E-Commerce

Hulu, the video Web site from NBC Universal and News Corp., will open its virtual viewing rooms to the public Wednesday. Announced nearly one year ago, the free video streaming site launched in October with an invitation-only beta. Hulu offers its users a wide variety of video content from NBC Unive...

What is the biggest difference between shopping online and shopping in a store? In a store, customers can wander from place to place until they find something that appeals to them. Online, they usually need to have a good idea of what they are looking for in order to locate it. A small but growing n...

Every time you go online, you leave electronic footprints -- and someone is following them. When you display a page, enter a search query, play a video or click on an ad online, that information is logged by the servers of the companies that own the site or serve the video or ad or search results. T...

Microsoft's chief software architect said the company will not rush to integrate its Web advertising system with that of possible merger partner Yahoo. Ray Ozzie, the Lotus Notes inventor and Groove Networks founder who took over the software architect role from Bill Gates in 2006, told the Financia...

The promise of the Web has long been the ability to personalize, and the shopping experience is no exception. Startup iStorez is trying to bring a twist to the personalization of e-commerce, using proprietary technology to create a dynamic shopping experience that leverages the special offers that s...

CBS Radio is hoping to step up its Internet presence through a deal it announced Friday with AOL. CBS, the second-largest radio broadcaster in the U.S., plans to offer advertising-supported streams from 150 online radio stations to listeners free of charge over AOL's online radio portal. CBS Radio, ...

German police raided 51 booths of companies suspected of showing pirated products at electronics show CeBIT 2008, which runs through Sunday in Hannover, Germany. More than 180 police and customs officials participated in the swoop. They removed 68 cartons filled with devices, documents and advertisi...

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer offered frank answers -- and a few dance moves -- on a host of topics Thursday, addressing his company's bid for Yahoo and sharing his thoughts on rivals such as Google and Apple. Venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki interviewed Ballmer at the Microsoft MIX Conference -- a gat...

European Union regulators are poised to approve Google's acquisition of DoubleClick, according to published reports, handing the search giant a major victory and clearing the way for the $3.1 billion takeover to be closed quickly. The European Commission will approve the merger without conditions, a...

E-commerce suppliers face a difficult challenge. They must cultivate loyal customers, but that is becoming more difficult as the Internet enables consumers to roam freely from retailer to retailer. Now more than ever, the customer is in control, and that change is forcing many e-tailers to turn to c...

Facebook has a new honcho. The Web upstart-turned-conglomerate has lured away Sheryl Sandberg, Google's ad platform guru, to join its team as chief operating officer. Sandberg, who was with Google for six years, made an indelible stamp at the organization as she built out the Adsense and Adwords pro...

Ask.com is looking to women for answers. The 12-year-old search engine is reportedly narrowing its focus to appeal to married women, mostly in the South and Midwest, in its first major move under the direction of new CEO Jim Safka. Ask.com is trimming 40 jobs, according to published reports, as its ...

Seeking to buy time for its directors to explore alternatives before Microsoft can mount a campaign to win seats on its board, Yahoo has modified the way it nominates board members. The portal amended its bylaws to extend the deadline for nominating directors. The deadline was originally March 14 bu...

For anyone doing business online, commerce meets collaboration at a Web 2.0 portal -- a mutual touchpoint for a company, its partners and customers as well as a personalized filter of information and services found on the Web. The goal: aggregating high-value information about people, products and s...

Hoping to become the portal of choice into the mobile Web, Yahoo on Tuesday unveiled onePlace, a content and services management tool meant to become a customized mobile Web starting page. onePlace's bookmarking tools will enable users who access the Internet from smartphones and other handheld devi...