Kenneth Corbin

WASHINGTON — Free, nationwide wireless broadband may be closer to becoming a reality. At least, that’s the hope of the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Kevin Martin, who today said the FCC would move ahead with a controversial plan to build out a national broadband network. As a result, the commission will vote on […]

WASHINGTON — The push for universal broadband just got a shot in the arm. While previous initiatives have typically been stronger on rhetoric than action, a broad-ranging group — whose members carry a hefty lobbying clout — launched yesterday to press the new administration and Congress to craft a national broadband strategy. The 57 members […]

A report in Sunday’s Times of London outlining a convoluted deal that would see Microsoft acquiring Yahoo’s search business at a $20 billion valuation was quickly met with a healthy dose of skepticism from vigilant tech observers who have been watching the two companies negotiate at arm’s length for the past 10 months. The story, […]

The world learned of the violence that raged through Mumbai late last week due in part to a social-media platform that is still little more than a novelty in the minds of many. This is Twitter, the two-year-old micro-blogging platform that has yet to accomplish — or even really work toward — a business model. […]

The holiday shopping season begins in earnest the day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, when many retailers throw open their doors as early as 4 a.m. to welcome in the groggy bargain hunters with special “doorbuster” deals and one-day specials. Not to be left out, the Internet has its own counterpart. It’s become known […]

Online shopping is no longer a simple point, click and purchase affair. A burgeoning crop of startup firms is moving to customize the process with widgets, live-chat and social-networking features. Blending e-commerce with the community-driven Web 2.0 world can take many forms, and it’s not always a perfect fit. Recall last holiday season, when Facebook […]

A sobering forecast from online metrics firm comScore suggests that the economic downturn could have a worse impact on the Internet retail sector this holiday season than previously thought. The firm’s latest analysis found that e-commerce spending for the first 23 days of November was down 4 percent from the same period last year, and […]

So it turned out to be more than a rumor after all. Kara Swisher at the AllThingsD blog offers us the story of the deal talks between two of the hottest properties on the social Web: Facebook and Twitter. Various iterations of the deal would have seen Facebook acquiring the microblogging site for $500 million […]

Gloom and doom predictions abound this holiday season. But in crisis there may be opportunity, according to a new survey from Shop.org, the trade group representing online retailers. Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation, polled its members and found that online merchants are planning to pull out all the stops to draw shoppers […]

After several years of meteoric growth, Internet ad spending is coming back down to earth. That’s according to new findings from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the trade group representing the online advertising industry, which is pointing to the economic downturn as the culprit for the change. The IAB partners with Pricewaterhouse Coopers to compile […]

WASHINGTON — The drive for a national broadband strategy just got a new wrinkle. How about an entirely new question for the debate over broadband access? What if the individual subscriber were brought into the ownership equation? Columbia University law professor Tim Wu and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) policy analyst Derek Slater are proposing just that: […]

(L to R) Stephen J. Ezell, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation; Harry Wingo, Google; Michael Oldak, Edison Electric Institute.Click to enlarge. WASHINGTON — Google’s not just a technology company anymore. The search giant that built its name and empire on a superior technical platform to help people retrieve information from the Web is wading deeper […]