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As consumers turn to ad blockers to avoid advertising on their mobile and computer screens, marketers and content providers who depend on pitches to pay the bills are searching frantically for ways to counter the pesky programs. BlockIQ offers them one. BlockIQ, owned by AdSupply, which recently mer...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security last week sounded an alarm warning retailers of a family of malicious programs aimed at compromising point-of-sale systems. Attackers used such software last year in massive data breaches that nicked millions of consumer records at Target and Nieman Marcus. V...

Google on Wednesday introduced the Google Wallet Card, a debit card that gives people instant access to the funds they have stored in Google Wallet. The card works like a traditional debit card, so users can swipe it to pay at a restaurant or store, for instance, or use it to get money from an ATM.

A federal judge in Idaho appears to have had a fit of hacker madness. In a case involving a former employee and his bosses over software for protecting the nation's critical infrastructure from cyberattacks, federal district court Judge B. Lynn Winmill found the employee's privacy rights could be ig...

Amazon, purveyor of everything you would need for a Valentine's Day dinner -- wine, food, romantic music, a DVD of Casablanca -- received a lot of love from respondents to the 2013 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient study released this week; it rated Amazon the top spot among 60 of the most visible U.S

Do customers suffer from a split personality? I say this not because of encounters with clearly rattled fellow shoppers during the holiday season. I say it because of the numbers that consistently come out when customers are surveyed -- and the other numbers that seem to be in the forefront of most ...

2010 was the year of social media: Mark Zuckerberg was named Time's Person of the Year, "The Social Network" seemed poised for Oscar glory, and Facebook exceeded Google's daily traffic. Certainly there were hiccups along the way -- privacy settings, ease-of-use and the Google Buzz debacle -- but no...

Amid questions about consumer enthusiasm for Blu-ray technology, Sony on Monday announced a new notebook computer positioned by the electronics giant as an entry-level Blu-ray player for mobile viewing. The VAIO NW notebook series carries an $880 starting price tag for a Blu-ray equipped model, and ...

It's no secret that customers aren't buying much these days. The economic engines have locked and stalled, leaving businesses everywhere in freefall. While companies around the globe are jettisoning anything they can to slow the descent, none are ditching CRM. In fact, CRM may be the last remaining ...

The current economic environment has consumers tightening their purse strings, carefully scrutinizing each dollar they spend. Scaling back on expenditures, including investments, they're not taking any chances with the money they do have. There is little trust in the economy or the future. To get co...

Most retailers experience a downturn in a weak economy. As consumers rein in spending, a downturn is usually not distributed equally among all retailers. The extent of the downturn depends on a number of factors, including geographic location of stores, product categories being sold and specific mar...

With holiday season promotions escalating into top gear, the term "free shipping" is popping up on many e-commerce sites. While the promotions do attract the attention of consumers, the meaning of the term and the impact of such promotions on retailers' sales are decidedly mixed at this stage. Ship...

As it battles Microsoft to try to gain some of the Web search market share gobbled by Google, Yahoo has upgraded its search technology with a feature that makes suggestions while users type. Called "Search Assist," the new feature arrives several days after Microsoft similarly unveiled improvements ...

The risk of getting into an auto accident while reading or writing text messages is 50 percent higher than talking on a phone while driving, according to new research. A person talking on a cell phone when driving is four times more likely to get into an accident than someone driving without distrac...

No call should strike more fear into the heart of an online business than a call from a customer saying, "Your site won't let me do what I want to do." Chilling words, because only a tiny percentage of online consumers will actually pick up the phone to alert businesses to a problem. By the time tha...