E-Commerce

Online auctioneering pioneer eBay announced it will slash 1,000 jobs and acquire online payment processor Bill Me Later for $820 million in cash and $125 million in outstanding options. The 1,000 layoffs will cut San Jose, Calif.-based eBay's total workforce by 10 percent and will result in a pretax...

If you haven't done so yet, it may be time to consider adding third-party industry e-newsletter advertising to your marketing mix. Online advertisements can motivate your audience to act. According to a recent engineering trends survey, 87 percent of respondents stated they visited an advertiser's W...

More consumers than ever are shopping online, but it doesn't mean they all buy online. Studies show that the Internet influences more than $3 of in-store sales for every dollar spent online. The Internet has given consumers the ability to make more educated purchases and get better deals, but many c...

Odd couple Google and Yahoo late on Friday reportedly opted to delay their proposed partnership, under which Google would essentially devour part of Yahoo's advertising business and create an online ad behemoth that critics say no rival could possibly compete against. On Thursday, Sen. Herb Kohl, D-...

Of all the protests mounted against the pending ad partnership between Google and Yahoo, the one lodged by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., is bound to be among the most worrisome. Kohl, who oversees the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, has asked the Justice Department to continue to monitor the competitive la...

Wal-Mart will soon shut down the servers controlling reauthorization of purchased DRM-protected WMA music files, Ryan Halford, the company's computer buyer, indicated on a Wal-Mart blog. An e-mail sent to Wal-Mart Music customers, a copy of which was posted on the blog BoingBoing, indicates the shut...

First came cash. Now, Microsoft is offering up prizes to try to get to you to use its Live Search product. The company announced the start of a new SearchPerks initiative Wednesday. The program awards frequent flyer-style points for Live searches that can then be redeemed for various gifts. It's the...

The Motion Picture Association of America has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court of Los Angeles seeking a restraining order against RealNetworks. RealDVD, which became available on Tuesday, violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the MPAA maintains. It is hardly surprising that the ...

Microsoft has teamed with Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna to try and stamp out so-called scareware. The AG and Microsoft have filed lawsuits against James Reed McCreary IV of The Woodlands, Texas. The suit names him as the marketer of an application called "Registry Cleaner XP." Also ...

Several Silicon Valley Congress members have urged the U.S. Department of Justice not to interfere in the pending online advertising deal between search engine giants Google and Yahoo. Mountain View, Calif.-based Google and Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo are situated in the heart of Silicon Valley. T...

Game publishers have been inserting advertisements into video games almost since games were first developed. But what began as static in-game product placements such as billboards advertising a publisher's upcoming title in the 1970s has become a much more sophisticated marketing tactic -- and a pot...

Besides working overtime to crank out the $700 billion financial market rescue plan -- to little avail as it turned out -- the House of Representatives on Sunday also passed a piece of legislation that could rack up significantly more penalties for copyright violation. The Prioritizing Resources and...

The weekend media spotlight was on the heated Congressional negotiations that produced a financial bailout bill, which promptly went nowhere. But hidden somewhere in the static of dealmaking, rhetoric and counteroffers was a strong signal of support for Internet radio. The Webcaster Settlement Act o...

The U.S. economy has entered a vicious cycle where housing, employment and financial troubles are forcing consumers to tighten their purse strings and closely evaluate their every purchase. Retailers are also feeling the grip of a tightening economy as they compete aggressively for a diminishing num...

With the strains on today's economy becoming increasingly apparent, it's now more important than ever to strategically and effectively plan your online media campaigns. To do this, you must have a complete understanding of the overall landscape of online media opportunities relating to your business...