e - commerce

When an Italian court convicted three current and former Google executives for failing to comply with Italy's privacy code, it also created a firestorm of anger from organizations rallying for free expression and an open Internet. The convictions came after three Google executives -- David Drummond, Peter Fleischer and Arvind Desikan -- and one former Google executive, George Reyes, were accused of criminal defamation and breaking privacy laws.

In an effort to improve privacy for its growing membership, Facebook announced Tuesday what it called a "simpler model for privacy control." Under the new rules, a user can decide if individual pieces of content should be available only to friends, to friends of those friends, or to everyone.

The controls include the ability to regulate every piece of content that a Facebook member creates or uploads. Because of the site's prominence in social networking -- and, increasingly, in business, e-commerce, politics and other areas -- its position on privacy could have a ripple effect.

Two words have become mandatory music to the ears of holiday shoppers: free shipping.

This holiday season -- with cash-strapped consumers searching harder for deals -- more online and catalog shoppers now consider free shipping not a bonus but the price of entry for their business.

"You're delighted the first time you get free shipping, but you expect it the second time," says Rebecca Lieb, vice president at Econsultancy, a digital marketing news publisher.

As part of its quest to organize the world's information, Google is upping its commitment to organizing everything you can buy. On Thursday, the search giant announced Google Commerce Search, a new hosted enterprise search product that will help customers find products at online retail stores and e-commerce sites.

On Aug. 11, Mark Christopher Auto Center in Ontario, Calif., listed a 2009 Chevrolet Corvette on eBay for $73,512, along with other new cars collecting dust on its lot. "If I have more eyes looking at my inventory, I have a better opportunity to sell it," says Greg Heath, vice-president of the dealership.

Cloud computing is taking the IT industry by storm -- at least conceptually -- as companies from various sectors of the industry scramble to get on board the latest buzz bandwagon. The only problem is that the industry doesn't agree on what the cloud is.

Amazon may want to keep an eye over its shoulder -- Google is readying a deeper push into e-commerce. In the coming months, Google plans to begin selling online access to electronic versions of books. The titles will be available for viewing on any Web-enabled device, be it a cell phone or a laptop. "By end of this year we hope to give publisher partners an additional way to sell their books," Google said in a statement on June 1.

President Nicolas Sarkozy's governing party rejoiced when it muscled one of his pet projects through the French parliament: an unprecedented law to cut the Internet connections of people who repeatedly download music and movies illegally.

Sarkozy's victory last week, however, has not won France leadership in Europe's fight against Internet piracy. The government controls needed to enforce the law have unnerved other European nations while legal challenges at home and opposition in the European Parliament could derail it.

MasterCard is promoting a tempting new offer: Instead of using checks or wire transfers to send money, U.S. customers can soon text the funds directly to another person through their cell phones. Dubbed MoneySend, the new service promises to "make it faster, simpler, and more convenient for people to send money to each other using the MasterCard network," according to Art Kranzley, chief emerging-technology officer at the Purchase [N.Y.] company. The question is whether it will finally conquer consumer resistance to mobile banking.

Social networking is becoming an increasingly popular way for banks to reach consumers amid the economic downturn.

Wells Fargo and Bank of America have begun to "tweet" -- post messages of 140 characters or less on Twitter.com -- with customers about everything from bank fees to product features. Discover Financial, American Express and Citigroup have launched Facebook or MySpace pages. Some banks even put marketing videos on YouTube.