UMBC Institute for Global Electronic Commerce

ecTechWeb: News: Sep 1999

A Search Site for Search Sites Is Accused of Trespassing 0
priceman.com 0 - Priceman.com offers itself as a meta-price engine.
Web Snares More Employment Ads 0 - Web Snares More Employment Ads;
Proliferating Online Job Sites Challenge
Long-Held Niche of Newspaper Industry -- corporate recruiters
are switching significant amounts of business to
proliferating Internet recruiting World Wide Web
sites. (Washington Post)
AuctionWatch nips at eBay's heels 0 - AuctionWatch launched its search engine over the weekend with listings from eBay, as well as
Yahoo, Amazon.com, Microsoft Network, and other auction networks using FairMarket and
OpenSite technologies.
NRF ranks top 100 e-retailers 0 - Ebay and amazon.com are the nation's top online retailers – at least according to
the National Retail Federation. The NRF list is the first publicly available ranking of top U.S. digital retailers based
on consumer sales.
Gift registries flower online (CNet) 0 - nternet retail giant Amazon tapped into this market last week by investing in
online bridal registry Della & James, which has plans to launch an all-occasion gift
registry in November to take advantage of holiday sales. Amazon, along with
Neiman Marcus, Crate & Barrel, and Williams-Sonoma, invested $45 million for
roughly 35 percent in the start-up, with Amazon taking a 20 percent stake in the
company.
Amazon opens up stores to -- everyone 0 - Amazon.com is joining the Web store-hosting business, announcing
'zStores', a new program that will allow small businesses and
consumers to sell products through its Web site. Amazon will charge a
$9.99 monthly fee for Web space, and a transaction-based fee for the
items sold through the site. Users will be able to take advantage of
Amazon features like one-click shopping and transaction processing.
Yodlee.com organizes your Web life 1 - Yodlee provides a service that allows users to aggregate lots of personal information on one central web site -- email accounts, passwords, bill paying information, etc.
eCommerce climbs to $1.3 trillion by 2003; users to total 500 million (InfoWorld) 0 - ecommerce is booming, with sales expected to grow from
$50 billion in 1998 to $1.3 trillion in 2003, reported
International Data at the recent Internet Commerce 2.0
conference. Investments in e-business sites currently reach
between $1 million and $30 billion each, followed by an
additional 50 percent to 100 percent of that cost each year.
The true answer to Internet tax survey: Duh 0 - Dan Gilmore of the Merc on the recent survey asking about a national sales tax on out of state internet purchases.
Visa forms separate Net unit 0 - eVisa is a separate Internet unit focused on helping Visa bank members
compete online and develope online standards and technology. It will
also develope new products, including a a new Web-based payment
gateway and digital wallet technology.
Wired for the bottom line 0 - Newsweek article which is part of a special report on e-life.
IBM on being "e" (Wired) 0 - Born-again IBM is
preaching the gospel of e:
e-commerce, e-business,
e-anything-that-can-turn-a-profit for
them.
Biz-to-Biz eBiz Buzz: Big Bucks (Reuters) 0 - Investment banking firm Goldman,
Sachs & Co. on Thursday said it
expects a five-year US$1.5 trillion
boom in business-to-business
e-commerce in industries ranging from
automobiles to medical equipment.
Device May Cut Credit-Card (NYT) 0 - tarting in November, owners
of a special American Express
card will be able to swipe the
card with a device at home,
much like a sales clerk would
at a retail store.
Ebay's Mr. Fixit (Salon) 0 - An interview with ebay's new "chief of eBay technologies" .
E-Music: How to Pay the Piper 0 - Will that be cash, check, or
micropayment? Digital music might be
the road to e-commerce's dreams of
charging for those under-a-dollar
purchases. By Jennifer Sullivan. (Wired)
customer immersion via IPIX (Forbes) 0 - Several companies, including IPIX, offer the technology to add 360-degree
images that viewers can wander
around inside of "virtually." By dragging a
mouse across the image users can navigate
from ground to sky or floor to ceiling,
choosing their own perspective. These are being used for some ecommerce applications (e.g., real estate) to show off product.
