E-Commerce

In the latest sign of shifts in how established media companies view free online video sharing, YouTube Monday announced content distribution deals with two record labels and a major U.S. TV network. CBS said it would use YouTube to distribute short clips of its shows and those from its premium cabl...

Search giant Google is reportedly close to a deal to purchase video sharing site YouTube for an estimated US$1.6 billion. Neither company would comment Monday on published reports that suggested the two sides are deep into talks about a YouTube acquisition, one that would dramatically alter the onli...

Biometric security provider UPEK announced on Monday a partnership with Internet security firm Pay By Touch to bring an integrated biometric security service called "TrueMe" to online transactions. UPEK makes a fingerprint reader that is preinstalled in some laptops and is also available on separate...

By now, it's understood that technology has forever changed the advertising and marketing industries. The range of choices consumers now have for consuming media -- and the accompanying marketing messages -- has forced marketers to rethink entire branding strategies. One way to look at the change is...

Leading electronics retailer Best Buy said Thursday it would partner with MP3 player maker SanDisk and RealNetworks to create and promote a subscription and buy-to-own music service. The collaboration is the latest effort to dethrone Apple from the top of the digital music market. The Best Buy Digi...

Roaming door-to-door salespeople were once American cultural archetypes, exemplars of the struggles of the common man to improve his lot and provide for his family through the art of the sale. For better and for worse, they epitomized the American obsession with commerce, material wealth and well-be...

Yahoo scored another victory in its battle with Google Thursday when Hewlett-Packard said it would pre-install the Web portal's search engine tools on its desktop and notebook computers. The deal gives Yahoo access to prime real estate inside the machines from the world's No. 2 PC maker by volume, a...

Lyris Technologies said China-based Alibaba will use its e-mail marketing solution to handle messaging to both Chinese and international members who use the site to import and export goods. Alibaba, the largest e-commerce company operating in China today, will use ListManager to manage its communica...

American Greetings bought BlueMountain.com more than five years ago, scooping up one of the pioneers in the online greeting cards field to build out its own e-cards business. At the time, BlueMountain had built a strong following on the Web, using an artsy approach to cards designs and messages that...

In the latest sign that marketplace demand for branded mobile services is not as strong as once believed, ESPN said it would shut down the Mobile ESPN service and turn its attention to licensing its content to existing carriers. Mobile ESPN launched early this year as a mobile virtual network operat...

Facing potentially negative implications for its Zune music service and player, Microsoft has filed a federal lawsuit against a group of hackers who allegedly infiltrated its digital rights management technology. The software giant claims the defendants gained access to its proprietary source code.

Transaction failures at a company's Web site can have a significant negative impact on the business' brand, according to a survey released Monday by TeaLeaf Technology and Harris Interactive. "An astounding 91 percent of online consumers who experienced any type of problem when conducting an online ...

Internet advertising revenues reached record levels in the first half of 2006, with sales up some 37 percent over the same period last year, according to an industry group's latest check on the booming sector. Web-based advertising sales reached US$7.9 billion in the first six months of this year, t...

Hoping to turn its reach across various digital platforms into a competitive advantage in its battle with Google, Microsoft said Monday it would launch a cross-platform advertising solution to give marketers access to advertising slots on Xbox video games, Web-enabled mobile phones and personal digi...

Viacom's MTV Networks on Friday announced plans to acquire music gaming company Harmonix Music Systems in a US$175 million cash deal. Under the terms of the deal, Harmonix shareholders may be eligible for incremental earn-out payments through 2008, to the extent that financial results exceed specifi...