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.

'Tis the Season for Safe Holiday Shopping
While recent reports don't predict a major recovery for retailers this holiday season, the outlook for e-commerce sites is slightly more optimistic: 2009 will post an 18 percent increase in online holiday shopping over last year. For many consumers, though, the convenience of online shopping comes with a hefty price: their identity.

Steve Jobs Conquers the Decade - Now What?
Now that Fortune has named Apple CEO Steve Jobs CEO of the decade, where will he go from here? Throughout his career, Jobs has typically led the market, bringing out products that consumers didn't know they wanted until they saw them -- products like the iPhone and iPod touch, for instance. He will probably continue doing so, but in the future he may delegate more responsibilities.

Windows 7 Flies Off the Shelves
Sales of Microsoft's Windows 7 boxed software over the first three days of its release have vastly surpassed those of its predecessor, Vista, for the same time period, according new figures from the NPD Group. Specifically, NPD's weekly tracking service is reporting that Windows 7 software sales in the U.S. were 234 percent higher for those three days, compared with Vista's sales.

Southwest Doesn't Fool Around
This week, I headed southwest as I continued making the rounds of travel-planning Web sites for the E-Commerce Times. My first impression of Southwest Airlines' Web site was that its online presence faithfully reflected its corporate persona: It looked to be a roll-up-your sleeves, no nonsense outfit.

CRM for Financial Services, Part 1: Unmet Potential
The chastening effect of the recession has many financial services firms taking a cautious view of future CRM investments. One reason is that these firms are husbanding their resources. Another is a growing awareness that investments in CRM by the financial sector have not been all that successful.

Cisco Forecast Suggests Tempered Optimism for Tech Sector
Cisco Systems doesn't want Wall Street to interpret its forecast for its first quarterly revenue growth in a year as evidence that the U.S. and other economies are roaring back. A slow improvement in orders is under way, but the pace is still slow and the recovery is fragile, executives told analysts Wednesday.

Record-Shattering Opening Expected for Video War Game
This holiday season's biggest entertainment blockbuster likely will be a sequel to a popular franchise, with jarring depictions of war and an intricate story of good versus evil. It could easily rake in more than last year's record $155 million opening weekend for "The Dark Knight." But this blockbuster is not a movie. It is "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," a video game.

Commerce Search Puts Google Inside Retailers' Catalogs
Google has introduced a search engine for online retailers. Priced at $50,000 annually, the Software as a Service offering is aimed at high-end e-commerce operations that want to provide customers looking for a particular product on their site with more accurate search results. Search is arguably one of the weakest features on most retailers' sites.

Headed for the Clouds - Cisco, EMC and VMware Launch VCE Coalition
By and large, IT favors grand pronouncements and overheated rhetoric, and the industry abounds with "unprecedented" efforts firmly rooted in precedent and "unique" solutions fashioned from the commonest clay. Is that the case with Cisco, EMC and VMware's new Virtual Computing Environment coalition? Decidedly not.

8 Habits of Successful Customer Feedback Managers
Customer relationships are damaged when companies hear too late about customer concerns or issues to do anything to repair them. Even worse, many crucial concerns aren't being heard by the right people at an organization. For example, are managers aware of which customers are unhappy? Did an employee treat a customer unfairly? What are the specific factors that caused a customer to leave?

EU Drafts New Bill of Rights for Internet Users
EU lawmakers and governments agreed on new rights for Internet users Thursday, aiming to protect them from arbitrary crackdowns on those who illegally download music and movies on the Internet. EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding said a deal was reached after EU governments agreed to EU parliament demands to balance measures against illegal downloaders with a broader set of rights for telecom users.

Pre-integration is the Ticket With Cisco-EMC Cloud Venture
Cisco is broadening its footprint with a major move into the cloud computing space. The company has formed a far-reaching partnership with EMC -- a joint venture in which VMware, a majority owned subsidiary of EMC, will also play a large role. Called "Acadia," the new entity is marketing vBlock infrastructure packages, aka "vBlocks."

