Internet Polices Itself on Blogger Advertising Better Than the FTC Ever Could
Paul M. Rand

The explosive growth of the Internet and resulting popularity of blogginghave transformed how marketers market. New guidelines from the Federal Trade Commission are expected to cover social media as well as paid media (advertising) and should provide clear direction to help prevent misleading endorsements, ensure effective disclosure, and dissuade financial incentives to write only favorable comments.

Fairness in Advertising Must Extend to the Blogosphere
Robert Weissman

When bloggers are being paid to say a product is good, readers should know the deal. A core principle of U.S. communications and fair advertising law is that people have a right to know when they are being advertised to. There's no reason this rule shouldn't apply to the Internet.

3Par Sale Frenzy Ends With HP the Presumed Winner
HP has won the bidding war it waged with Dell for data-storage company 3Par, whose shares were trading at $9.65 when Dell first tried to acquire it in mid-August. Dell decided not to match HP's $2.4 billion ($33 per share) offer, which topped Dell's bid of $32 per share. Dell first tried to acquire 3Par with an $18 per share offer on August 16, which 3Par initially accepted.

Intel, Infineon and the Winds of Change
Intel has focused solely on the computer business for so long, we forget it can pursue other avenues of growth as well. Tomorrow, all our devices will be connected and talk to each other and share information. In that new world, Intel has been looking around for another business to acquire to help expand its reach, and it chose Infineon.

Do E-Readers Spell the End of Print Media?
Recently, library chief Helen Josephine of Stanford University's Engineering Library said that the students' search through volumes of books to get to a formula that they want is basically at an end because "with books being digitized and available through full text search capabilities, they can find that formula quite easily."

How to Build a Better Business Blog
About the easiest way for companies to dip their toes into the social media waters is the blog. There are few technical burdens to setting them up, the time needed to create posts can flex with the workloads of the assigned writers, and they can become a conduit for customer conversations through the comments section. So every business is leaping eagerly into blogging. Right? Well, not exactly.

In iTunes, All App Reviews Are Not Created Equal
I like walled gardens. They are safe and, for the most part, keep out the predators. However, when one sneaks over the wall, the results can be ugly, to say the least. With the iTunes App Store, one of the key supposed advantages for end-users is that it is a walled garden, and Apple is providing a safe, secure environment you can trust in.

Sony's New Touchscreen Readers Unlikely to Shake Up Market
Sony has updated its e-reader family of devices: the Reader Pocket, Reader Touch and Reader Daily. The new Readers offer touchscreen functionality based on infrared sensors that read taps made by a finger or a stylus. They are smaller and lighter, and have redesigned user interfaces.

Meeting the Application Virtualization Challenge
Delivering and managing IT continues to be complex. Application demand continues to grow, while the maintenance and support of old applications, as well as the processes involved with new applications, lead to a frustrating user experience and constraints on flexibility and business agility.

Will Wednesday's Big Show Put More Spring in AAPL's Step?
Shares of Apple closed up 60 cents on Tuesday to hit $243.10. However, Cupertino is still smarting from the downward spiral of the past few weeks, when its stocks took a beating along with the rest of the market. The Dow on Tuesday recovered a fraction of what it lost after a Monday drubbing, and the Nasdaq fell nearly six points.

VRM's Missing Ingredient
I spent an interesting day at Harvard Law School last week at the invitation of Doc Searls for a conference on the intersection of CRM and VRM, or vendor relationship management. Doc's involved with the Berkman Center at Harvard, which sponsors research into issues of law and the Internet, among other things.

VMware Buys Parts for Its 'Virtual Giant'
VMware on Tuesday announced two purchases aimed at furthering its vision of the future of IT. One is Integrien, which offers software that -performs real=time application and infrastructure performance analysis. The other is TriCipher, which offers secure access management and enterprise identity federation for Software as a Service applications.

What Sort of Game Is Google Playing?
Google continued its shopping spree through the social networking marketplace on Monday, agreeing to purchase SocialDeck, a 2-year-old company that develops games for mobile devices. This marks Google's third purchase of a social networking company during the month of August. These purchases have fueled widespread speculation that Google ultimately hopes to unseat Facebook.

