E-Commerce

The Audit Bureau of Circulation measured a 2.6 percent drop in weekday circulation for U.S. newspapers year-over-year in the six months ending Sept. 30. As the industry comes under more pressure to increase profits, some publications are maintaining their push into the online world and trying to reg...

Two television networks have struck a deal with a cable provider to offer on-demand downloads of some of their most popular shows, providing perhaps the clearest glimpse yet of the choices consumers will soon have as cable and the Internet converge. In separate announcements, NBC and CBS each said t...

From birthday parties to gifts, we no longer are willing to settle for a simple cake and backyard party; we now have to provide an experience for children's birthday parties. Web sites have moved in the same direction towards more interactive experiences in order to enhance the customer experience a...

Making big moves to extend the portal wars to the wireless Web, Yahoo and Google are launching major pushes to have their extensive menu of Web services available on users' mobile phones. The Wall Street Journal reported that Yahoo is poised to announce a partnership with SBC Communications in which...

Further blurring the increasingly hard-to-find line between television and the Web, Yahoo and digital video recorder (DVR) maker TiVo said they would team up to offer TiVo's online scheduling features on Yahoo TV. The hookup will enable users of Yahoo TV to use TiVo's scheduling technology to set th...

EBay founder Pierre Omidyar became the latest Internet billionaire to make a major philanthropic push, donating US$100 million to Tufts University with the stipulation that it be used for so-called microfinancing. Omidyar and his wife, Pam, are hoping the donation -- the largest in the history of th...

Social networking Web site MySpace.com is doing what no other social networking Web site has ever done before -- launched its own record label. MySpace Records is a joint venture with Interscope Records, one of the many recording labels under the Universal Music Group umbrella. MySpace Records will ...

Signaling its intention to be a major player in the online music segment, America Online has purchased MusicNow, a digital music site that specializes in subscription packages. AOL said it reached the deal to buy the firm from electronics retailer Circuit City in late September and closed the purcha...

In today's global economy, more businesses sell products online, in more markets and in more languages, than ever before. According to a recent Forrester Research report, "Web Content Management Adoption in 2005," enterprises are shifting focus from cost containment and internal efficiencies -- to g...

Their numbers may not jibe but two prominent research firms agree on one thing: the holidays will be merry for online retailers. Forrester Research and JupiterResearch released their holiday sales projections for online retailers this week and both predicted double-digit increases for the period. Du...

Lawmakers have revived legislation that could provide a huge boost to efforts by music and movie studios to curb online piracy by letting federal agencies write rules that outlaw tactics used to copy programs when they are broadcast. Two bills on Capitol Hill dealing with so-called broadcast flags a...

In what is widely expected to be the start of a trend, NBC said it will become the first national network to put the entire broadcast of its evening news onto the Web just hours after it originally airs. MSNBC.com will start hosting downloads of NBC Nightly News on Nov. 7. The downloads will be free...

Continuing efforts to push its search tools deeper into the business environment, Google said it had struck a deal with IBM to have its enterprise-grade desktop search function integrated into Big Blue tools that search networks. Under the deal, terms of which were not disclosed, customers using IBM...

Sprint Nextel today announced plans to launch a digital music download service as part of an effort to build its entertainment, information and communication services that will operate on its high-speed Vision Network. Sprint's timing is good, with research group Ovum predicting the U.S. wireless mu...

Google is working on an online listing-collection site that could move it into competition with sites such as Craigslist as well as online person-to-person retail communities such as eBay and also provide content for its various search tools. Speculation about a product listing service hit a fever ...