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

 

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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.

 

Google's Abandoned Library of 700 Million Titles
Imagine a world where Google sucks. It might seem a stretch, but a few geeks with long memories remember the last time Google assembled a giant library that promised to rescue orphaned content for future generations. And the ruins of that online archive are a cautionary tale in what happens when Google simply loses interest.

Sneak Peek: 3-D TV Menu Systems Surprisingly Complicated
It's not the sexiest problem in the world, but someone's going to have to solve it: How, if three-dimensional television becomes the next HD — the way much of the industry hopes it will — are viewers going to navigate those channels?

Let's Make a Deal Search Engine, Ask.com Says
Ask Deals — which hunts down coupons and sales — takes its place besides Ask’s more conventional tabs for searches for news, video and images. It’s a response to a growing number of searchers looking for discounts in tough times, the company says

FTC Tells Amateur Bloggers to Disclose Freebies or Be Fined
Gadget bloggers and Amazon.com reviewers now must disclose freebies and financial interests or face fines up to $11,000, according to rules announced by federal regulators Monday. It's an attempt to make word-of-mouth endorsements on the net easier to believe.

Mr. Know-It-All on Laptop Autopsies, Rookie Journalism, F-Bomb Tweets

My geeky 8-year-old son wants to take apart my old laptop. But the thing still works, so I could also donate it. What's the right call?

If philosopher John Stuart Mill were alive today—and able to escape his grave in southern France—he'd advise you to employ the "greatest happiness principle." Make the choice that will bring maximum enjoyment to the maximum number of people. If you turn the laptop into an engineering project for your son, you'll thrill him for a few hours and teach him a bit about circuitry—lessons he could also learn by disassembling a less valuable gadget. But if you donate it, you could provide months or years of happiness to someone else's child, and perhaps to the rest of their family as well.

So find a reputable organization that will get the laptop into needy hands. And while you're at it, see if you can track down a completely dead computer (ask a friend or check craigslist) so your son can dissect its innards. Just promise you'll closely supervise Junior's tinkering; while learning about semiconductors, he should also discover the glories of goggles and the magic of battery recycling.

My old college newspaper is posting its archives online—including some truly awful pieces I wrote in the '90s. Can I ask to have them taken down?

The most basic tenet of journalism is that, save for when factual errors must be corrected, the published record is immutable. Embarrassed interviewees aren't permitted to retract foolish quotes, and embarrassed scribes can't disappear their weaker efforts. Such is the unwritten contract we enter into when we dabble in journalism, whether on campus or in Wired. Suck it up.

"Ultimately, what you're asking to do here is lie, to say, 'I'm perfect,'" says George Sylvie, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin. "Every little Catholic fiber in me says you just don't do that." Nobody expected digital distribution, my friend, but just because you thought your half-baked op-eds were destined for the memory hole doesn't mean you get a mulligan. Technically, your pieces have always been available, whether stacked on a library shelf or spooled on microfilm. You just weren't famous enough for anyone to care.

Anyway, you're probably worrying too much. People are generally quite forgiving of the intellectual missteps and inappropriate revelations of youth. We were all 20 once. And if someone does confront you about a truly inflammatory bit of prose, point out that a person's views can evolve dramatically over time. After all, Ronald Reagan started out as a Democrat.

What's the policy on profanity in tweets? Is it OK to drop f-bombs at will, or should I replace curse words with pound signs and ampersands?

The only profanity enforcer on Twitter is the invisible hand: ticked-off readers voting with the Unfollow button. Is that enough of a disincentive to keep your filthy mouth—er, fingers—in check? That depends on your long-term plans for Twitter domination. Who exactly is your target audience? If your forte is passing along links about parenting or needlepoint, then blue language may rankle your core demographic. But if your chief selling point is acerbic cultural commentary, foulmouthed musings may actually increase your popularity. Look at film director Kevin Smith (@ThatKevinSmith)—more than 1 million followers as of this writing, and his tweets occasionally include explicit references to his wife's most private parts.

