Christopher Saunders

AOL Time Warner is the new owner of a patent that could give it an edge in the wars for control over desktop instant messaging, as well as a number of emerging areas of communications. The patent, No. 6,449,344, had originally been granted based on work done by a team of developers at Mirabilis, which […]

Microsoft Corp.’s MSN unit is preparing what will likely be the initial stage in the software giant’s play for the enterprise instant messaging market. Dubbed MSN Messenger Connect, and slated for launch next quarter, the product provides for company-controlled “namespaces,” so a business can administer its own instant messaging usernames. That means that a company […]

After months of speculation, AOL Time Warner’s America Online unit has taken the wraps off its enterprise instant messaging solution. The offering adds proxy-based management tools on top of the media and Internet giant’s free, wildly popular public service, AIM. Indeed, Enterprise AIM’s use of the same client for public AIM is a key selling […]

Terra Lycos aims to become the next major portal player in instant messaging, with the planned consolidation of its existing platforms onto a new messaging service based on IBM’s Lotus Sametime. The move looks to bring Lycos on par with peers including America Online , Yahoo! and Microsoft’s MSN, all of whom have invested heavily […]

NetIQ Offers Dreamweaver Plug-In Web security and analytics player NetIQ will offer free tools for Macromedia Dreamweaver developers to integrate WebTrends into their sites. The WebTrends Developer Kit supports Dreamweaver MX, in which it allows for drag-and-drop, automatic page tagging. The offering is one of the first aimed at including Web analytics within sites’ development […]

In a bid to boost consumer adoption of its paid coupons, CoolSavings will roll out its version of an ad network. The company will deliver targeted coupons to partnering Web publishers, who in turn display the coupons on special pages on their sites. Visitors to the sites’ coupon sections, can select from a list of […]

Some Missouri state legislators and officials say they’re eager to extend the benefits of a “Do Not Call” list to Internet communications — which might have serious ramifications for marketers. About half of all U.S. states, including Missouri, currently offer Do Not Call (DNC) lists, which prohibit telemarketers from soliciting consumers who have asked to […]

In what seems to be another case of overzealous corporate marketing, New York City officials are angry with Microsoft for placing advertising decals on city streets. On Wednesday and Thursday, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft plastered the city with the decals, which were aimed at building buzz around the launch of its MSN 8 Internet service. MSN […]

The battle between AOL Time Warner’s America Online and Microsoft’s MSN is shaping up to fit in perfectly with the times — having all the earmarks of your typical election-year mudslinging. Expect to see plenty of punches thrown at AOL during Thursday’s unveiling of MSN 8.0. Microsoft erected an 11,000 sq. ft. dome in Manhattan’s […]

In what’s believed to be the first lawsuit of its kind, an ad network and search marketer is taking Google to court over changes the popular search engine made to its page-ranking system. Oklahoma City-based SearchKing, which represents text-based ad inventory on sites with a high Google Page Rank, filed suit in federal court that […]

Major direct mailers are adopting e-mail in growing numbers — although the online channel remains relatively immature, according to new findings from the Direct Marketing Association. Research conducted by the New York-based trade association during its annual “State of Postal and E-Mail Marketing” survey found that 71 percent of direct marketers increased their use of […]

E-mail can drive purchases in other channels — including offline stores — according to new research funded by Web ad technology player DoubleClick . The study, conducted by Beyond Interactive and Greenfield Online for DoubleClick, surveyed 1,000 consumers and found that 68 percent of the respondents said they have made purchases online after receiving e-mail. […]