E-Commerce

Extending a long-running war from the desktop to the mobile handset, RealNetworks unveiled a streaming video offering for mobile operators and said that Cingular Wireless had stepped forward to be the first carrier to offer the service to customers. The service immediately creates a new competitive ...

The online brokerage world continues to consolidate at breakneck speed as E*Trade announced its third acquisition in two months, saying it would buy BrownCo from JPMorgan Chase & Co. in a deal worth US$1.6 billion. The all-cash deal will give E*Trade access to a wealthy and active customer base,...

Hoping to usher in a new form of highly portable and more secure digital music, SanDisk has unveiled a new form of flash memory that includes digital rights protection. SanDisk is touting TrustedFlash as a new, more secure platform for digital music, movies and games. The flash memory cards will be ...

A lawsuit filed against Web sites that allege search engine results on Google.com were rigged by a placement firm is being watched throughout the Internet industry, as possibly having an impact on the free speech rights of bloggers, experts tell the E-Commerce Times. The Las Vegas-based search engin...

Advertisers sunk nearly US$3 billion into online marketing campaigns in second quarter, with spending on Web advertising jumping 26 percent over the same period last year, according to a new report. The Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers said Internet advertising revenues for ...

Saying a consumer that is aware of online threats is essential to a strong U.S. economy, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched its most ambitious effort yet to educate Americans on the dangers lurking on the Web. The FTC joined today with cybersecurity experts in government and the private...

Bidding to enhance its ability to compete with Google and Yahoo in the revenue-generating part of the search marketplace, Microsoft unveiled a paid-search service of its own, one that seeks to take targeting of ads to a new level. Microsoft's MSN formally launched the service, known as adCenter, in ...

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPA), which represents music labels worldwide, have begun offering up Digital File Check, a software program that can block or remove file-sharing programs from a user's computer and dele...

Film and television giant Viacom is said to be close to announcing a deal to buy video-on-demand site iFilm, a move that would give it an entirely new distribution channel for its deep well of content. Viacom, which owns MTV, CBS and Nickelodeon, among other TV properties, reportedly will pay about ...

In a move meant to help enterprises search existing data deep in legacy systems, Google has launched a partner program that will enable Google enterprise search to be integrated into existing data management and storage programs. Google today launched Google Enterprise Professional, a bid to reach o...

In the never-ending quest to differentiate themselves from competitors, online retailers often turn to content to set themselves apart and enhance the quality of their Web contact with customers and would-be customers. The need to automate the distribution of content has given rise to a fast-growing...

After months of complaints that its Google Library effort constituted a violation of copyright law, Google has been sued by a leading writer's association and three writers who claim that the search giant is infringing on the works of thousands of individual writers. The Authors Guild and three indi...

In a case that underscores the growing pains of the online search business and the Web sector in fast-emerging China, Baidu.com has been ordered to stop providing referrals to music download sites offering certain copyright-protected songs. The order from a Chinese court came in conjunction with a c...

The industry group representing major wireless telecommunications carriers is working on a ratings system for content, a move seen by some as a sign that those companies are preparing for widespread distribution of pornography and adult content to cell phones. With more handsets now equipped with hi...

For the second time in less than a week, a company has debuted a service and billed it as the eBay for software, with Web services the target this time. StrikeIron Inc., a North Carolina-based firm that helps commercialize Web services, announced it was creating the StrikeIron Web Services Marketpla...