But honestly, if any of your followers are too fragile to endure a single ribald tweet, they probably shouldn't be anywhere near the Internet in the first place. Have you seen some of the nasty $#@! on there?

Need help navigating life in the 21st century? Email us at mrknowitall@wiredmag.com.

Clive Thompson on How the Real-Time Web Is Leaving Google Behind

When Michael Jackson died on June 25, millions of people flooded onto Google News to find the latest information about what had happened. The spike in traffic was so massive that Google suspected a malware attack and began blocking anyone searching for "Michael Jackson."

It's a funny story, but it illustrates how the Web is changing. People increasingly turn to the Internet for up-to-the-minute information about, well, everything—blog postings about celebrity antics, status updates from friends, and pictures and videos of political events as they unfold, like the protests over the Iranian election. Studies have shown that these types of search requests are on the rise.

Pundits call it the real-time Web. It's upending the Internet as we've known it, and it's not something that Google can easily dominate.

For more than 10 years, Google has organized the Web by figuring out who has authority. The company measures which sites have the most links pointing to them—crucial votes of confidence—and checks to see whether a site grew to prominence slowly and organically, which tends to be a marker of quality. If a site amasses a zillion links overnight, it's almost certainly spam.

But the real-time Web behaves in the opposite fashion. It's all about "trending topics"—zOMG a plane crash!—which by their very nature generate a massive number of links and postings within minutes. And a search engine can't spend days deciding what is the most crucial site or posting; people want to know immediately.

So a new generation of search engines like Tweetmeme, OneRiot, Topsy, Scoopler, and Collecta are trying to redefine what makes a piece of information important.

Some of these sites offer a Digg-like indexed front page that displays hot topics, while others just include a simple search field. But most of them rely heavily on Twitter. When a burst of tweets citing a particular subject or URL emerges, it's a "signaling event," as Rishab Ghosh of Topsy puts it. To make sure they're not just getting hoodwinked by spammers, these new search engines employ some clever tricks, like crawling tweeted URLs and discarding those that land on sites containing spamlike language. Most disregard Twitter users who behave like spambots—for example, ones that follow thousands of people but have very few followers themselves.

Other ploys abound. OneRiot has a toolbar that lets users flag an interesting post immediately. Collecta actively imports blog posts and tweets so they appear in search results less than a second after they go live, rather than the hours it can take regular search engines to catalog the same info. "We want to be limited only by the speed of light," Collecta CTO Jack Moffitt jokes.

The result is something curiously different from regular searching. If you hunt for "Michael Jackson" on a traditional engine like Ask.com or Bing, the vast majority of the links remain the same day to day. Authority changes slowly on the "old" Web. But real-time search engines deliver different, updated results almost every time.

The creators of these new engines argue that their goal isn't to answer questions— à la Google—but to organize experience into a keyhole glimpse of what the world is doing at this very moment. "It's exactly what your friends are going to be talking about when you get to the bar tonight," OneRiot executive Tobias Peggs says. "That's what we're finding." Google settles arguments; real-time search starts them.

Edo Segal, a pioneer in real-time search, thinks the field is going to explode as updates become more automatic, with our devices autoreporting where we are, how we're feeling, and what we're doing and seeing. Old-school search will never vanish, but real-time news will create a society where we have an omnipresent sense of the moment. "Google organized our memory," Segal says. "Real-time search organizes our consciousness."

Email clive@clivethompson.net.

Scott Brown on the Facebook Movie

To: A. Sorkin, D. Fincher
cc: Hollywood
Re: Facebook Movie

Gentlemen: My Google Reader informs me that you two are teaming up to write and direct a making-of-Facebook story (working title: The Social Network). While I'm a tad offended I wasn't notified through more formal channels—I am, after all, a member of Facebook and therefore entitled to give notes—I offer my heartiest congratulations. Aaron, I have no idea how you pulled off that script: Mark Zuckerberg isn't exactly known for rapid badinage, and Facebook, as concept, resists the bricks-and-mortar convention of hallway "walk-and-talks." (Wish you'd landed the Doom movie, A-Sorks—nothing but hallways in that one! Very West Wing.) On the other hand, a movie about Ivy League twerps putting their yearbook online, suing each other over boilerplate code, and ultimately dispatching a hapless foe (MySpace) sounds like a good flick for you to helm, Finchy. Lemme guess the twist: Those Nordic twins with the runaway pituitaries still litigating for a share of Facebucks? They're not real, right? They're Zuckerberg's Doublemint version of Tyler Durden—chips off the ol' id.

