluded hotels that...

It is important to understand that Europe is not a melting pot like the U.S., where people of different cultures and religions blended together far from their native lands. Politically and culturally, Europe is diverse, but each country has a different history, religion, national language, culture a...

From bulk mail to email to social media: The next chapter in the checkered history of spamming is now being written via status updates and tweets. However, Twitter is trying to ensure that the chapter is a short one following the company's introduction Tuesday of a new "report as spam" button on use...

The market for set-top boxes in Europe has received a major boost from the transition to digital services. Right now, terrestrial television is still a major source of video for viewers in some of the larger Western European markets, including France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom Almost 44 pe...

Google and Microsoft are reportedly in separate talks with Twitter with the goal of licensing the microblogging site's rich store of data. The potential deal structures could be anything from up-front payments to revenue-sharing schemes. Whatever form it might take, a deal would represent Twitter's ...

Clutter, clutter, clutter -- will they never learn? Well into our survey of travel-planning Web sites, a common design theme continues to predominate: a crowded user interface that detracts from the supposed utilitarian purpose of the site. Bookit.com is no exception, although it is not as bad as so...

One of the biggest challenges in today's rapidly evolving cloud computing market, if you're an aspiring vendor, is how to clearly differentiate your offerings in an increasingly competitive environment. This is especially difficult because of the Web's knack for sucking the value out of everything i...

In today's highly competitive market, online presence is essential for every company's success and growth. A high ranking in search engine results not only brings targeted traffic and increases conversions, but also establishes a business as an authority in a particular industry. With Google being o...