Archive

With falling clickthrough rates and growing impatience in corporate boardrooms for measurable results, a lot of sites have begun a process I call overselling, which can actually damage their effectiveness as marketing tools.

The roller-coaster ride that Egghead.com's (Nasdaq: EGGS) stock price has seen in the last year may be on the upswing again, thanks to a deal announced Tuesday with Microsoft and MSN. Under the new agreement, Microsoft's MSN Shopping site will feature Egghead as its primary merchant for computer sof...

Reports are circulating that e-commerce powerhouse America Online and auction site eBay are in talks that could possibly result in AOL's taking a minority position in eBay. AOL declined comment and eBay execs weren't immediately available. Though, AOL's CEO Steve Case has reportedly told the Wall St...

Everywhere you turn these days, it seems you're dealing with a database. If you want to be state of the art, the inventory in your Web store should be in a database. The same is true of your customer list, and your prospect list. The reports delivered by Web server logs or held by your ad agency a...

Net.Genesis Corp., a producer of Web site and e-commerce analysis software, announced that it will team up with the Net Perceptions Inc. to offer new e-commerce products and services. The e-commerce software solutions produced through this new partnership will allow large e-commerce sites to interac...

SuperMarkets Online seems to be the next company to benefit from the AOL marketing machine. The company has signed an agreement with America Online that will bring the company's ValuPageSM grocery coupons to the attention of millions of additional users, through AOL's main service and AOL's Digital ...

If your Web business has a trademark it fights to protect, raise a glass and toast the people at Playboy. In the continuing fight between trademark owners and everyone else, Playboy has taken things to a whole new level. The Chicago-based company has sued Excite and Netscape (which uses Excite's s...

Everyone needs an Internet strategy, and Federated Department Stores Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, is finally rousing itself into getting one.

High-tech news and information network, CNET has agreed to pay $14.5 million (US$) for the exclusive right to provide computer buying guides on America Online and CompuServe, for the next two and a half years. CNET will also initially be the exclusive provider of free-to-download software on AOL.COM...

E-Commerce mega-portal site, Yahoo! announced on Wednesday that it is adding services targeted at small businesses in search of entry-level e-commerce solutions. The new offerings augment Yahoo!'s existing small business solutions, and indicate the company's emphasis on e-commerce driven revenue as ...

Conventional wisdom holds that Lycos chairman Robert Davis was taken by USA Networks head Barry Diller in their $18 billion merger agreement this week. But let's take a closer look.

Amazon.com was faced this week with severe criticism over featuring books on its site which were paid-for placements posing as editorial picks. A New York Times article revealed that publishers paid $10,000 (US$) per book to be featured on Amazon.com's home page. While paid-for placements of product...

Sneakers and sports apparel giant Nike, Inc. (NYSE: NKE) announced that it began the first phase of its online sales strategy, with a new e-commerce area on the Nike.com Web site. Previously, Nike.com served as an informational and marketing showpiece but, as of this week, the company shifted its em...

Software developer OpenSite Technologies will release Version 4.0 of its OpenSite Auction software next week, on February 15, with a variety of new features. The software helps automate the process of setting up and running real-time auctions over the Web.

If you're thinking you have to spend millions for broadband candy right now, think again. The age of narrowband Internet services is getting a new lease on life, as the Internet goes mobile. That message came from this week's Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) meeting in New O...