But enough backslapping: Let's talk turkey. This is going to be a terrible movie, right? I mean, it better be. Because Hollywood's ancien régime is counting on you to make social media look bad. They're eager to embalm Web 2.0 in celluloid. Otherwise, why bother with some silly silicon catfight? The titanic tech war between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs would've made a riveting flick 25 years ago. But Hollywood couldn't muster interest in those propellerheads back then and, decades later, relegated the whole saga into a made-for-TV-movie.

Today, however, the fear of new microstudios (College Humor, Funny or Die) and delivery systems (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) is so fierce and so tangible that Tinseltown is reaching for its weapon of last resort: the handshake. Hey, Social Media! Wanna be in pictures? Well, of course it does, the same way triumphal Japanese businessmen enjoyed visiting Graceland in the '80s—to pose with a glitzy cultural relic. If you want to kill something in the shell, pluck it prematurely and smear it all over the big screen. It'll go from cutting edge to lite-FM lame faster than you can say "You've got mail."

With that in mind, I'd love to talk future projects. Let's get crackin' on Left 4 Twitter. The pitch: It's a zombie picture! The logline: A social network is thrown into panic when its members' very souls get sucked away by a simpler, faster, more smartphone-friendly social network. And here's your summer tent pole: Google Toolbar: Revenge of the Copyright. This one's pretty tried-and-true: Take an old brand we all feel a little nostalgic for, pour on the special effects, and cast Megan Fox as the cheesecake. When all the Google apps combine to form one massive menacing Toolbar (and unsheath the blazing Tool-sword), a collective OMFG! will shake this nation the likes of which hasn't been felt since Goatse. And speaking of Goatse: I hope like hell you're ready to meet Sacha Baron Cohen's latest outrageous character: GOATSE! He's ... well, you know who he is. We're going to send him to a church in the South, then just let the cameras run until the cops show up.

See the genius? Hollywood can simultanously appropriate and neutralize new media brands by miring them in old-media corn and cliché. The theoretical target audience for The Social Network—250 million (and counting) Facebookers—think of the site as small-screen Web utility, not big-screen fare; and nobody would confuse Mark Zuckerberg with Citizen Kane. Let's hope this movie goes straight to video and Hollywood maintains its oligopoly. That'll show those code monkeys who's boss. Yeah! High five! Peace out. —Scott

Email scott_brown@wired.com.

Taming Twitter Overload: 'Lists' to the Rescue
Twitter tries a method to sub-categorize the people you follow into "lists," making it possible for the first time to systematically organize — and recommend — feeds you follow.

Alpha Geek: Rocket Scientist Takes on TV for Gamers

Mary Spio has been a server at McDonald's and an aerospace engineer at Boeing. She holds one of the patents that make it possible to send movies to theaters digitally (no. 7,065,355, relating to "very high data rate satellite transmission"). She also founded a successful singles magazine called One2One Living and currently runs Gen2Media, an Internet-oriented video production and distribution company.

Now Spio is bringing her talents to Xbox Live. About 17 million people subscribe to Microsoft's online entertainment service, and a new one signs up every five seconds. But they still come mainly for gaming; the media offerings are mostly network fare—not exactly in the strike zone for Xbox users. "They're not watching American Idol or America's Got Talent," Spio says. "They're playing Rock Band." What these kids need, she says, is customized content.

