E-Commerce

The portal world was abuzz today after published and broadcast reports linked both Google and Microsoft to possible acquisitions or partnerships with America Online. Time Warner, America Online's parent company, has been known to be weighing various options for cutting AOL loose from the company tha...

As you read this article, what other things have you been doing online? Sending e-mail? Reading news? Writing a blog? It would be ego-centric of me to presume that the only reason you are online is to read this article. In fact, you probably found this article as the result of other things you were ...

The industry groups representing movie and music studios have joined Internet2, a consortium using higher-speed networks in college campus settings, saying they would examine possibilities for new content distribution models. The move by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recor...

Broadband ads are coming fast and the online marketing industry hopes to be ready. This fall, the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) will release a final set of guidelines and specifications for online ad formats that take advantage of broadband speeds to deliver multi-media marketing messages. Greg ...

For the last year or so, online financial institutions and their IT consultants -- as well as consumer interest groups -- have focused on fixing security, adding authentication and encryption and other technologies to forestall scammers. But the phishing plague continues. Now, experts tell The E-Com...

Online merchants selling digital products for small sums of money will find it easier to do so through the Internet's best known online payment service, PayPal. That's because the company has announced a new "micropayments" pricing scheme to make selling low-priced goods through PayPal -- especially...

The comparison shopping and shopping search business has been around for a while. Like many other corners of the Internet business, it's seen more than its share of businesses come and go. Most of the change has come through acquisition. EBay's purchase of Shopping.com was quickly followed up by the...

File-sharing network Kazaa must alter its software to try to stop illegal music sharing, a federal judge in Australia ruled yesterday, but one analyst said the ruling won't change peer-to-peer file-swapping at all. "In the end it's about as relevant as anything else these industries have done. Tryin...

Internet TV -- long hyped by Microsoft and other major computer industry players -- has a new advocate. A non-profit corporation is developing a free, open source, Internet TV (IPTV) platform with funding from technology industry luminaries Mitch Kapor and Andy Rappaport. The organization, Worcester...

Google is raising eyebrows by probing for opportunities outside the digital world for the first time ever, announcing it would conduct a test of a program to re-sell print advertising space to customers of its online marketing programs. Google has purchased space in next week's issues of PC Magazine...

Reviving an issue that has dogged the e-commerce industry since its earliest days, at least 18 states are stepping up efforts to collect sales taxes from online merchants, likely meaning more Web shoppers will be paying at least a little extra during the key holiday season. As part of a push to let ...

Bidding to one-up rival Google, Yahoo is rolling out enhancements to its Yahoo Mail search functions, enabling users to search attachments and e-mail text for specific words, phrases and photos. Yahoo said the upgrade is an acknowledgement that many users are stuffing their mailboxes full of message...

If you've ever bought software directly off the Internet, the chances are good that Digital River had a hand in it. The e-commerce company helps many software publishers, retailers and others by managing online sales operations, helping to sell software in the most cost-effective way possible. Today...

In a move that helps it keep pace and push ahead of rivals such as Google and could help it take on pure voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) companies such as Skype and even traditional telecom companies, Microsoft said it would buy privately held Teleo for an undisclosed sum. San Francisco-based Te...

Bidding to one-up rival Google, Yahoo is rolling out enhancements to its Yahoo Mail search functions, enabling users to search attachments and e-mail text for specific words, phrases and photos. Yahoo said the upgrade is an acknowledgement that many users are stuffing their mailboxes full of message...