Report Labels Internet Privacy Policies 'A Joke' 0 - Nine in 10 Web sites do not live up to basic privacy policies and
in fact most privacy policies are a "joke," concludes a report
from Forrester Research. The report flies in the face of a
recent FTC report on online privacy, which said that
self-regulation is working.
B2B Will Hit 1.5 Trillion 0 - Goldman, Sachspredict that by 2004 B2B
revenues will be in the neighborhood of
$1.5 trillion. In 1998, Goldman, Sachs
estimates that last years revenues were
$39 billion and they will reach $114
billion this year.
WebHouse brings haggling to the supermarket 0 - Starting November 1, shoppers in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut will be able
to access WebHouse on Priceline.com's site and choose the price they want to pay
for 140 categories of groceries. The items can then be picked up at about 600
supermarkets.
NYT E-Commerce Special Section 0 - A seventy page special section of the NYT on ecommerce.
Auctioning Billboard Space 1 - Adauction.com, a San Francisco startup, started auctioning off outdoor
billboard space two months ago, unleashing a flood new revenue for purveyors
of billboard advertising.
Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce 0 - In order for e-commerce to
succeed at the international level,
conflicting national laws must be made
compatible with one another. A group oftop-level CEOs are meeting to form Global
Business Dialogue on Electronic
Commerce, or GBDe.
RosettaNet: Nothing Personal? 0 - The head of a technology standards
group is denying allegations by
watchdogs and a computer trade
association that his group's proposed
standard threatens privacy and would run afoul
of Europe's Data Privacy Directive.
Duty-free company launched 0 - Dutyfreezone.com, based in Curacao, an island off the coast of Venezuela,
says its plans to ship duty-free liquor and cigarettes to U.S. citizens do
not violate U.S. customs laws, but state liquor control agencies are taking (ft.com)
a less sanguine view.
It's the Convenience 0 - Internet shoppers tend to value the convenience of online purchasing over
any price breaks, according to a survey by consulting firm Mitchell Madison
Group. (LA Times)
European law seen as ecommerce threat 0 - A draft European Union law would seriously
stunt the growth of ecommerce and could lead to a
damaging trade dispute with the US, industry experts and
analysts say.
The legislation would allow disgruntled Internet
shoppers to sue e-commerce firms in their own national courts
regardless of whether the company had actively sought to sell its
product in the consumer's country.
Priority Mailing 0 - A NYT article on electronic postage and the two companies which the USPS have approved -- estamp.com and stamps.com.
Online Grocers Take Aim at Supermarket Industry 0 - Describes the latest series of attempts to take food shops into ecommerce, including webvan.com, peapod.com, streamline.com, shoplink.com and netgrocer.com.
Dollardiscounter.com offers 95-Cent Dollars 0 - L.A. Firm Hopes to Lure Online Shoppers With 95-Cent Dollars. DollarDiscounter.com will charge
only 95 cents for virtual dollars
that can be spent at shopping
sites like Amazon.com, CDNow
and EToys. (LA Times)
UNIBANCO: First virtual credit card 0 - Unibanco (Brazil) is introducing a "virtual credit card," geared toward making Internet shopping
easier and more secure. It works much the same as the conventional card, but offers additional
features, such as e-mail notification each time a transaction is made. (Financial times)
Group Buying 0 - Mercata and Accompany are
trying to attract groups of
buyers interested in a certain
product and extract wholesale
prices from manufacturers and
distributors. (NYT)
65% Of Companies Don't Have E-Comm Strategy 0 - A survey by the Cutter Consortium (cutter.com) reveals that 65% of
businesses lack an overall e-commerce strategy, almost 25% don't have
a basic business and implementation plan for e-commerce, and 33% don't
know when they will have a basic plan.
SDMI vs. MP3 0 - The music industy's attempt to control digital music ecommerce is SDMI. This is a good article which describes the current state of the SDMI standardization process.
DoubleClick awarded patent on internet advertising!?!?! 0 - Double click was awarded a patent for
"Method of Delivery, Targeting,
and Measuring Advertising Over
Networks," covered the "dynamic
delivery of Internet advertising by a
third party ad server to a network of
Web sites or an individual site."