So she's planning a show called The Verge, a cross between—of course—America's Got Talent and Rock Band. Independent artists will produce their own music and submit it via e360live.com. Viewers and a panel of industry professionals will then pick 20 entrants to be featured on Xbox Live, and subscribers can vote on their favorites. Spio's production team will shoot footage and gather backstories on the 20 finalists, to be woven into weekly programs leading up to the finale this winter. "This is the Guitar Hero generation," Spio says. "We want to make shows that match their taste." Sure, it's harder than selling Big Macs—but probably easier than building rockets.

Newsy: The News Is Broken, But We Can Fix It
It’s old news that news consumers shield themselves from pesky dissenting viewpoints by patronizing only those outlets that present a comfortably conforming world view. The web and iPhone service "Newsy" hopes to help remedy the situation by creating short, original video clips with their own reporters highlighting how various sources reported the same news item.

Wired: Tech Biz
Dispatches from Silicon Valley.

 

Badcustomer.com Helps E-tailers Avoid Chargebacks
If you’re worried about chargebacks, a new online service offers a chargeback history to help you weed out negative customers before they checkout.

BrandConnect: Social Media Tools for Brand Awareness
The BrandConnect Suit helps brand owners track, analyze and shout out to consumers and their followers on social media platforms.

Ecommerce Primer Part 2: Enhance Your Web Shop
Once you have the e-commerce site basics covered and your Web site launched, it’s time to look at adding optional elements, like e-mail marketing and Web analytics, to your online retail site.

CS-Cart: The Next Wave of Shopping Carts
CS-Cart lacks the popularity of the established solutions like osCommerce, Zen Cart and X-Cart, but is a hot contender to be the next big product.

eBiz Profile: E.L.F. (Eyes, Lips, Face) Cosmetics
Stiff competition from big cosmetics brands forced E.L.F. to launch its own e-commerce business before pushing its product to retail stores. It turned out to be a profitable decision.

Five E-mail Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
Helen Bradley explains how to avoid common pitfalls to ensure successful e-mail marketing campaigns.

eWay Unites E-mail and Social Marketing in Single Platform
eWay’s Direct Connect 4.0 offers Web-based businesses a suite of integrated tools to manage multiple online marketing tasks from within a single platform.

Seller Tools: EBay Compatible Shopping Carts
If you sell on your own site in addition to eBay, eBay-compatible carts let you track and manage your orders from one location, regardless of where the sale takes place.

eBay Integrates Outright Bookkeeping Solution
The newly integrated Outright application helps small and individual eBay sellers manage burdensome bookkeeping tasks that go hand-in-hand with managing a business.

eBay Search Upgrade to Impact Optional Listing Features
EBay tests will leave some sellers with disabled—and soon to be retired—listing features. Also, GM reports success with eBay Motors, and PayPal introduces a new Student Account.

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.

 

A Salute to Visionary CEOs
A look at 10 visionary executives who prove that tech may be down, but it's not out.

Google: Ads the Only Hope for News Business
Eric Schmidt admits he doesn't have a good answer for newspapers' woes, but stakes his hopes on smarter online ads.

Universal Broadband Key to Saving Media: Panel
Report from broad-ranging Knight Commission offers policy framework to ensure universal access to vital civic information.

Study: Hate the Metric, Not the Display Ad
The number of online people who click on display ads is down 50 percent in what could signal the end of the click-through metric.

Tech Stocks Plunge on Slowdown Fears
There's not much to like about the economic recovery thus far.

Cisco Pays $3B for Tandberg in Video Collaboration Push
Execs say deal will accelerate the global video collaboration market with ease of use and interoperability.

Is nVidia's New 'Fermi' a Supercomputer GPU?
The graphics company built on gaming says it's ready to take on supercomputing, medical imaging and physics simulation.

Jabil Jumps as Stocks Slump
Stocks ended their best quarter since the fourth quarter of 1998 on a down note.

Microsoft's Ballmer Talks a 'New Normal' for IT
It's not just CIOs feeling the economic pinch, Microsoft execs are taking some financial hits as well.

Declining Inventories Point to New Macs
Apple tells its retailers that supplies will be short for the next few weeks, a classic sign new products are coming.

