Articles by Gary Gately

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 industry leaders, including DoubleClick, 24/7 Media, ClickAc...

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 The "singleserving" could foreshadow a whole new level of cooperation between battling record companies and Net music providers over distribution rights.

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 A document's author can trace how a bugged document is passed from one person or organization to another, the Denver, Colorado-based Pri...

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 Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, Continental Airlines, US Airways, America West ...

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 FordDirect will be jointly owned by Ford dealers and the Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), with an independent management team appointed ...

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 Auction.com parent Classified Ventures, which is owned by some of the largest media companies in the U.S., said the closing will enable it to shift more attention to its Cars.com and HomeScape.com sites.

MP3.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: MPPP) and Sony Music Entertainment have settled the copyright infringement suit brought over the My.MP3.com system The deal, announced late Monday, will allow MP3.com to use Sony's music on the MP3.com site, the two companies said. MP3.com reportedly will pay Sony about $20 million (US$) in damages and has agreed to pay a fee...

Online wine retailers Wine.com and WineShopper.com announced Tuesday that they will merge and operate a redesigned site at the Wine.com address Bill Newlands, president and chief executive officer of Wine.com, will serve as CEO of the new company. Hank Lambert, president and chief operating officer of WineShopper.com, will retain those titles, and ...

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 The findings came from the new Internet Advertising Strategies service, launched Tuesday by NetRatings Inc. (Nasdaq: NTRT), Nielsen Media Research and ACNielsen eRatings.com to gauge Net advertising usage, audienc...

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 Saudi authorities told Saudi newspaper al-Eqtisadiah that the site contained pornographic and other morally offensive materi...

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 The recently released eAdvertising Report, said those 50 Web publishers, which include those that produce more th...

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 Drkoop.com will provide most of the content for theglobe.com's health channel, which will include comprehensive healthcare information, ...

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, a high-profile media company that publishes a network of Web sites for women and is working to develop a cable channel...

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 The report, based on an online consumer survey by Link Share Corp. and Bizrate.com, found that 28 percent of more than 3,800 consumers polled planned to begin browsing for holiday gift...

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 An industry alliance -- founded by America Online, America...

In a move to create an online marketing and advertising powerhouse, Internet advertiser DoubleClick, Inc. (Nasdaq: DCLK) has agreed to acquire market research firm Abacus Direct Corp. (Nasdaq: ABDR) in a $1 billion ($US) stock swap The companies said Monday that the deal, subject to approval from regulators and stockholders, would provide more effi...

Going head-to-head with competitors in the bid for dominance of online music distribution, AT&T Corp. has teamed with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., BMG Entertainment and Universal Music to develop technology needed to download, play and store digital music from the Net The new Electronic Music Distribution (EMD) will provide a secure system f...

Promising an instantaneous, electronic alternative to the overnight letter, Hewlett-Packard and United Parcel Service have joined to develop a new service that sends and tracks paper documents over the Net HP and UPS said it will be the first such service enabling users to send, rather than only receive, e-mail versions of transmitted paper documen...

Promising an instantaneous, electronic alternative to the overnight letter, Hewlett-Packard and United Parcel Service have joined to develop a new service that sends and tracks paper documents over the Net HP and UPS said it will be the first such service enabling users to send, rather than only receive, e-mail versions of transmitted paper documen...

Going head-to-head with competitors in the bid for dominance of online music distribution, AT&T Corp. has teamed with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., BMG Entertainment and Universal Music to develop technology needed to download, play and store digital music from the Net The new Electronic Music Distribution (EMD) will provide a secure system f...