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If it feels as if the summer is already racing by, consider how the legislators on Capitol Hill feel. October is just around the corner, and that means somebody has to do something about Internet taxes. October is the month the current moratorium on Internet taxation expires. Unlike so many othe...

We all knew the century had officially turned in my town when the local race track started accepting bets via the Internet. Lawmakers will still fight it, moralists will continue to badmouth it and compulsive gamblers will quickly max out their plastic, but online gambling appears headed for day...

Undaunted by consistent reports of hackers, consumer data being compromised online, and technological loopholes, my credit-card numbers are all over the Internet. I shop regularly at the Web sites of a number of small merchants, as well as those of mega-stores. Clothes, books, luxury gifts -- I'v...

Something tells me that the proliferation of computers at the bank entrance, the absence of tellers at most of the windows, and the fee that is charged for the privilege of speaking to a teller are all designed to coerce me into banking online. But try as they might, banks are having a tough time...

This year, for the first time, doomsayers are not predicting that the holiday season will be make-or-break time for the entire e-commerce industry. Still, reaching that plateau does not come without some unsolved problems. The two major hurdles that have yet to be overcome -- shipping and retu...

Somewhere in the zone between idea and execution, e-commerce suffers from a case of diminished returns. Take online bill payment, for example. At the new-idea stage, online billing was going to let every business streamline their operations and offer customers a convenient way to "pay as they go....

While most of us are busy breaking out our deck chairs and SPF 45 at this time of year, online toy companies are already counting down to their hottest time of the year -- the winter shopping season. E-commerce has been somewhat brutal to toy retailers, but though still volatile and unpredictab...

As the massive lawsuits have raged against Napster, few have kept a close eye on the developments of Aimster, a virtual clone of Napster that is built on similar technology. Aimster has everything to lose or gain depending on the ultimate fate of its predecessor. So, with Napster approaching ag...

The ongoing online music wars have taken an interesting turn. Executives with digital music companies went before the U.S. Congress and essentially asked legislators to change U.S. copyright laws to accommodate the needs of their business. Apparently, the free enterprise system is not quite fr...

It has been almost a year since former President Bill Clinton signed into law the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce (E-SIGN) Act. Clearly, things have become more complicated since then, because we hear very little about digital signatures these days. Was it an idea that seem...

Two of the world's largest media industries have not figured out what to do with each other. Movies and the Internet, arguably the two most popular entertainment and commerce vehicles, somehow can't seem to find a way to shake hands. Though it's difficult to say which medium needs the other more, ...

The forces of digital evil could be lurking nearby at any time. Those forces show up in the form of Internet fraud, and even those who should be protecting you are coming up short in the war on the perpetrators. Some encouraging news did come Wednesday, when U.S. agencies filed charges against 90 p...

This is the story of a man who fell to earth and landed in a field of cash -- soft, comforting, fortuitous cash. His name is George T. Shaheen, and in case I forgot to mention it, he fell with the aid of a parachute. Some might say the parachute was golden.

Most consumers, when faced with the task of comparison shopping for a desired item, do not have time to run all over town looking to save a few dollars. Still, saving money is important to most consumers, and that's where the Internet was supposed to fill the gap. Where real-world shoppers feel a s...

For those who have faithfully followed the e-commerce and high-tech headlines, one of last year's hot topics was the emergence of wireless services. As far back as a year ago, the question on everybody's mind was, "What's taking wireless so long?" Today, with technology constantly evolving and wi...

Will Americans ever feel comfortable enough with electronic commerce to buy a house via the Internet? The answer depends on whom you ask, but some industry observers say that unless we start incorporating major transactions into our Internet mix, e-commerce will remain an infant. That means it...

Sending a clear message that it will no longer tolerate the wares of intolerance, online auction powerhouse eBay announced that it was expanding its guidelines prohibiting the sale of items "that promote or glorify hatred, violence or racial intolerance." It is likely that many American consumers...

Deep into the second quarter of the year and after months spent struggling to survive, e-tailers are finally shifting their focus back to the basics, including, of course, consumer privacy. With the economy finally showing signs of stabilizing, Web merchants are confronting the issue of who sh...

Consumers like to be in the driver's seat, and just because we have introduced a new genre of shopping does not mean we can take that away. The message to e-tailers is that in the battle over who should dictate customization -- the shopper or the seller -- everyone wins if shoppers are given the...

If you were an angel in Brooklyn -- the kind of angel, that is, who contributes to funds that are meant to help entrepreneurs have a shot at the big time -- would you bless a new dot-com or a corner grocery store? Asked a year ago, the number of dot-com angels would have been much greater than a...