In a bid to ward off U.S. government regulation, a coalition of online marketing heavyweights announced plans Monday to propose standards meant to ease consumer concerns about spam and online privacy. The recently-formed Responsible Electronic Communications Alliance (RECA) is comprised of indus...

In a bid to ward off U.S. government regulation, a coalition of online marketing heavyweights announced plans Monday to propose standards meant to ease consumer concerns about spam and online privacy.

Internet music service provider MP3.com (Nasdaq: MPPP) introduced a new method for releasing music "singles" Thursday when it began mass e-mailing digital files of songs to music fans.

Web "bugs" that can be placed in Microsoft Word, Excel 2000 and PowerPoint 2000 documents can enable their authors to track where and how often the documents are read on the Internet, says a privacy watchdog group.

Backed by powerhouses in both the travel and e-tail sectors, Web startup MilePoint.com is set to unveil a program that will allow more than 45 million frequent flyer program members to exchange their miles and points for discounts on purchases from online merchants.

A coalition of 4,200 Ford dealers is forming FordDirect.com, which will enable Net users to select, purchase and finance new automobiles online. Customers can select the Ford dealers that will complete their transactions.

Stamps.com climbed 1 19/100 to 4 3/4 Wednesday on news that the Net-based postage system will be bundled with 2001 Quicken financial software from Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU). Although Stamps.com saw a 33 percent surge, the stock is still trading at a fraction of last fall's high of 98 1/2.

Intuit itself shot up 8 9/16 to 54 5/8 Wednesday, one day after announcing fiscal year 2000 revenues of $1.1 billion -- the first time the company has passed the billion-dollar mark.

Visual Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: VNWK) plummeted 3 31/32 to 6 27/32 on Wednesday, a decline of almost 40 percent. The fall followed the company's announcement that third quarter revenues will amount to about half initial projections of $30 million.

O2Micro International Limited (Nasdaq: OIIM) more than doubled during its initial public offering Wednesday, skyrocketing 11 49/64 to 20 49/64. The stock opened at 9, with just over 10 million shares traded during the day.

Auctions.com, which just last month billed itself as the "world's fastest-growing online auction network," is shutting down at the end of August.

MP3.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: MPPP) and Sony Music Entertainment have settled the copyright infringement suit brought over the My.MP3.com system.

Online wine retailers Wine.com and WineShopper.com announced Tuesday that they will merge and operate a redesigned site at the Wine.com address.

Children up to age 11 click on Web ads more than any other age group, while teens rarely click the ads, Nielsen//NetRatings said Tuesday.

American Internet giant Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) ran into yet another international dispute this weekend when authorities in the religiously conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia closed down one of its sites, clubs.yahoo.com.

As part of a new partnership, a new health section scheduled to launch next month on theglobe.com will feature content from drkoop.com, the Internet health network led by former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop.

While online advertising continues its phenomenal growth, the top 50 Web publishers will reap the overwhelming majority of ad dollars, accounting for 95 percent of revenues for ad-supported sites in the U.S. this year, says a new report.

Starbucks' e-commerce plans have been the source of much speculation ever since news of the company's possible e-commerce and portal plans began to circulate last month. Things became a little more clear on Thursday, when the specialty coffee retailer announced a strategic alliance with Oxygen Media...

It'll be beginning to feel a lot like Christmas much earlier online this year, as shoppers click their way to gifts sooner than merchants expected, says a new report.

Hoping to reduce the number of online orders abandoned because of the hassle of filling out forms, some of the biggest computer, retail and credit card companies have agreed on a format that will enable customers to enter the information only once -- for transactions at many different sites.