Corporate America's Cruel Linux Hoax
Corporate America is playing a cruel joke on Linux desktop. Businesses benefit from free Linux, improving their bottom line on the shoulders of Linux -- all the while ignoring (and damaging I think) the Linux desktop. Linux servers toil in back rooms bringing big bucks to companies smart enough to use them. What do these companies install on their employees' desktops? Windows, of course!

E-Commerce Times
E-Commerce Times: the E-Business and Technology Super Site

 

Try the best Online Game and Download hub - Free!!!

Philips HeartStart Home Defibrillator now available

Collaborative Real-Time Content Delivery

Discount Shopping Made Easy

Personal Electroencephalogram

Radio Frequency Identification for Pedestrian Navigational Assistance

A Book Exchange of Infinite Proportion

Google Tips and Tricks

Spatially Enhanced Presence Management

Make Phone Calls from your Sharp Zaurus PDA

Infolets - Internet Innovations Explored
At the intersection between business, technology and the Internet, you have discovered Infolets. The Internet is an incubator of innovation. At Infolets we explore projects, products, and ideas that are interesting, innovative or just plain unique.

 

Apple TV's Meager Offerings Are Due to Business, Not Tech
This week’s big Apple announcement featured one big disappointment: Apple TV’s relative lack of, well, TV. Out of all of the hundreds of channels available on cable and satellite, only ABC and Fox agreed to offer their programs for rent on Apple TV. The fact that Steve Jobs is the largest single shareholder in, and on the board of, Disney — owner of ABC — perfectly illustrates this digital divide.

How Apple Just Disrupted the Cable Guys
People in Silicon Valley have focused on the set-top box as the lever to attack the cable industry. Cable boxes blow, but that's a losing battle. So why is Apple TV different? Because Steve Jobs has not just created a new set top box. He's actually created a whole new media ecosystem built around the mobile phone.

FaceTime Lets You Share Your Point of View
Video calls aren't for people to see you — they're for people to see what you see.

5 Reasons Why Apple TV Is (Still) Boring
We know — the new Apple TV is really small, and cheap and easy-to-use. That's all good, but still not knocking our socks off despite being the ripest area for expansion by a company that has already firmly established itself on the computer, phone, portable media player and tablet. Here are five reasons Apple TV is still boring.

Apple's Ping Network Is Already Too Big to Fail
Apple audaciously seems to think the world actually needs another social network — one that you even need special software to be part of, to boot. With the introduction Wednesday of Ping, a music-centered community that exists only within iTunes, they are probably right — and then some.

FCC Delays Net Neutrality Over Google-Verizon Proposal
Federal regulators are putting off efforts to regain authority over the nation’s internet providers while they seek renewed public input on net neutrality.

Apple to Livestream Press Conference — to Apple Customers Only
Breaking with a longstanding but unstated policy, Apple has decided to publish a live video stream of Wednesday's press conference. The stream will be optimized for Mac, iPhone and iPad users only.

Screw Viral Videos. You Heard Me. Pass It On
Online video creators, advertisers and producers have an unhealthy fascination with viral videos, and that obsession is dragging down the entire industry. Why? Because viral videos are, at their core, no better than a fluffernutter white-bread sandwich, delivering little or no value to anyone.

Google Saves E-Mail With 'Priority' Message Filtering
Gmail users can now choose to let Google sort their inbox by the most pressing messages, thanks to a new feature called Priority Inbox — think of it as a sort of reverse spam filter which bubbles messages to the top of the queue based on what you read and respond to.

The Oxford English Dictionary Definitions of 'Print' and 'Digital'
The venerable Oxford English Dictionary isn't even one-third finished with what will be only its third revision in 80 years. But already there is talk that the multivolume work, which has informed scholars and fussy linguists, may eschew print entirely when the new edition is completed in about decade.

Wired: Tech Biz
Dispatches from Silicon Valley.

 

Ecommerce Marketing: 10 Email Marketing Tips
These 10 tips can help your ecommerce marketing efforts pay off by engaging customers and improving participation and sales.

