E-Commerce

While brick-and-mortar retailers assess the damage from what could be the worst holiday shopping season since 2002, online retailers are celebrating a banner year. For the 2007 holiday season, online shopping reached nearly $28 billion, according to a report released by comScore. That represents a 1...

As the holiday shopping season wraps up, what better time to take a look back at what has changed in retailing this year as we set priorities for 2008. The most important development in retail in 2007 was the shift in consumers' attitudes about online shopping. We learned during the past year that ...

The U.S. government is putting plans into motion to help consumers who have analog TVs continue to receive broadcasts on Feb. 17, 2009 -- the date when most television stations are scheduled to start sending digital signals exclusively. Without taking special steps, those relying on analog broadcast...

The Recording Industry Association of America has dumped a load of mud into the already murky waters surrounding the personal use of copyrighted music. The trade group, which represents the U.S. recording industry, is taking legal action against Jeffrey Howell of Scottsdale, Ariz., for allegedly sha...

Already, YouTube has conquered your PC and mobile. However, what happens if YouTube conquers your living room, too -- and in HDTV quality? With IPTV that is possible, and the race to see who will be best-positioned in the digital living room of the future has already started. IPTV is being called th...

Amazon.com has picked up the third major record label to let the online music retailer sell MP3 songs without digital rights management schemes attached. Warner Music Group announced Thursday that Amazon customers can now buy and download songs from its artists, which include Matchbox Twenty, Rob Th...

Considering the speed at which technology evolves, predicting even a year in advance can be a dicey proposition. Still, given key tech sector developments during 2007 and the outlook for 2008, some trends are unmistakable. It's a safe bet that social networking and Web 2.0 overall will remain a clos...

Amazon.com executives and investors had a very merry holiday season as buyers chose the online mall in huge numbers. Amazon said the 2007 holiday season, its 13th, was its best ever in terms of sales. While the Seattle-based e-commerce giant did not reveal final sales figures, it noted customers ord...

While retailers are rich in data, they are struggling to gather information from point-of-sale systems, planning systems and various other locations where customer, vendor and internal data collection take place. Retailers are generally performing poorly in terms of executing analysis and utilizing ...

About 50 percent of all new businesses survive for at least five years, according to estimates by the Small Business Administration. On the flip side, that means that half of all new ventures fail in that time frame. While the e-commerce market has been growing at a rapid clip, a number of companies...

Get ready for new "controlled circulation" models on the Web, ones that target you based not on your preferences for music or soft drinks -- but on what you consume in your occupation. Think of it as B2B social networking. First, some set-up ... One of the great media inventions of the mid-20th cent...

Yahoo China violated Chinese law by facilitating the illegal download of digital music files, a court in Beijing ruled. While Internet freedom advocates questioned the propriety of the decision by the Beijing Higher People's Court, the UK-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, ...

For advertisers, the mobile Web is full of possibilities -- and problems. U.S. adoption of the mobile Web lags behind European and Asian countries. Closed systems have hindered application development, as has the field's wide array of competing standards, platforms and browsers. Small screens necess...

Google received an early holiday present from federal regulators Thursday, as the Federal Trade Commission granted a wish the search giant has had on its list since April -- approval to complete its purchase of interactive advertising agency DoubleClick. The Federal Trade Commission approved the dea...

In a significant boost for its Internet unit, Microsoft has reached a long-term deal to work with media giant Viacom on content and advertising distribution, an agreement worth an estimated $500 million. The partnership calls for Microsoft's Atlas to become the exclusive advertising platform for all...