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The online financial services world finds itself back in the mergers-and-acquisition spotlight today as Ameritrade and TD Waterhouse have confirmed reports that they are talking about merging their online brokerages. Ameritrade Holding confirmed that talks were under way with Toronto Dominion Bank, ...

Cingular Wireless has launched a business-focused always-on e-mail service that will compete alongside the popular BlackBerry standard from Research In Motion and could portend additional offerings from carriers eager to lock in corporate users. Cingular, the largest mobile carrier in the U.S., said...

It might be a fad. It may be a trend or something even more permanent. Nonetheless, it's obvious that at least for now, blogging has arrived as a force on the Internet, not only for political discourse and personal ramblings but increasingly as a potentially powerful business tool. Any doubt that bl...

Striving to keep pace with its larger rivals in the search space even as it becomes part of the InterActive Corp. online empire, Ask Jeeves has debuted two features that it says will result in more accurate search results. Ask Jeeves said its features called "Zoom" and "Web Answers" would result in ...

Aiming to polish the profile of its Web mail product while also bidding to be a standard-bearer in the security space, Microsoft released a service aimed at helping consumers and Internet service providers (ISPs) alike filter out more spam e-mail. Microsoft established the MSN Postmaster Web site to...

With the help of a racy ad featuring Paris Hilton and outcry from watchdog groups such as the Parents Television Council (PTC), Carl's Jr. has scored a hit so big it just may be hotter than the spicy burger the ubiquitous heiress so suggestively eats in the spot. Along with the 30-second commercial,...

Polite behavior goes a long way in influencing what people think of us. Certainly, there are businesspeople who are rude and obnoxious and yet are still successful. However, the vast majority of humanity would rather be associated with a person who is polite and considerate. Whether we like to admit...

Worldwide mobile phone sales rocketed to record levels in the first quarter, defying predictions of a slowdown in growth for 2005. Research firm Gartner said sales rose 17 percent over the same time period last year to 180.6 million units. The first quarter of 2004 had seen the previous high water m...

Looking to give users one more reason why they should become and stay loyal Yahoo users, the Web portal has unveiled a test version of a new e-mail service that it says makes it easier and faster to share digital photographs. PhotoMail, which debuted in beta form for testing among users of Yahoo Mai...

Private messages exchanged using corporate BlackBerry wireless devices might not be quite so private after all as evidenced by a recent lawsuit filed in Toronto, Canada, by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). The lack of security through the use of such devices, which are increasingly uti...

In a bid to raise awareness of its free software service for enabling voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) calling, Skype is hoping that a tried-and-true approach for online advertising and sales will bear fruit in its battle for market share. Skype, which recently announced that it had surpassed 100...

Consumer and business demand for wireless networks will drive strong growth in the wireless local area network (WLAN) semiconductor segment for the next four years, according to a new report from research firm IDC. In addition to demand for existing technologies, IDC said it sees new technologies in...

Online retail sales grew by nearly 24 percent in 2004 and will grow another 22 percent in 2005 as consumers continue to be drawn in droves to the convenience of e-commerce and as retailers become better at converting online shoppers into buyers, according to a new report. The State of Retailing Onli...

Scientist Peiter "Mudge" Zatko makes his living anticipating and protecting users against the next generation of cyber threats. His problem is simple: When he talks, not everybody really listens. If they did, the next generation of cyber threats wouldn't be lurking around the next unprotected comput...

European Union regulators say they want an agreement in place by the end of the month on how Microsoft will comply with the sanctions imposed on the software giant last year, raising the possibility of additional monetary penalties if no deal can be reached. European Competition Commission member Ne...