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Will a Different Yahoo Be Good Enough? April 11, 2012 
When he announced plans to lay off 2,000 employees, Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson said it was a necessary step in the company's strategic plan to move forward. Critics noted, however, that he had not explained exactly what that plan was. Now, via an internal memo made public, Thompson has obliged. Beginning May 1, the company will be divided into three core divisions: Consumer, Regions and Technology.
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Facebook Has Big Plans for Its Billion-Dollar Baby April 10, 2012 
Facebook has snagged the highly popular photo-sharing application Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. It is among the biggest acquisitions in the social media space, second only to Google's $1.65 billion stock-for-stock purchase of YouTube in 2006. The deal, both in size and intent, is very much a departure for Facebook.
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Catching the Mobile Commerce Wave April 07, 2012 
Riding the wave of technology change these days is a bit like surfing. The ocean and waves often change much faster than our ability to stay out in front of the transformation. Now another current is approaching the wireless world as mobile commerce curls to challenge conventional e-commerce.
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Amazon Ratchets Up Its M-Commerce Cred April 04, 2012 
Amazon is testing a service that will let tablet users purchase items through mobile applications. It is expected to enhance the Kindle Fire tablet's de facto role as a shopping conduit for its users. It already is second nature for users to download books and movies from Amazon's content library. With an in-app purchase mechanism, items can be bought via downloadable software.
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Small Screen Gets a Lot of Video Action April 03, 2012 
It finally has happened -- the number of U.S. mobile subscribers who own smartphones is just about equal to the number who own feature phones, according to new data. As of Feb. 2012, 49.7 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers carried a smartphone -- an increase of 38 percent from Feb. 2011, when only 36 percent of mobile subscribers owned smartphones. The driver behind this trend was the lopsided adoption of smartphones by mobile phone buyers in recent months.
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PayPal Hits the Pavement With Mobile Payment System March 16, 2012 
PayPal has introduced PayPal Here, a mobile payment product that is meant to continue its push into retailing's brick-and-mortar world, no matter the size of the retailer. The global mobile payment system will allow small businesses to accept almost any form of payment, PayPal said. Businesses can accept payments by swiping cards with a fully encrypted thumb-sized card reader.
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Sites Have More Mobile Shopper Mojo Than Apps March 12, 2012 
Although it seems there is an app for everything nowadays, new research indicates mobile shopping is one area in which consumers prefer retailers' websites over dedicated smartphone apps. Although the recent Nielsen report found users generally spend more time with mobile apps rather than sites, the process can turn off some consumers, according to John Burbank, president of strategic initiatives at Nielsen.
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2011's Lessons for Holiday Retail 2012 March 10, 2012 
OK, it's time to officially close the book on the 2011 holiday retail season and to shift our attention forward to 2012. For me personally, what makes it difficult to stop looking back are the new trends that emerged that will forever change holiday shopping: The empowered customer turned to multiple mobile devices to conduct mobile shopping; and social media sites such as Facebook proved they have an influence on consumer buying.
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Groupon: Business Is Booming February 28, 2012 
Groupon's push into mobile is firing on all cylinders, to hear the company describe its progress. The daily deal giant posted record mobile performance in North America in Dec. 2011, with one quarter of all Groupon vouchers purchased via a mobile device. Also, both consumer and merchant app usage were up significantly year over year, it said. Groupon mobile app users tripled from last December to more than 9 million.
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Groupon, LivingSocial and the Holy Grail of Commerce December 16, 2011 
The market for local commerce has been the holy grail for Internet companies since the dawn of the modem. However, that market has been more like "Monty Python And The Holy Grail." Until now. The missing link for local commerce hasn't been the Web, it's been four things: web usage as everyday "utility"; the growth of mobile; the inefficiency of "old-fashioned" advertising; and time-shifting.
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Online Cash Registers in Holiday Overdrive December 15, 2011 
Ask just about any research company that tracks online spending about this holiday season and you will get bombarded with cheer: "good," "strong," "robust," and "surprisingly strong" are among the adjectives used to describe online shopping activity this month and last. The latest indicator is a report on the holiday season-to-date: $24.6 billion has been spent online, for a 15-percent increase over the same period last year.
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Google+ Tiptoes Into Facial Recognition Territory December 12, 2011 
Google+Photos is adding facial recognition technology that will let users be tagged automatically in photos. To pre-empt privacy concerns, Google has made the feature opt-in, said Matt Steiner, engineering lead on the Google+ Photos team. For it to work, the user must turn on the new "Find My Face" feature in the Google+ settings.
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Backlash Against Amazon Price Check Builds Steam December 10, 2011 
A backlash is growing against an app designed to help consumers scope out products at local stores, compare them to similar goods on Amazon -- and then leave the stores empty-handed to make their actual purchases online. Critics of the app, called "Amazon Price Check," include brick-and-mortar retailers and Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe.
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Twitter Rolls the Dice December 10, 2011 
When a social media site undertakes a major redesign, it's kind of like that scene in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." Drink from the right cup, and you're completely re-energized. But there are a lot of poor choices you can make, and drinking from any of the wrong cups will turn your site into a dried-out husk.
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Verizon's Galaxy Nexus Loses Its Wallet December 06, 2011 
Verizon will not include the Google Wallet mobile payment functionality in its version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone, which is set to launch in the U.S. later this month. The carrier cited security reasons for its decision. Android smartphones in the Nexus line are traditionally pure Android devices with minimal tweaks or UI skins added in by carriers.
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Cyber Monday Racks Up Impressive Gains November 29, 2011 
Online sales for Cyber Monday increased 33 percent from the same day last year, according to IBM's Cyber Monday Benchmark. The growth surpassed that of another banner day for e-commerce, Black Friday, which saw an increase of 29.3 percent in 2011 online sales compared with 2010's performance. "We expected the holiday season to be good this year," said John Squire, chief strategy officer with IBM Smarter Commerce.
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E-Commerce Rings Up Boffo Black Friday November 28, 2011 
By all accounts, e-commerce exceeded expectations on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday -- and many expect a repeat performance for Cyber Monday. For the holiday season-to-date, $12.7 billion has been spent online, for a 15-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year, comScore reported. On Black Friday alone, $800 million in online spending occurred.
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AmEx Makes Bold Digital Commerce Play November 08, 2011 
American Express is extending its financial reach to the wild world of tech startups through a new multiyear digital commerce initiative. The $100 million program is designed to help identify and develop innovative technologies to aid the company's digital transformation and strengthen connections to customers around the world.
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In-Your-Face Advertising That Consumers Might Love September 21, 2011 
3D marketing is powerful -- and even more so, when it's delivered to the palm of your hand. Mobile 3D is becoming an increasingly common way of grabbing, holding, and entertaining consumers. From using current mobile technologies to create a sense of 3D, to creating actual images that seem to pop off the screen and into the air, mobile marketers are using the power of interactivity.
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The Magic of QR Codes September 07, 2011 
You might have seen them without knowing what they are: little black and white boxes with squiggles and lines in the corner of a magazine advertisement, on a band's poster in a coffeeshop, or even on a T-shirt. Those things, called "QR codes," or "quick response codes," are part of a whole new way of connecting with consumers via their smartphones.
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