Oracle Gobbles Up HyperRoll
Software giant continues its ravenous acquisition strategy with purchase of leading provider of financial reporting acceleration software.

Micron, Jabil Top Wall Street Forecasts
Jabil and Micron see signs of improvement, but investors stay worried.

IE Opponents Want More Ballot Screen Changes
Microsoft's competitors claim IE installation options are ineffective as proposed.

E-tailer Newegg Plans $175 Million IPO
Tech IPOs have been few and far between during the past year. With Newegg having so far been a runaway success, will it attract investors when it goes public?

Merger Mania Lifts IT Services Stocks
Investors go hunting for the next technology acquisition target.

Xerox Buys ACS in $6.4B Business Process Play
The document heavy's big buy looks to beef up its services business.

Twitter Confirms New Funding
The popular microblogging service names investors, but remains tight-lipped about further details.

RIM Drags Stocks Lower
A big drop in Research in Motion and more disappointing economic reports weighed on stocks Friday.

Tibco: Strong 3Q Validates Enterprise 3.0 Mantra
The middleware provider hurdles analyst estimates while touting that independence and attention to event-driven apps will win the day.

BlackBerry Maker RIM Disappoints
Outlook comes in below expectations while profit and average selling prices declined.

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

 

Internet Ad Spending Down, But It Could Be Worse
Although interactive advertising is still slipping, the category overall is still faring well compared to traditional marketing.

A Salute to Visionary CEOs
A look at 10 visionary executives who prove that tech may be down, but it's not out.

Simon & Schuster Unveils Video Book Service
The book publishing giant today launches iPhone app and browser-based video book service.

Sony Moves to Woo E-Book Publishers, Authors
The electronics giant today unveiled a digital publishing portal for aspiring authors in its latest effort to propel its e-reader and e-book play.

Disney Debuts Subscription Digital Books
The online publishing arm of the media empire is counting on subscriptions for digital book rather than on downloads and e-reader sales.

E-tailer Newegg Plans $175 Million IPO
Tech IPOs have been few and far between during the past year. With Newegg having so far been a runaway success, will it attract investors when it goes public?

Social Network Ad Spend Surging
Nielsen analysis finds advertisers are warming up to Facebook, MySpace and other social sites.

Microsoft Takes 'Malvertisers' to Court
In a first, the software giant sues companies that try to trick users into clicking on malicious ads.

Google Revamps DoubleClick in Major Ad Push
Search giant launches ad exchange to simplify connecting ad buyers with Web publishers.

Facebook, Twitter and Social Media Marketing
A significant number of brands have amped up their social media marketing, but it's not just all about tapping Facebook and Twitter, says a new study.

Users Prefer Device Fingerprinting to Passwords
Study finds 70 percent of respondents say they'd be willing to have their PCs and mobile devices authenticated by an online merchant before completing a transaction.

Google Talks Up Micropayments for Web Content
Often at odds with news publishers, the search giant pitches them a variety of options for generating revenue from their online content.

Google to Add Android Payment Options
As analysts hail the arrival of the HTC Hero, Google planning to revamp the Android mobile app store to appease developers and make it more user-friendly.

E-Commerce Service Lets Users Pay in Person
Alternatives to using credit cards for e-commerce aren't new, but a walk-in option aims to capitalize on untapped markets.

YouTube Moving Toward Paid Content
The top online video service is reportedly in talks with movie studios to offer streaming rentals.

Consumer Groups Outline Privacy Law Wish List
Privacy advocates pitch policy framework to House leaders drafting bill that could reshape online advertising.

Social Networks Dominate in Online Display Ads
Social media giants MySpace and Facebook command a fifth of all online display ads seen by Web users, according to a new study.

Eying Amazon, Wal-Mart Expands E-Commerce
The nation's largest retailer joins partners in unveiling a new e-commerce push that could see it better competing with Amazon.

eBay Sells Skype, Keeps Minority Stake
The e-commerce giant finally unloads Internet phone unit Skype for $1.9 billion.

