Spotlight Features

Anyone who believes that the recent political maneuvers to keep the net neutrality issue out of the legislative agenda this year have been successful is sadly mistaken, promise backers of the concept. After a recent defeat, the Democrats have introduced a new bill that seeks to ban phone and cable c...

Buyers winning name brand merchandise on an auction site for a great price may not get the real deal -- and that can be a big deal in terms of costs to the companies, the auction sites and the duped consumers. Anyone buying products with brand names like Microsoft, Gucci, Nike, Canon, Nokia, Louis V...

Streaming digital audio and video, MP3 ripping and CD burning, podcasts, webcasts, satellite radio, digital audio broadacasting and now streaming mobile wireless: The rapid advent of new digital audio technology has created a wealth of options and opportunities for technology providers, new and esta...

Most of us are aware of the fact that many startups fail. But, we don't go the next step and analyze the reasons behind such failures. There are many critical issues in the startup process, which if ignored, will almost certainly guarantee the demise of a startup. Although it should go without sayin...

For years, one of the biggest struggles many Internet companies faced was figuring out how to convince Web users to turn over their hard-earned money for content -- content that many believed was freely available elsewhere. Whether it was music -- paid downloads versus file-swapping -- classified-st...

As so many of us are aware, India has become a technological powerhouse, and this has all happened in a relatively short span of time. How does a country go from being a developing and economically challenged nation to a formidable technological competitor? What alchemy was at work here? Actually, ...

E-mail marketers anxious to see that their opt-in mailings are not mistaken for spam are finally seeing brighter days, new research suggests. While the journey to the customer's inbox is getting easier, however, passive marketers will face tough challenges from smart competitors who are quickly lear...

As the recent BlackBerry case focused the world's eyes on the arcane field of patents, I was reminded of the 1999 Amazon.com "one click" case, which caused so many to condemn the U.S. patent system. At that time, critics called the system "broken" and a "disincentive to innovation." Now, the system ...

Have you been to Europe lately? If so, when you've crossed borders you've noticed that you no longer have to go through passport control and get your passport examined, then stamped. You can travel throughout the European Union just as you can travel throughout the United States, unimpeded by border...

You know that half the money you are spending on Internet advertising is wasted -- you just aren't sure which half. You've read about Web analytics and have played with the free tools that come from your Web hosting solution, but you realize you need more. The only problem is, there are more than 60...

If you are like millions of other Americans, you made money peddling products on eBay last year. Many earned enough to enjoy a night on the town. Others collected enough to go on their dream vacation. Still others made a living selling widgets at the online auction site. Regardless of whether you ma...

More and more companies are jumping into the Web analytics arena. In fact, Jupiter Research estimates the size of the Web analytics market will reach US$565 million in 2006. Choosing a Web analytics firm, however, is not merely a matter of brand name or even price. There are three distinct options i...

For years, the vast majority of purchases made from e-commerce sites have relied on the same technology to keep them safe and protect consumers from identity theft. Secure socket layer, or SSL, has helped complete millions of Web transactions, often working without consumers knowing it. When an SSL ...

The Web analytics market is heating up, as evidenced by at least two recent high-profile business deals in this area. Google entered the picture with a successful US$30 million bid for Urchin last spring, and NetIQ sold WebTrends to a group of company executives for more than $90 million. The name o...

Last Friday -- essentially the eleventh hour of a years-long lawsuit -- Research In Motion reached a US$612.5 million settlement with NTP, relieving legions of customers who have come to feel they cannot possibly last very long without their BlackBerries. In this suit, NTP successfully challenged RI...