It seems some big name online retailers thought it would be okay to trick consumers into giving their credit card information to third-party vendors. The United States Senate is letting them know they thought wrong.

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, Google has launched a new Commerce Search engine to aid retailers in making sure customers find just the information they need.

Netflix recently announced that its streaming movie service will be heading to an existing CE device out on the market. Currently, it looks like Sony’s PS3 device might be the most likely candidate for this service. Since Sony has been investing heavily in its own movie service on the PS3, will it be able to complete with Netflix?

In a surprise move that no one saw coming, Microsoft has begun selling computers in its online store.

In a heavyweight battle of brick and mortar superstores and internet super-sites, Amazon and Wal-Mart are squaring off to see who is the biggest, baddest bookseller in the land.

Are we entering another dot-com bubble? I only ask because it seems as though domain names are being bought up in their droves and new Web properties are also appearing by the dozen. And now comes news that QuinStreet is buying the Insure.com domain name for a pricey $16 million. Which could well be the most money ever paid for a domain name.

There was I thinking that the problem of spam had been pretty much solved due to spam filters and Web users applying a little more common sense these days than they used to. But no, it seems that people are still receiving tons of spam each year, and some of those people are even responding to the unsolicited email. Many are buying Viagra. And making things hard for themselves.

Even in the midst of lawsuits from Skype’s original founders regarding the use of its technology, EBay CEO John Donahoe is hell-bent on jettisoning the unit. This turbulence comes just as EBay’s long-term outlook is starting to look up.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re young or old, rich or poor, nobody wants to pay for online news. With almost three quarters willing to move on to another site, just how many consumers are willing to pay for the news?

Dan Brown’s new novel, The Lost Symbol, was released on Sept. 15 after five years in the making. And it’s already selling well, as most people expected it to. However, something few people expected was to see the Kindle edition of The Lost Symbol sell in greater numbers than the hardback edition on Amazon. Which is exactly what appears to happening at the moment.

A national association of newspapers asked for advice on how America’s newspapers could stop hemorrhaging money on the web and received answers from some unexpected sources.

Joost board chairman and previous company CEO Mike Volpi has been removed from the Joost board by shareholder vote and his actions while CEO and chairman are being investigated.

It would appear that Google is in development on a micropayment system that has the potential to not only make the papers happy but could also lead to direct competition with PayPal.

E-book readers such as the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader are gaining in popularity. This is a business that’s right at the start of its life and likely to grow massively. But the high prices for these devices mean e-book readers are currently not appealing to mainstream consumers. Would a $50 to $100 price range make them indispensable?

Both companies may be household names and among the Internet elite, however the marriage between eBay and Skype seems to have hit upon irreconcilable differences.

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has been one of the country’s highest paid CEOs for many years, but has decided that in light of the poor economy, he would reduce his compensation to one dollar per year.

The Italian government is reportedly planning to bring right-of-reply media laws online, despite serious logistical problems with applying such rules to the Web. It’s the latest in a series of incidents where officials have attempted to restrict online freedoms.