OpSource Takes on Amazon, IBM, and Rackspace
The challenger takes on the big players with some sharp words for the cloud incumbents.

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

 

US residents at risk for online exploitation
By Juan Carlos Perez

U.S. Internet users are dangerously ignorant about the type of data Web site owners collect from them and how that data is used, a new study has found.

Mobile phone sales reached new records in first quarter
By Peter Sayer

Mobile phone sales hit a new high in the first three months of the year, while the top three manufacturers tightened their grip on the market, according to a study published Wednesday.

Little US interest in next generation Internet
By Grant Gross

IT decision-makers in U.S. businesses and government agencies want better Internet security and easier network management, but few see the next generation Internet Protocol called IPv6 as helping them achieve their goals, according to a survey released Tuesday by Juniper Networks Inc.

First quarter was good to PDA vendors
By Sumner Lemon

The first three months of 2005 were kind to companies that sell PDAs (personal digital assistants), with demand for wireless e-mail leading to a sharp increase in unit shipments during the period, according to market analyst Gartner Inc.

Online advertising up in 2004; search is top segment
By Juan Carlos Perez

Companies spent significantly more money advertising online in 2004 than in 2003, as ads linked to search-engine activities proved to be the most popular category for the second straight year.

China could overtake US in broadband access this year
By Peter Sayer

China will have more broadband Internet access subscribers than the U.S. by the end of the year, if the number of subscribers to broadband Internet access services continues to grow at current rates, according to figures published Monday by market analyst Point Topic Ltd. of London.

Online gaming growing fast in China, study says
By Dan Nystedt

Revenue from China's online gaming market reached US$298 million in 2004, up 48 percent from a year earlier, and could quadruple by 2009 as Internet access becomes more widespread in the region, according to market researcher IDC.

Europeans worry about online banking security
By John Blau

Phishing, keystroke logging and other types of scams are increasingly worrying users of online banking services in Europe while scaring others away, according to a report issued Tuesday from Forrester Research Inc.

File swappers use iPods, IM to trade tunes
By Paul Roberts

Recording industry lawsuits against file swappers and P-to-P (peer-to-peer) software companies may be forcing Internet users onto informal networks to exchange songs and videos, according to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Symantec: spam, phishing grow, botnets shrink in '04
By Paul Roberts

A new report released by security company Symantec Corp. found that incidents of online identity theft scams, also known as 'phishing attacks,' skyrocketed in the second half of 2004, as did spam and new software vulnerabilities. But other Internet blights, such as zombie networks of compromised computers, or 'bots,' actually declined.

Gamers are gluttons for music
By Paul Roberts

Care for an MP3 with that frag? Companies that want to boost sales of music and portable music players should consider marketing to a growing, but untapped audience -- hard-core gamers -- according to the results of a survey by IDC and IGN Entertainment Inc.

Sweden leads EU in offering online public services
By Simon Taylor

Sweden has the best record in offering online public services among the 25 members of the European Union, according to a survey published by the European Commission on Tuesday.

Mobile phones sales jump in '04; Nokia regains footing
By Scarlet Pruitt

Worldwide mobile phone sales jumped 30 percent in 2004, boosted by replacement buys and strong growth in emerging markets, Gartner Inc. said this week.

Powerline broadband set to grow in 2005
By Grant Gross

Broadband customers looking for an alternative to cable-modem or DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) service may not have long to wait for broadband over powerline service (BPL), according to a white paper published Thursday by a technology-focused research group.

IDC likes what it sees inside iPod Shuffle
By Martyn Williams

Analysts at IDC recently took apart an iPod Shuffle and come up with an estimate of how much the diminutive music player costs Apple Computer Inc. to make. They found that Apple makes a healthy 35 percent to 40 percent profit on each player sold, and stands to make even more from iTunes music purchases and expected drops in flash memory pricing.

