InternetNews Staff

Internet guide MiningCo.com Inc. Monday changed its name to About.com Inc. and launched a new site The company said it renamed itself to reflect its transition from primarily acting as a portal to a network of destinations incorporating original content, search and community at more than 650 topic-specific sites within 18 channels. The service and […]

Calling it the first true Internet car company, idealab subsidiary CarsDirect.com made its online debut Monday, offering Netizens an online resource with which to research, price, select, finance, order and take delivery of new vehicles. CarsDirect differs from Autobytel.com and similar sites because the entire process is done online. Autobytel and similar sites function as […]

The Housing and Development Finance Corp. (HDFC) Bank is building a secure payments gateway for e-commerce. Full service Internet banking and smart cards are in the works for June 1999. The bank also plan to offer the facility to purchase goods online once its Internet banking is up and running through tie-ups with other Web […]

Real Networks Inc. Monday named Snap.com, the portal co-owned by NBC and CNET Inc., as its new search partner. The pact means that searches conducted through Real’s RealPlayer G2 will be handled by Snap!, traffic that now goes to Excite. Snap.com will pay an unspecified fee to Real and the two companies will share any […]

Stamford, CT-based name your price service Priceline.com said that its travel services unit sold 7,000 leisure airline tickets in one day this week and sold in excess of 30,000 airline tickets last week. On April 28, priceline.com’s travel services unit recorded its first 5,000-ticket day, followed by its first 6,000-ticket day on May 5. The […]

Yugoslavian ISP Beonet is protesting U.S. government plans to shut down its services by ordering New York-based satellite company Loral Orion to comply with an embargo to the country. According to a Freedom Forum Online report, the company is in discussions with the U.S. Treasury Department over interpretation of the executive command. The company is […]

Redmond, WA-based InfoSpace.com, a provider of private label solutions, said it plans to launch a private label auction solution later this quarter. The company said its integrated private label auction solution will give Internet users the ability to go to one place to post an item for sale and make it available on InfoSpace.com’s auction, […]

San Francisco-based loyalty marketer Netcentives signed software store Beyond.com, gap.com and PlanetRx.com for its ClickRewards incentive shopping operation. The companies join a roster that includes barnesandnoble.com, E-TRADE, garden.com, macy’s.com, Music Boulevard, Sports Superstore and others. ClickRewards offers frequent flyer miles and other incentives to shoppers. New Beyond.com members can earn 500 ClickMiles on purchases of […]

Stamford, CT-based HOTRES.com launched an Internet hotel reservation site offering a daily inventory of more than 1,000 New York City rooms at 30 rated hotels at discounted rate in various price ranges. The company said it plans to expand its Web-based hotel reservation system to include other United States travel destinations, including Las Vegas, San […]

San Francisco-based direct e-commerce company XOOM.com Inc. launched XOOM.com Member Stores, a free service that allows small business owners to build and promote their own online stores. The service includes a Web-based app called EasyStoreBuilder and the opportunity to promote their store in the XOOM.com Member Stores shopping area. XOOM.com partnered with e-commerce provider Netgateway […]

Travel suppliers are not realizing their full online market share potential, despite projections that U.S. consumers will spend $16.6 billion online in 2003 on leisure and business travel, according to a new report. Jupiter Communications said in report to its Strategic Planning Services clients that suppliers such as airlines, car rental companies, and hotels have […]

New York City-based Biztravel.com said it has begun offering a new feature to reduce ticketing errors by writing tickets immediately upon purchase. Instead of performing QA (Quality Assurance) processing and writing tickets in batches–often hours after a traveler assumes they have been purchased–Biztravel.com said it is now able to write tickets immediately. By eliminating delays […]