E-Commerce

It's official: Mobile is moving into the mainstream. With the ever-growing proliferation of devices offering full Internet browsing access, more and more consumers are interacting -- and purchasing -- on the Web via their device of choice. In fact, according to an October 2008 Forrester Research rep...

Microsoft has reportedly resumed its on-again, off-again talks with Yahoo on teaming up for online search and advertising. The discussions are apparently being held between Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his Yahoo counterpart Carol Bartz. Both companies may need each other if they want to grow thei...

Google's YouTube and Universal Music Group are partnering to launch Vevo, a music video vehicle featuring UMG's videos. The site will launch in the coming months. Few details have been provided about the launch; however, both companies will share in the revenues, and additional deals with other musi...

Consumers have come to accept that songs can be purchased a la carte for 99 US cents via the Internet. That is a result, of course, of Apple's revolutionary introduction of the iPod music player and the iTunes music store several years ago. Before then, consumers had few options for downloading musi...

It's been nearly a decade since the Internet bubble burst in 2001, and the intervening years have seen the rise of powerhouse companies such as Google, MySpace and Facebook, which have helped broaden the scope of what was once referred to as the "Information Superhighway." The Internet was once limi...

Is the Associated Press trying to shoehorn a 21st-century technology into a 20th-century business model? Or is it merely trying to protect content that allows Google and others to rake in money while it is left holding the lost-revenue bag? The answers to those questions may end up coming from a cou...

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has launched an App store for its iconic device. BlackBerry App World went live Wednesday morning with some 1,000 applications available. The site gives developers the option of setting up their own stores -- an interesting differentiator from other carriers' ap...

Social networking has left an indelible mark on consumers in terms of the way they connect and interact with each other. Sites such as Facebook are adding users at an incredible rate, and the online dating site Match.com reported good growth in the latter stages of 2008. Parks Associates has found ...

There's good news and bad news in the latest Internet Advertising Revenue Report, newly released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The good news is that Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. are still growing, topping $23 billion in 2008. The bad news: That growth...

Google has launched a new music search service in China in conjunction with Top100.cn, one of mainland China's top Internet music sites. The new Google Music Search provides users with links to free, legal music downloads. Google, Top100.cn and several major American record labels will share revenue...

Even if you were to limit yourself to the iMac product line -- as opposed to the heavy artillery computer graphics workstation, the Mac Pro -- you could easily spend $1,600 to $3,200 for a souped-up machine. Mac addicts will tell you the price is worth it. What about everyone else, though? The price...

Google is laying off about 200 staff worldwide in its sales and marketing organizations. The announcement was made in a blog post written by Omid Kordestani, the online search giant's senior vice president of global sales and business development. In his post, Kordestani said Google's rapid growth l...

There are reports that Cox and AT&T have begun cooperating with the Recording Industry Association of America's new antipiracy strategy -- first announced in December -- of targeting illegal file-sharing activities through Internet service providers instead of through the courts. Once the RIAA i...

Twitter has announced its intention to start making money through the introduction of premium business accounts sometime this year. The San Francisco-based social network provides users with a free service that lets them post 140-character notifications, or "tweets." Unique visitors to Twitter incre...

Blockbuster and TiVo have joined forces to deliver Blockbuster's vast library of digital video to owners of the TiVo television set-top box. "We are excited to be teaming with TiVo, the company that created the DVR, to make Blockbuster's entertainment content readily available to their millions of s...