TidBITS: Finding the Power Online: Buying Batteries 0 - An ecommerce case study in which the author visits 45 sites in search of batteries. ONly three carried both kinds he sought.
Europe's Got Net Fever 0 - Newsweek article on Euorpean internet businesses.
XML Greases Supply Chain 0 - "XML-driven supply chains are moving into production
even faster than expected...."
Kidney for sale on ebay (used) 0 - eBay halted bidding on a human kidney, saying
that sale of body parts is against not only company policies but also a
serious violation of federal law. The sale, which may have been a hoax, was
described in these terms: "Fully functional kidney for sale. You can choose
either kidney. Buyer pays all transplant and medical costs. Of course only
one for sale, as I need the other to live. Serious bids only."
Easing the E-Commerce Jitters 0 - "Though banks say buying online is as
safe as buying at the mall, many consumers don't
believe it. Merchants make education a priority. "
What's in a Name.com? Plenty 0 - more on the continuing battle over interent domain names.
GuruNet 0 - Dan Gilmore writes about GuruNet, an interesting web application (windows only, for now) with ecommerce possibilities developed by the ICQ people. Installing it and alt-click on any word in your browser or other text application and it provides context sensitive information about the appropriate concept. See guruNet.com for details.
Ecommerce needs stonger encryption 0 - News Analysis: Internet Code-Cracking Project Shows Need for Stronger Locks. A NYT article which reports on the recent demonstration that 512 bit RSA encryption can be cracked. It explains why this is particularly significant for ecommerce and the complexity that will have to be faced in order to adapt to changing security requirements.
Customer Reviews Build Loyalty 0 - E-Commerce Report: Customer Reviews Can Build Loyalty (NYT). Businesses have fount that allowing their customers to post reviews of the products they sell is good for business. Even if the reviews are bas.
Internet Shoppers Unhappy With Service 0 - Internet Shoppers Unhappy With Service. (NYT) This article describes a recent customer satisfaction survey done by e-BuyersGuide.com which documents a rising level of frustration among ecustomers.
(see http://www.e-buyersguide.com)
$33 billion in online ads by 2004 0 - Forrester Research predict that online advertising will reach $33 billion by 2004 worldwide and $5.5 billion in Europe. More info on their web site
NO-FEE ONLINE FOOD SHOPPING IN THE U.K. 0 - Frozen food retailer Iceland is trying to jump-start online food shopping
in the U.K. by offering a no-fee service for customers with orders totaling
40 British pounds or more.
No World Order for E-Commerce 0 - Nearly one in 10 items ordered over
the Internet to overseas destinations
never actually arrived, according to a
recent survey by Consumers
International, an advocacy group
headquartered in London.
Tech, financial firms debut data transfer standard 0 - An alliance of blue-chip companies releases a universal
format that it hopes will make it easier and more appealing
for consumers and businesses to pay for goods and services
online. (CNet)
AE introduces Internet charge card 0 - American Express has introduced a card with an embedded chip to be used for security in shopping on the Web. Free card readers will be distributed for customers to hook up to
their computers. Customers who want extra security can swipe their
cards through the readers before shopping.
Otherwise, they can simply type in their account number as they would
with any other card. The card also has a magnetic strip for
conventional shopping. (CNet)
Microsoft StartsHotel-Pricing Service 0 - Microsoft, imitating the patented approach of Priceline.com, is an
Internet service to expedia.msn.com that lets consumers name their own
prices for hotel rooms. (NYT)
Encryption Teams Circle, Firing Away 0
studentu.com sells course notes online 0 - StudentU.com is hiring students this semester at 62 universities and
paying them to take notes in as many as 50 core courses per campus.
Note takers post their jottings, within 24 hours, on a central Web
site. Access to students is free and the business model is advertising
driven.
(NYT)
Web's 19 degrees of separation 0 - In a study reported in Nature, Notre
Dame physicist Albert-Laszlo Barabasi and his colleagues found that any two
randomly selected Web pages are on average only 19 clicks away from one
another.

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