Beth Cox

Talk City said it has implemented community solutions for healthshop.com, a natural health products and wellness destination site, and SportsHabitat.com, an interactive sports-related community and e-commerce site. Talk City is providing the sites complete community platforms, including moderated discussion boards, live auditorium chat events with celebrities, as well as moderated 24-hour chat communities. Financial arrangements […]

Handshake.com launched as an online “matchmaker” that allows consumers to put their local service jobs out to bid to local merchants. At the same time, Handshake.com said the operation makes it simple for local service merchants — from caterers and carpet cleaners to auto detailers and massage therapists — to offer competitive bids for those […]

Business-to-business marketplace BizBuyer.com said it has raised $38.5 million in third-round financing. Lead investors in this round include TMCT Ventures, a recently formed venture fund by Times Mirror and Chandler Trust; previous investor @Ventures, the venture capital affiliate of Internet holding company CMGI Inc.; and Redpoint Ventures, a technology-focused venture capital firm formed by Brentwood […]

Scudder Kemper Investments Inc. launched a Scudder Kemper E-cubator Group and named Jay Kingley as managing director and head of the new unit. Scudder Kemper said the E-cubator Group will create “transformational e-businesses that focus on financial services.” Kingley will report to Mark Casady, managing director of Scudder Kemper Investments, who leads the global mutual […]

Internet marketing research firm ActivMedia Research said it has expanded its study offerings and redesigned its Web site to improve the ability to find research targeted at specific market interests. The new Web site is organized around areas of subject interest and highlights research for Web-wide interests as well as specific studies for consumer-oriented Web […]

Early stage venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson is forming a new $500 million venture fund in conjunction with meVC.com, and the twist is that individual investors may participate. “Venture capital has historically only been available to millionaires and large institutional investors,” said Tim Draper, founder and managing director of the firm. “We want to […]

Independent shopping guide BizRate.com launched a Happiness Index to measure the satisfaction of online shoppers and to inform online retailers about the consumer’s state of mind. The index is designed to indicate the extent to which online merchants keep their buyers happy by satisfying each individual buyer in service areas that they consider important. BizRate […]

Just in time for the impending online shopping saturation, America Online’s Shop@AOL launched interactive product demonstrations that allow online shoppers to listen to the ring of a cell phone and experiment with a digital camera. LiveProducts is a technology from e-SIM, a provider of electronic product simulations for e-commerce, interactive training and product development. e-SIM’s […]

Interactive Pictures Corp., a provider of immersive imaging for the Internet, said that Renaissance Cruises has selected its IPIX technology to create virtual tours of its cruise ships, in conjunction with the launch of a new multimedia Web site. The 360-degree IPIX images allow future cruise passengers to explore Renaissance Cruises ships from stem to […]

Today’s affiliate marketing and e-commerce programs will evolve from one-size-fits-all links to one of three models: syndicated boutiques, e-commerce networks or “elastic retailers,” says a new industry report. The report from Forrester Research Inc. says that retail and media firms will increasingly “share ownership of traffic, revenue, merchandising and content to drive revenue and increase […]

A new study from Yankelovich Partners Inc. says that in the past year, there has been a 100 percent increase in the number of consumers who “purchase products or services” online and a 54 percent increase in those who “shop for products or services.” The figures are from the 1999 Yankelovich MONITOR study, which the […]

Onvia.com, a business-to-business online operations center for entrepreneurs, signed a partnership with the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) to provide information to small business owners and SCORE volunteer business counselors. Onvia.com and SCORE will offer two, 16-page brochures to business owners nationwide seeking SCORE counseling assistance. Additionally, Onvia.com will write a guest feature column […]