E-Commerce

The use of a home network largely as a broadband-sharing mechanism is just the first of several stages in the evolution of home networking. Both consumers and carriers will use connectivity for applications beyond shared Internet. For consumers, the desire to share multimedia content among different...

In the never-ending war against spam, the good guys say they have chalked up one significant win: the arrest of 27-year old Robert Alan Soloway, alleged to be the world's most prolific spammer. Soloway has reportedly been using an army of zombie computers to send out huge volumes of unwanted e-mails...

eBay has bought community-based Web search tool StumbleUpon for $75 million. The auction giant is once again reaching outside its core business for a strategic acquisition -- one that straddles search and social networking. Along with StumbleUpon's technology, eBay said the purchase provides an esta...

As the market for online banking matures, competition is heating up for a group of consumers no longer loyal to their primary financial institution. Some 31 percent of online consumers who have a checking or savings account are "switchers" -- people who can be enticed to desert their primary bank wi...

CBS has acquired Last.fm, a social networking Web site, for $280 million. The London-based operation focuses on music and has more than 15 million active users. CBS has reportedly been working on this deal for some time, the end goal being to allow Last.fm users to post CBS video clips to the site.

The push for high-definition radio received a vote of confidence Tuesday when Sony unveiled the latest additions to its line of audio consumer electronics: a tabletop HD radio and an in-car audio adapter. "Sony is one of the first leading consumer electronics companies to offer quality HD radio-ena...

The Federal Trade Commission reportedly is formally investigating Google's proposed takeover of interactive ad firm DoubleClick, with the agency weighing both the potential antitrust and consumer privacy issues of the blockbuster deal. The FTC has acknowledged receiving complaints about the possible...

Google may be violating European Union privacy laws by storing user information on customer queries for prolonged periods of time, advisers to EU regulators informed the company. An independent European Union committee has begun an investigation to determine whether Google adheres to privacy guideli...

Social networking is the best-known use of the Web 2.0 -- just consider the popularity of MySpace and YouTube. Today, Web sites are so interactive and collaborative we now have a new way of communicating and staying in touch. Because of this, many have been wondering where the Web 2.0 -- the latest ...

Social networking is popular on the Web. So is shopping. Imagine, then, the potential of Net shops that combine the two into a package called "social shopping." Until recently, most designers of e-commerce sites have concentrated on catering to individual shoppers -- what the research firm Gartner c...

More Americans are taking a carefree attitude toward the nuisance of spam clogging their e-mail in-boxes, according to a new study. Better familiarity, spam filtering and a decrease in pornography-laced spam have eased users' concerns over the scourge. "It's starting to become part of life online," ...

Internet advertising grew by about 35 percent in 2006, according to a new study that suggests companies and their advertising agencies are increasingly embracing the Web as a viable place to build brands and sell goods. Online advertising revenue grew to $16.9 billion last year, according to the lat...

The recording industry appears to be changing its tune, now offering to defer hefty new royalty rates for smaller Internet radio stations that might otherwise be forced to tune out due to high costs. However, it doesn't appear the proposed new price structure has won over any fans in the opposition'...

Despite their denials, newspapers all over the world are simply dying. The gravity of the problem is not the result of competition from TV or the Internet. Rather, it's due to the fact that people all over the world prefer moving pictures in the palms of their hands over deciphering or reading betwe...

XM Satellite Radio fully restored its service Tuesday, the company said, after outages affected an unknown number of subscribers for parts of two days. XM believed all service had been restored by early Tuesday afternoon, more than 24 hours after outages were first reported midday Monday. The compan...