Twitter Tips to Boost Small Business Marketing
We take you step-by-step through the process of maximizing your 140-charcter small business marketing messages on Twitter.

GoMobi: Tools for a Mobile Website
DotMobi introduces tools to help you build a mobile version of your website.

Ecommerce Marketing: Understanding Web Analytics
Helen Bradley explains how tracking and analyzing your website statistics helps you grow and improve your ecommerce business.

Marketing Apps and More from Constant Contact
Looking for software to solve a problem? A new online application marketplace caters to small business and ecommerce owners with one to nine employees.

Google Hopes Commerce Search 2.0 Boosts Online Sales
Google's revamped its original Commerce service with new features designed to offer ecommerce sites easier customization.

5 Low- or No-Cost Ecommerce Marketing Methods
Helen Bradley explains how you can publicize your online store for little, if any, money.

20 Free and Low-Cost EBay Tools for Sellers
This eBay tools guide offers details on 20 different free and low-cost eBay tools for sellers. You can use these eBay tools to manage, edit, enhance or add interactive features to your listings.

Google's 'May Day' May Affect Ecommerce SEO
Google's ongoing changes in the way it indexes Web pages, and now a new method for indexing 'long-tail' queries, could affect ecommerce page rankings.

Will Bing Search Definition Affect Ecommerce Ads?
As Microsoft's Bing enters its terrible twos, changes in its search criteria could affect ecommerce advertisers.

Latest Headlines from Ecommerce Guide
The Source for e-commerce news, trends, product reviews, and how-tos for businesses running online or e-commerce sites and selling and marketing products and services.

 

RIM Earnings Show Heat From iPhone, Android
With Apple and Google bearing down, the early mover in enterprise smartphones has its quarterly numbers fall short.

Say What? The Week's Top Five IT Quotes
The technology world's most quotable quips and comments from around the Web.

Oracle Rides Sun to Big 4Q Earnings
The software and server giant posted a profit of $3 billion for the latest quarter.

Massive Crowds Welcome Apple's iPhone 4
Despite early leaks and preorder glitches, it's another blockbuster launch for the closely watched Apple smartphone.

IBM Rolls Out BI Offerings for Traders
Software package brings business intelligence and speed to the financial services market to find trading triggers among more than 100 different data feeds.

Oracle Earnings Ahead: Signs of a Sun Payoff?
High expectations for some indications of Sun contributing to Oracle's bottom line.

Red Hat Earnings Rise on Linux, Middleware Wins
Enterprise Linux vendor turns in a strong first quarter, posting a healthy profit increase over last year thanks to healthy demand in all segments of its portfolio.

Apple iPad Hits 3M Sales Mark in 80 Days
Not even on the market for three months, Apple's iPad has crossed a significant milestone, with the company announcing that it has sold 3 million units of the red-hot tablet computer.

Intel and FTC Agree to Suspend Antitrust Trial
Chip giant is in talks with authorities at the Federal Trade Commission to reach a settlement in the agency's antitrust suit, alleging monopolistic and anticompetitive behavior.

After Microsoft Spat, VPN Player Gets Patent OK
VirnetX is given the all-clear from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, paving the way to hit up other vendors for licensing fees -- with some potential impact on IT buyers.

Cloud Services Boom Well Underway
IT research firm Gartner predicts worldwide cloud services revenue will top $63.3 billion this year alone. What's driving the growth?

Adobe, Jabil, Red Hat Kick Off Big Earnings Week
And Oracle and RIM are right behind.

Red Hat Earnings Ahead Amid Partner Push
New efforts to expand on its partnership program for the enterprise Linux leader come with client wins.

Is Verizon Next to Adopt Tiered Data Plans?
Verizon may follow AT&T's lead in shifting from a one-size-fits-all data plan to multiple price plans for various levels of data consumption.

Solid Growth Seen for Health Care IT Sector
Key contributor to revenue growth will be the government's push to electronically store patients' medical records.

Tablets Sustaining PC Growth: Forrester
While CEOs at Microsoft and Apple offer opposing views on the future of the PC, Forrester analyst dismisses semantic arguments and sees tablets boosting the sector as a whole.

