Articles by Chet Dembeck

During a recent Republican presidential debate, Arizona Senator John McCain challenged Texas Governor George W. Bush to join him in a pledge to permanently ban Internet taxation Bush declined the offer, saying instead that a three-to-five-year extension of the current tax moratorium would be a more prudent course.

Forrester Research, Inc. has concluded that, despite recent improvements to its archaic Web site, Wal-Mart's e-commerce operation will require vast improvement if it is to mount a serious challenge to Amazon and other industry leaders any time soon This scathing review comes a few short weeks after America Online and Wal-Mart Stores announced a wid...

In an effort to bolster its overall e-commerce effort, airline giant United Airlines has revamped its Web site and has added a new flight-paging service that notifies travelers of any flight delays Last year, United's Web site generated bookings of about $500 million (US$), or four percent the airline's revenue. However, the carrier hopes that its ...

General Motors Corp. Chairman John F. Smith, Jr. told an industry conference last night that the giant automaker expects to transact $50 billion (US$) in business on its new business-to-business (B2B) Internet site by the end of the year Smith also told the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit, Michigan that GM hopes to greatly increase traffi...

One of Silicon Valley's most secretive companies, Transmeta Corp., has sparked a flurry of speculation by scheduling a press conference for Wednesday The Santa Clara, California-based company is going to unveil its mysterious Crusoe microprocessor, which, according to its Web site, will "create a whole new world of mobility."

Internet startup Autodaq Corp. has launched a wholesale auto auction that allows car dealers to shop online for used vehicles throughout the United States The San Mateo, California-based company, which is backed by August Capital, hopes to tap into the $93 billion (US$) wholesale vehicle market. Used vehicles will also be added to Autodaq's online ...

A few months ago, America Online had a serious problem Despite the fact that it had grown its user base to 20 million, the company had been frozen out of bandwidth assets, leaving it with no high-speed Internet pipes.

Rumors that the Justice Department is looking to chop Microsoft Corp. into several "Baby Bills" have been denied as "inaccurate in several important respects." However, by all accounts, the option remains on the table Some observers argue that the breakup scenario is a ploy to prod Bill Gates and Company into serious negotiations, but the fact that...

According to a new report by Forrester Research, e-tailers will have to find a way to use free delivery offers more efficiently "This holiday season, many online retailers picked up the delivery tab for customers -- a big draw for the 82 percent of consumers who say that shipping matters," the report says. However, the report goes on to point out t...

The honeymoon is over for e-commerce companies. A class action lawsuit filed in Washington state yesterday alleges that Toysrus.com spoiled Christmas for an untold number of children by failing to deliver goods in time for the holiday The suit claims that the e-tail branch of the brick-and-mortar toy giant deceptively accepted orders for Christmas ...

After triggering an initial Wall Street flurry, the proposed monster merger of America Online and Time Warner is causing stockholders of both companies to have second thoughts In 4 p.m. trading yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange, shares of AOL tumbled $4.50 to $60 (US$), while Time Warner fell $5.81 to $79.25. Since Monday, AOL shares have de...

Amazon.com is reportedly among a group of several investors that is pumping $100 million (US$) into a startup bicycle delivery company called Kozmo.com, Inc The cash infusion comes only seven months after the company, which home-delivers movies, snacks and other items purchased online, began expanding its operations outside of its New York City mar...

E-Stamp Corp. announced today that it has signed a three-year agreement to exclusively sell postage through online auctioneer eBay's Web site Sources close to the deal have indicated that eBay will collect about $10 million (US$) for allowing E-Stamp to pitch computerized stamps to its online auction participants. eBay has attracted more than 7.7 m...

Yesterday, when we first heard the announcement about the pending merger between America Online and Time Warner, it was a stunner While cynical journalists are not often taken by surprise, the news virtually took our collective breath away -- and we were not alone. The deal made the entire industry pause and hold its breath.

According to a new report by Forrester Research, many business-to-business Web sites ignore customer goals and fail to meet the basic requirements of a good user experience Forrester came to this conclusion after grading 30 business-to-business Web sites and finding that every one of them failed basic tests for value, ease and reliability.

In what some observers are labeling the deal of the century, media giant Time Warner and number one online service provider America Online announced a stock-for-stock merger today that is expected to be valued at $350 billion (US$) Under the monster merger, AOL will gain access to Time Warner's broadband assets, while Time Warner's media properties...

No. 1 Internet service provider America Online and U.S. automaker General Motors have announced a joint venture that will help consumers shop and service their new cars via the Internet Under the terms of the agreement, GM and AOL will work in tandem to leverage AOL's recently revamped Auto Channel across the online service's multiple channels. The...

This past Friday, I suggested that Microsoft had "missed the boat" because it was planning to sell paperless books through its Microsoft Reader, rather than downloadable audio books like those being touted by Wayne, New Jersey-based Audible By contrast, companies such as Philips Electronics NV, Sanyo Electric Co., Toshiba Corp., and Panasonic decid...

At this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, portable digital music players will be one of the top attractions However, music is not the only content that these machines are capable of playing. For instance, it has been reported that Wayne, New Jersey-based Audible, Inc. will announce agreements with several huge consumer electron...

Wal-Mart Stores and Silicon Valley venture capital firm Accel Partners announced yesterday that they will join forces to form Wal-Mart.com, Inc The new independent company, based in Palo Alto, California, is designed to greatly accelerate the development of Wal-Mart's Internet site and to further attract offline customers to e-tailing via Wal-Mart'...