E-Commerce

AOL unveiled a bold plan to revitalize itself in the broadband world Wednesday, saying it would offer up virtually all of its Web services for free and all but abandon efforts to attract new subscribers. The move drew a range of reviews from analysts. Some said the move comes about three years too ...

Small businesses have their share of difficulties, but do they have any chance of succeeding in a world dominated by eBay, Amazon and the like? The short answer is yes -- if they combine the right mix of technology, marketing and customer service. "The goliaths of the online world are everywhere. Th...

Google on Wednesday announced a deal with XM Satellite Radio to help the Internet search giant's advertisers automatically place ads on the satellite radio's non-music radio channels. The deal gives Google advertisers a means to reach XM's more than 7 million subscribers. XM could benefit from offer...

Media giant Time Warner reported a second quarter profit of US$1 billion and said it would attempt to foster advertising revenue growth in its AOL division by offering free services that have long been available only to subscribers. Time Warner said its results were buoyed by a combination of growth...

It's getting harder and harder to find a marketable dot-com domain name and that's starting to worry Web developers, according to Dotster. The Vancouver, Wash.-based provider of domain name registration and hosting services contends that developers are concerned about running out of marketable dot-c...

In the latest twist to come to the rapidly changing music industry, major label EMI said it would license its entire catalog to peer-to-peer network Mashboxx. The deal is the latest boost for Mashboxx, one of the first P2P firms to be built from the ground up as a legitimate music delivery network.

Dolby Laboratories has teamed with Infitec, a German provider of virtual reality technologies, to bring a new 3-D system to the digital cinema. The new technology could arrive in theaters by spring of 2007, in time to meet the schedules of 3-D films slated for release within the next two years, said...

Consumer electronics manufacturers looking to expand their reach with their own brick-and-mortar outlets should weigh the risks of such moves carefully, warns a report released on Wednesday. It cites several temptations for electronics firms like Sony, Dell, Bang & Olufsen, Philips and Pioneer t...

Warner Music Group and EMI have shelved discussion of a potential merger of the two music labels in the wake of a European court ruling on an earlier wave of music industry consolidation. The companies announced they had ceased talks on Thursday, citing a decision that essentially set aside regulato...

Time Warner will unveil a new business strategy for AOL on Aug. 2, hoping to put an end to rampant speculation by outlining how the company plans to take its online services into the future, the company said Wednesday. AOL is expected to announce that it will give away its e-mail and Web services fo...

Regulators from the European Union are examining the licensing strategies behind the two competing next-generation DVD formats in an attempt to determine whether antitrust issues need to be addressed. The European Commission reportedly has requested information from manufacturers of players that sup...

Amazon.com shares dipped to a three-year low Wednesday, hit with backlash from the firm's second quarter results announcement Tuesday. The online retailing giant's earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2006, fell nearly 58 percent, followed by a 17 percent decline in shares on the Nasdaq stock mar...

Allies have begun taking sides in a court case that has far-reaching implications for the Internet. At stake is a practice at the heart of the Net: linking information between Web sites. The case pits search Goliath Google against adult entertainment publisher Perfect 10, and is currently before a f...

Amazon.com is remaining tight-lipped about published reports stating that the company plans to launch a digital video download service in August. However, as the public waits for Amazon to reveal details, analysts muse that Apple remains the company with the most potential to succeed in the space. R...

Signaling its intention to refine its social networking tools and leverage them in its search war with Google and others, Yahoo said it had hired a well-known data mining expert to focus on ways to improve social search. Yahoo said it hired Dr. Raghu Ramakrishnan into the newly created position of V...