Kenneth Corbin

In some ways, it’s been a mixed bag for online retailers this holiday season. Sixty-five percent of consumers polled recently by comScore said that they had not finished their holiday shopping. Of those, a third said they had held off on some purchases because they were operating under a tight budget. So on one hand, […]

The Obama administration is stepping up its campaign to crack down on websites that traffic in counterfeit goods and other intellectual property violations. At a White House forum on Tuesday, U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel announced a new nonprofit coalition comprised of several industry heavy hitters aimed at shutting down infringing sites. Espinel, […]

The outrage at WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of secret State Department documents has come fast and furious on Capitol Hill. Now, the first hearing in response to the disclosure is on the schedule, with House lawmakers planning to consider an update to the 1917 Espionage Act on Thursday. At a full hearing of the House […]

The holiday shopping crush has the online retail sector poised for a strong finish. Since the beginning of November, ecommerce sales have surged 12 percent over the same period in 2009, according to Web metrics firm comScore. What’s driving the increase? Even though the economy remains shaky, many Internet retailers are succeeding in courting shoppers […]

Twitter remains one of the most popular social services on the Web, but it is only used by 8 percent of Americans, according to a new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Just 2 percent of the respondents said they visit the site on a typical day. Pew’s report also examines the […]

For the past year, Comcast has been working to sell lawmakers and regulators on its proposed merger with NBC Universal, a $30 billion deal that would create a media colossus, which critics warn invites the possibility of all manner of consumer harms. Rep. Henry Waxman, the outgoing chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, is […]

Oracle and Salesforce have been on a collision course for some time, but now the rivalry appears to be in full bloom, as the CRM leader has announced Database.com, a service-oriented cloud offering that figures to challenge Oracle in its core business. Unveiled at the company’s annual Dreamforce conference, Salesforce’s Database.com promises to give enterprise […]

Never a dull moment at Facebook. The social networking heavyweight has lifted the curtain on a substantial redesign of its profile pages, giving heavier focus to photos and showcasing fast facts about members’ lives in a snapshot. The new design, which was publicly announced to coincide with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance on 60 Minutes, has […]

Where does it all end for WikiLeaks? The site has commanded the headlines all week following the release of more than a quarter million U.S. diplomatic cables, nearly half of which were confidential. As a result, the site’s DNS provider has cut off service. Not to make any statement of principal about the relative ethical […]

The Do-Not-Call list for telemarketers has been a hit with the public. So why not craft a similar opt-out mechanism for online marketing. Because the Internet and the telephone are fundamentally different, that’s why. Even the Federal Trade Commission, which is advocating a do-not-track mechanism so privacy-conscious consumers can opt out of online tracking, acknowledges […]

Everyone, well you’d have to think most everyone, loves all the free content available on the Web. Advertising is the primary way the creation and distribution of all that free online content is supported. But how far should companies be allowed to go to obtain personal information to target potential customers with their ads? eSecurity […]

Net neutrality is often called the third rail of technology policy. And with good reason — few issues in the Internet sector stoke more heated passions or dire rhetoric. Is it any wonder then that compromise has been elusive? But that’s what Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is hoping to achieve […]