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Earlier this month, a subtle turn of events occurred in the B2B e-commerce arena that should have set off flashing red lights. E-business software giant SAP opted out of an e-procurement software licensing agreement with beleaguered partner Commerce One. The dissolution of the software pact highli...

Accusations of anticompetitive land-grabbing often befall category leaders like Microsoft and Wal-Mart. But e-tail juggernaut Amazon.com is no bully, according to analysts. "Amazon has been more of a partner than a competitor," Giga Information Group analyst Andrew Bartels told the E-Commerce Tim...

Despite ubiquitous reports of a sagging online advertising market, there are plenty of reasons for i-marketing managers to look ahead with optimism. On the whole, the 2001 online ad market actually outpaced 2000's market in terms of unique ad growth until the second week of November, according to...

The events of September 11th, combined with reports of increasingly vicious worms and viruses, have spurred consumers and corporations to take a historic stance toward online security: They're demanding it. Increased investments in security will draw resources away from other areas of product and...

Yahoo! notched a big score when it snatched HotJobs.com from the clutches of Monster.com for a cool $436 million. Or did it? Although the price may have been a bit high, when powered by Yahoo!'s marketing machine and brand equity, HotJobs.com has a shot at unseating Monster.com as the top online ...

January is quickly flying by and we've hardly had time to consider what awaits e-commerce in 2002. How does the year 2002 look for e-commerce? Information technology budgets are paper thin, and leeway for money-losing initiatives is non-existent. But, as they say on Broadway, the show must go on. ...

The anonymity of the Internet and the potential for higher rewards for criminals has fueled an alarming increase in cybercrime activity in recent years. Many analysts believe that ill-equipped law enforcement officials will remain one step behind online lawbreakers unless they mount a more compre...

By now, you have probably realized that Yahoo! is up to something. Just this week, the company cut a deal with Cigna, agreeing to build a custom portal for the health care heavyweight. Doesn't sound like the zany, business-casual Yahoo! we've grown to love, does it? To date, portals like Yahoo! a...

We may have seen the worst of e-tailing attrition in the last two years, but we have not seen the last of it. Surviving online retailers still have substantial work to do in order to reach the end of 2002 without closing up shop. "The shakeout is not over," Gartner Group research director Geri Sp...

The demise of many individual electronic marketplaces in 2001 may have unfairly tarnished the reputation of the overall business-to-business e-commerce market. While scores of e-marketplaces have perished in recent months, throngs of B2B technology companies steered clear of the downswing and ...

The hype swirling around Web services these days has many companies perplexed. Is this another hollow promise of riches for all? Is it deserving of our attention and our IT budgets? Companies such as Boeing and British Telecom are placing big bets on Web services. With bruises still smarting from...

Scrutiny befalls every move that Amazon.com makes. Most pack-leaders must bear this burden. But Amazon's December 6th decision to make its Web site accessible to the blind can't help but attract applause, and hopefully emulation. Blind and physically challenged people represent a largely untapped...

The Web and e-mail have brought unprecedented speed and efficiency to the dissemination of product and company awareness, but high-tech PR professionals still rely on traditional communications vehicles for tangible results. "The Internet has become the new water cooler -- a destination to hear g...

We all know by now that Microsoft is prone to tyrannical bouts of imperialism. A few cursory wrist slaps from the Feds won't change that. But the software Goliath's latest bid for world domination defies logic. Veiled as a holiday promotion for its .NET Passport service, Microsoft is trying to pur...

In Part 2 of this interview, Intel director of corporate Internet marketing Shawn Conly continues his discussion with the E-Commerce Times of i-marketing strategies and pitfalls.

When you think of Intel, you cannot help but conjure images of lovable aliens or of the Blue Man Group raising the giant number "4" when the Pentium 4 came out. That's thanks largely to a marketing machine that is as lively as ever, even in this recession-hindered economy. The forward-looking min...

The success that Dell Computer has had with its build-to-order (BTO) sales philosophy raises the question of whether that model could apply more widely to e-commerce. Analysts and observers told the E-Commerce Times that while some retailers might succeed using BTO with certain high-margin, high-...

Competition for premium placement on the Web's search engines has spawned an advertising market for paid search listings. However, e-commerce sites that consider advertising via paid search results should understand that not all search engines are created equal. "Marketers must balance how much t...

In a sheepish effort to fulfill the craving for additional revenue, many e-commerce go-betweens, as in online marketplaces, portals and payment service providers, are starting to squeeze buyers for cash. Now that's naughty, not nice. Moreover, the timing is all wrong. Online buyers have been pamp...

Before long, business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce may become a misnomer, because opportunities for online innovation and value creation reside more within multipartner collaboration than in transaction processing, analysts say. The prospect of "automating the entire purchasing process seems dim ...