Microsoft Launches Effort to Fight Cyber Fraud
Software giant teams with National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance to power a new reporting system taking aim at Internet fraud and theft.

Google Commerce Search 2.0 Reups e-Tail Play
Search giant refreshes search optimization offering for online retailers with a host of new features to drive e-commerce and compete with heavyweights like Amazon.

Say What? The Week's Top Five IT Quotes
The technology world's most quotable quips and comments from around the Web.

Can the Feds Keep Data Private on the Cloud?
The White House IT team has made its marching orders to the agencies clear: the cloud is the way to go. But with so much data in play, will privacy fall by the wayside?

InternetNews.com Business News
Real time business news, stock trends, analysis, features and opinion for IT managers.

 

Google Commerce Search 2.0 Reups e-Tail Play
Search giant refreshes search optimization offering for online retailers with a host of new features to drive e-commerce and compete with heavyweights like Amazon.

VeriSign Corners SSL Certification
The latest market share figures from Netcraft show VeriSign's made significant gains. But the report also shows why the SSL market is hard to quantify.

IBM Grabs Coremetrics for Marketing Analytics
SaaS-based Coremetrics ties into IBM's larger strategy of beefing up its cloud-based, on-demand offerings for enterprises.

Google Snags Invite Media in Display Ad Bid
Search giant continues its aggressive rate of acquisitions, this time snapping up Invite Media, a firm specializing in real-time bidding technology for selling display ads.

Say What? The Week's Top Five IT Quotes
The technology world's most quotable quips and comments from around the Web.

IBM, Ariba Chat Up E-Commerce Collaboration
Pact brings IBM's LotusLive collaboration tools to Ariba's e-commerce cloud to improve the efficiency and profits of enterprise sales teams.

Microsoft Files Suit Against Click Fraudsters
Claiming that it has detected a novel form of click fraud that was gouging advertisers, Microsoft's legal team has sprung into action with a pair of lawsuits this week.

Yahoo Fields Concerns Over Microsoft Ad Switch
Web portal seeks to answer questions of advertising partners concerned with the transition to Microsoft's adCenter once the companies' search partnership is completed.

Yahoo, Microsoft Ready Search Ad Integration
Ad customers get some early details on migration.

Mulling Facebook as a Marketing Must-Have
"The Facebook Era" author says the social networking phenomenon is fertile ground for growing efficient marketing and communications programs.

Google, SBA Offer SMBs New Online Tools
The partnership between Google and the Small Business Administration offers training and online tools designed to help small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Craigslist Sex Ads Again Targeted by States
New push led by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal claims Craigslist has not lived up to its promises.

Amazon Earnings Come Up Strong
E-commerce bellwether flexes its muscles with a quarter that continues the good news coming out of the sector.

eBay Tops Estimates as Payments Biz Improves
The online auction and e-commerce site managed to slip past analysts' estimates in its latest quarter, with its PayPal division chipping more than $800 million in sales.

Yahoo Earnings Rise on Web Ad Rebound
New signs of a resurgent online advertising sector as the Web pioneer reports strong numbers ahead of estimates.

McAfee Aims to Shut Down 'Malvertisers'
Deal with Adgregate aims to certify that e-commerce and advertisers are legit.

Online Advertisers Again Paying Top Dollar
New signs of life and activity are found in online advertising along with hints of what works for Web marketers, both good news for the resurgent online ad sector and small business.

Twitter Settles on a Business Model
At long last, the social media phenom decides to go with promoting business tweets as its core way of making money.

Salesforce Launches ChatterExchange
New applications marketplace gives developers and customers a place to buy and sell apps for the Software-as-a-Service leader's new collaboration platform.

eBay Victorious in Trademark Dispute
The online auction site dodged a bullet this week after an appellate court found that it did not infringe on Tiffany & Co.'s trademark by enabling the sale of thousands of counterfeit items.

InternetNews.com Ecommerce News
Real time e-commerce industry news, trends, analysis, features and opinion for IT managers.