M-Commerce

In a nod to the growing need to track mobile users for marketing purposes, Internet research firm comScore has acquired M:Metrics, a top provider of mobile user data, for $44.3 million in cash and 50,000 stock options. The deal extends comScore's measurement and research reach beyond the traditional...

Microsoft believes it can grow the market for its Windows Mobile operating system by at least 50 percent in each of the next two years as the market for smartphones explodes globally. The software giant could sell as many as 20 million copies of Windows Mobile during the soon-to-end fiscal year, alm...

Bidding to grab an early share of the rapidly growing mobile advertising market, Microsoft on Tuesday announced a broad initiative to drive both display and search ads on mobile devices. The software giant will immediately make available display advertising on its Windows Live for mobile platform an...

Google unveiled its mobile image ad service, which allows publishers to create rich-media ads along with more traditional text ads for the relatively untapped mobile advertising market. The service, Mobile Ads, can also be tied with AdSense and like other Google products will use keyword targeting t...

Amazon.com launched a text-message shopping option Tuesday that enables users to search for, compare and buy products via short message service, in addition to its existing browser-based mobile commerce offerings. TextBuyIt joins Amazon's mobile site and a site dedicated for access with the iPhone i...

Hoping to become the portal of choice into the mobile Web, Yahoo on Tuesday unveiled onePlace, a content and services management tool meant to become a customized mobile Web starting page. onePlace's bookmarking tools will enable users who access the Internet from smartphones and other handheld devi...

Even in a post CAN-SPAM world, where legal protections and technological advances give consumers more control than ever over their inboxes, e-mail remains a key component of many interactive marketing strategies. Commercial e-mail remains a cost-effective way to reach consumers, especially for busin...

What's most important to consumers when making a purchase online? Personal identity. Consumers are taking more notice of their individual online security after a string of recent identity theft cases made major headlines. According to a recent survey by University of Southern California's Center f...

No service provider has been completely successful at micro-tailoring advertising for what is essentially a moving target: mobile device users. Now, though, CBS Mobile has linked up with Loopt to give advertisers a better chance to target these roamers, who thus far have been reachable only through ...

Subscription digital music service Napster posted one of its best quarters as a public company, with record revenue and a smaller financial loss. Los Angeles-based Napster lost $2.8 million, or 6 cents per share, in its third fiscal quarter, compared with a year-earlier net loss of $9.5 million. Rev...

Microsoft may have set its acquisitive sights on Yahoo, but that apparently doesn't mean it's neglecting its own digital advertising platform. In fact, the company on Tuesday demonstrated seven new technologies from Microsoft adCenter Labs. Included among the technologies Microsoft unveiled were alg...

For advertisers, the mobile Web is full of possibilities -- and problems. U.S. adoption of the mobile Web lags behind European and Asian countries. Closed systems have hindered application development, as has the field's wide array of competing standards, platforms and browsers. Small screens necess...

Strong growth in mobile advertising and a "major iPhone security incident" are among the predictions a wireless consulting firm is making for 2008. Google and the upcoming FCC auction of wireless spectrum will also alter the mobile landscape in 2008, predicts inCode. The firm has been making annual ...

Mobile Internet usage is on the rise, and for marketers, the time to establish their brands on the "third screen" is now. For example, more than four in 10 U.S. mobile users will look at phones with strong Internet features when they buy next, according to The Kelsey Group. Concurrently, there are w...

As mobile video gains popularity, new content providers are cropping up all over the place to compete for the attention of consumers -- and their recreational dollars. GoTV, a made-for-mobile television network, has a horse in this race. The company, based in Sherman Oaks, Calif., creates its own mo...