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The difference between "virtual" and "actual" is nowhere more important than in the world of online fashion. Buying clothing, footwear, jewelry and accessories involves far more subjectivity than shopping for products like books, CDs or electronics, and most people want to get up close and personal ...

The National Rifle Association (NRA) and other opponents of gun control can relax and save their breath. Regardless of the degree to which firearm sales may be regulated in the brick-and-mortar world, anything goes on the Internet. No one has reliable statistics, or even an educated guess as to the ...

The debate over freedom of the Internet is escalating, as government and policymaking bodies attempt to establish some enforceable parameters for its use. The implications are social, political and economic. Conservative societies are at odds with the Net-dominating United States over such issues as...

In July of 1999, online pharmacy Drugstore.com (Nasdaq: DSCM) went public with an IPO price of $18 (US$). The stock rose to 67 1/2 before beginning a long decline that would take it to a low of 4 11/16. Shares are now hovering around 6, and Drugstore.com is among the high profile e-commerce firms la...

Many e-tailers are contemplating the next holiday shopping season with a mixture of anticipation and dread. With increasing pressure from investors to show some black ink, companies like Amazon, Macy's, Toys "R" Us and CDNow are hopeful that shoppers will feel expansive about gift giving and will tu...

Remember the Y2K bug? You know, the one that cost billions of dollars (US$) to fix? Wasn't it strange that the countries that did not prepare for technological disaster had exactly the same experience as the countries that did? Right -- nothing happened.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and big name musicians like Metallica are so intent on fighting bloody skirmishes in the Internet music wars, they haven't gotten the latest news flash: The revolution is over, folks, and technology won.

While investors hold their breath waiting for Amazon to turn the profitability corner, the folks over at Buy.com seem to be holding their street map upside down, searching in vain for the profitability neighborhood.

If the Internet were a giant classroom, eBay would be the fair-haired child who never gets into trouble and always gets an "A" just because she always has. Never mind that on the playground she's just as likely as the next kid to give someone a sharp kick in the shins.

In Part I of this special report, the E-Commerce Times explored an Internet industry segment that we have dubbed "odd-commerce," highlighting some of the weirdest and wackiest items being offered for sale online.

If you want Harry Potter, you can get him on the Internet. But if you are in the market for the blood of a real live wizard, guess what? You can get that on the Internet too.

Some people love the thrill of roller coasters and keep getting back in line for more, but others can hardly take a single stomach-churning ride. When the torture is finally over, they stagger toward the nearest bench and breathe deeply, savoring the simple pleasures of life on solid ground. For dot...

Just two years ago, analysts, venture capitalists and the media were feverish with excitement over the prospects of the infant business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce industry. Dazzling projections spurred unrestrained funding followed by giddy news coverage as one dot-com after another joined the IPO...

The high-tech economy spawned a new breed of the super-wealthy by appealing to the gambling lust of some very smart and extremely ambitious people. They made their fortunes not through blood, sweat and tears, but through stock options. Some of the billionaires thus created are worth a few billion do...

With the recent vote by The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to expand the number of top level domains (TLDs) on the Internet, some e-tailers may be asking not only if a rose by any other domain name will smell as sweet -- but also whether its price will be as steep.

"Free" always begs the question: What's the catch? The prospect of something-for-nothing usually causes a tingle of excitement that is followed by a predictable letdown when the natural law, "You get what you pay for," kicks in.

Excite@Home reported that it already signed up more than a thousand new e-tailers within the first 24 hours of launching its new free online storefront service. The new offering, named "Freetailer," allows e-commerce newcomers to get a foot in the door by enabling them to set up an Internet store at...

When one of the towering leviathans of high-tech civilization takes a false step, it is not always immediately clear whether the tremors in the earth are caused by the giant's stumble or by the stampede of all the little people fleeing for cover.

In Part I of this special report, the E-Commerce Times probed beyond the hype surrounding the alleged downfall of the dot-coms, to examine the big picture of the new U.S. e-conomy. Part II of this special report on the state of the e-commerce industry examines the burgeoning international market.

It is difficult to know whether industry analysts are feeding the media's tendency to dwell on fear, uncertainty and doubt -- or vice versa -- but in the past several months, Internet air space has been crackling with dire predictions regarding e-commerce.