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The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will delay a final vote on whether to approve and activate the ".xxx" top-level domain after requests from the U.S. government and others to hold off on a decision, which was to come this week. The domain has already received prelimina...

Welcome to the manufacturer to end-user business model! From ultra-complicated, highly polished and highly engineered modular devices to soft baby carriages, custom-labeled wines, engraved books, custom-designed furniture and tailored apparel. Is there anything left? Even steamy fertilizers and bulk...

Not long ago, it sometimes took Web pages 30 seconds to load, thanks to slow, dial-up connections over-burdened servers and inexperienced Web design. Now, with high-speed connections and rapidly evolving technology, the days of slow-loading pages are gone. However, users might want to get used to wa...

Bidding to become a key entry way for the purchase of mobile services and content, America Online has launched a mobile storefront that users can customize to hold features designed for their phones and other hand-held devices. Most of the features will be available to all Web users and the site wil...

Fresh off a social-networking buy, traditional media giant News Corp. may be looking to further extend its online reach and has reportedly moved to acquire search engine Blinkx, which has specialized in helping users find music, video and other media online. Neither company would comment, but severa...

In an aggressive move to entice dial-up surfers to upgrade to broadband service, BellSouth announced a deal with Napster yesterday that the Baby Bell hopes websters will find hard to refuse. Under the agreement, new subscribers to BellSouth's FastAccess DSL service will get a free 256-megabyte digit...

Without access to e-mail, many of us would cease to function. If you use e-mail regularly, there is a 100 percent chance that some of the e-mails you send or receive will be blocked. If such e-mails are not important to you, then you might not notice. However, if those e-mails are important, then in...

In a trial that could mark the arrival of more widespread on-demand television programming and further rock the traditional media advertising industry, digital video recorder maker TiVo said it would offer original content from the Independent Film Channel (IFC) for download over the Internet. The c...

Once-dominant modem maker U.S. Robotics has agreed to be acquired by a private equity firm that indicated it would make its deep pockets available for expansion and other purchases to help the company find growth again as Internet access technologies continue to evolve. Platinum Equity did not discl...

I would like to imagine a world where I never have to go to a mall, never have to wait in the checkout line behind the person returning 23 items, where I never have to make my tenth circle in the parking lot and engage in a to-the-death fight with that hulking SUV for the last space. I would like to...

Amazon.com has agreed to pay US$40 million to settle a year-old patent infringement lawsuit just days before the case was set to go to trial. Amazon will make the one-time payment to Soverain Software of Chicago. In exchange, Soverain agreed to drop all claims that Amazon violated five of its "core ...

The Web has been one of the fastest growing sales channels for multi-channel retailers and thus is often regarded with some trepidation and less esteem than traditional retail channels. However, the Web might be starting to show signs of maturity. Meanwhile, according to recent reports from Forreste...

Yahoo has said it will invest US$1 billion in China-based e-commerce company Alibaba.com, targeting a market exploding with growth and ripe with new opportunities. The terms of the deal, which Yahoo billed as a long-term strategic partnership, call for Alibaba to take over Yahoo China and for Yahoo ...

Online sales approached US$39 billion in the quarter ending in June, according to a report from Boston-based Forrester Research. That's a 25 percent increase over a comparable period last year and a slight increase over the quarter ending in April when sales were US$38 billion. Forrester analyst Car...

A new bill introduced by a Democratic Senator from Arkansas aimed at taxing online porn sites -- at a 25 percent rate -- is raising Constitutional concerns among legal scholars. The bill is called the Internet Safety and Child Protection Act of 2005 (S 1507), and has been referred to the Senate Fin...