E-Commerce

It may not have been noticed in the whirlwind of online transactions on Web sites like eBay or Amazon, but e-commerce turned 25 on Tuesday. On March 4, 1983, the husband-wife team of Alex Randall and Cameron Hall quietly launched a business revolution that was then the stuff of dreams, when their ye...

In the latest sign the music distribution business continues to be roiled by change, Nine Inch Nails has released its new album in a variety of formats, including giving part of it away on file-sharing technologies such as BitTorrent. The musical act fronted by Trent Reznor has released part of its ...

A spammer is going to prison, thanks to a ruling by a divided Virginia Supreme Court. The state's high court on Friday upheld the first felony conviction for illegal spamming in the U.S. when it ruled 4-3 that Virginia's antispamming law did not violate the free speech rights of Jeremy Jaynes. "This...

Online brokerage E*Trade has named Donald H. Layton as its new chief executive officer, giving the financial services industry veteran the task of stemming a stock price drop and finding profitable growth opportunities. Layton had served as chairman of E*Trade's board since last November, when he ca...

My sympathies to those out there who used last month's announcements from T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon as an excuse to quickly jump ship from Sprint Nextel and sign a contract with someone else for an all-you-can-eat talk plan at $100 a month. Sprint was the only major U.S. wireless carrier that d...

During the last few years, so-called virtual worlds have evolved. Second Life is a prominent example -- with a registered user base targeting the 10 million mark. Avatars build virtual houses, purchase virtual goods and engage in electronic transactions. Conducting business in these virtual worlds i...

Even in a post CAN-SPAM world, where legal protections and technological advances give consumers more control than ever over their inboxes, e-mail remains a key component of many interactive marketing strategies. Commercial e-mail remains a cost-effective way to reach consumers, especially for busin...

eBay has reached a settlement with MercExchange in a case that had bounced around several courts and prompted a landmark Supreme Court decision. The San Jose, Calif.-based online auctioneer will purchase three patents, including technology central to its vaunted "Buy It Now" feature, from Great Fall...

XM Satellite Radio Holdings announced double-digit growth in revenues and its subscriber base despite Congressional foot-dragging in regard to its potential merger with rival Sirius Satellite Radio. The company's revenues increased 22 percent in 2007 to $1.1 billion, driven in large measure by its 1...

The best way to achieve high search engine rankings for new Web sites may not be what you expected. You should not submit your site directly to the search engines as this process can take weeks or even months to get your site listed. Instead you need to get listed on top ranking pages that are rele...

So, Google's latest downturn is a reflection of a free fall in the U.S. economy? Not exactly. Google shares dropped nearly 5 percent in the wake of a report by research firm comScore that pointed to a flattening in clicks on the site's ads. comScore reported flat year-to-year performance in Google's...

Microsoft announced a soft beta test for software that will potentially give companies a more comprehensive view of how users interact with advertisements. The Engagement ROI software was built to track whether branding messages convert potential customers into paying customers, in much the same man...

Television networks are still figuring out how to corral the profit potential of the digital video recorder, and ABC is the latest player to make a move. The Disney-owned network will offer programs free to Cox Communications cable subscribers who have Cox's video-on-demand service. Atlanta-based Co...

Despite the overwhelming success of e-commerce, there are still consumers out there too terrified to click their cart through a virtual checkout. Are they just a silly-nilly group, nutty as a bunch of conspiracy theorists? Or are the rest of us just too naive to get it? Neither, it turns out. "There...

There are ways of achieving top rankings in Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. that are kept secret. In the following article you will learn how to take advantage of these tips and gain more traffic to your site than you could ever imagine. Here's an easy-to-follow guide to achieving top search engine ranking...