The Industry Standard: Metrics

 

Get A 700+ Credit Score - Sponsored Link
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Kansas Ag Department Launches New Online Business License Renewals
USAgNet Nov 7 2009 3:24PM GMT

Arab world?s first interactive online consumer locale launched
The Saudi Gazette Nov 7 2009 3:18PM GMT

Blue Nile Posts 2.4 Percent Gain in Third Quarter
JCK Magazine.com Nov 7 2009 1:30PM GMT

Manheim Unveils Key Enhancements to Web Site Aimed at Heavy Truck & Equipment Buyers & Sellers
Vehicle Remarketing Nov 7 2009 12:49PM GMT

Google Commerce Search for Better e-Commerce Searching
Search Newz Nov 7 2009 12:26PM GMT

Christmas market on the web
Teletext Nov 7 2009 12:19PM GMT

Online sale to aid Edinburgh charities
The Scotsman Nov 7 2009 12:16PM GMT

10 Reasons Why Online Betting Beats Going Down To The Betting Shop
PRLog Nov 7 2009 11:49AM GMT

Blue Nile Rings a Bell
The Money Times Nov 7 2009 11:16AM GMT

Web search news roundup Nov. 1-7: Google custom sections, Bing geobrowsing, Hulu TV schedules
About Nov 7 2009 10:15AM GMT

AT&T HTC Tilt 2 $149.99 And HTC Pure 1c Sale Now Available Amazon
I4U Nov 7 2009 8:44AM GMT

How to Choose Your Ecommerce Hosting?
Infobious Nov 7 2009 8:42AM GMT

Web Entrepreneur Sensually Seduces Consumers with Candle-Focused Web site
Earthtimes.org Nov 7 2009 8:39AM GMT

Web Entrepreneur Sensually Seduces Consumers with Candle-Focused Web site
Earthtimes.org Nov 7 2009 8:39AM GMT

Promotional Item Site now Offers Online Items to Clients throughout US and Abroad with Deep Discounts Direct to Consumer
Earthtimes.org Nov 7 2009 8:39AM GMT

Promotional Item Site now Offers Online Items to Clients throughout US and Abroad with Deep Discounts Direct to Consumer
Earthtimes.org Nov 7 2009 8:38AM GMT

Promotional Item Site now Offers Online Items to Clients throughout US and Abroad with Deep Discounts Direct to Consumer
Earthtimes.org Nov 7 2009 8:38AM GMT

Web Entrepreneur Sensually Seduces Consumers with Candle-Focused Web site
Earthtimes.org Nov 7 2009 8:38AM GMT

Promotional Item Site now Offers Online Items to Clients throughout US and Abroad with Deep Discounts Direct to Consumer
Earthtimes.org Nov 7 2009 8:37AM GMT

The Amazon Wish List 10th Anniversary Celebration Continues
Storage Nov 7 2009 8:28AM GMT

SHOPKO opens e-commerce outlet
Planet Retail Nov 7 2009 8:16AM GMT

Central Florist Announces New Long Island Flower Shop Web Site
Earthtimes.org Nov 7 2009 8:07AM GMT

Central Florist Announces New Long Island Flower Shop Web Site
Earthtimes.org Nov 7 2009 8:07AM GMT

Central Florist Announces New Long Island Flower Shop Web Site
Earthtimes.org Nov 7 2009 8:06AM GMT

Digital Commerce Forum Podcast
ITAC Nov 7 2009 7:49AM GMT

Sterne Agee & Leach reiterates Blue Nile Inc. at 'neutral'
SNL Securities Nov 7 2009 7:40AM GMT

SilverTech Creates New E-commerce Website Experience For Le Gourmet Chef
Entrepreneur.com Nov 7 2009 7:37AM GMT

Web-Based Fine and Decorative Arts Personal Shopper Service Goes Live at NicForrest.com
Entrepreneur.com Nov 7 2009 7:36AM GMT

6 Nov 09 Free online swine flu seminar for Scots firms Scottish Government aims to prepare businesses for pandemic impact
Journal of the Law Society of Scotland Nov 7 2009 7:35AM GMT

AmStan launches online repair parts store
The Wholesaler Nov 7 2009 6:51AM GMT

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