Articles by Elizabeth Millard

With an enormous volume of code comes the need to keep it current, and Microsoft has been relentless in this task, issuing scores of updates and patches every day. In fact, staying on top of Windows updates has become a tricky endeavor for IT managers, who often must maintain hundreds or thousands of machines, sometimes equipped with different operating systems and various applications.

When the mainstream first discovered the newly spun Web, a new breed of spider emerged: the cybersquatter, an individual or company that registered many domainnames, most of them well-known brands, and resold them at high prices With some asking prices hitting seven figures at the height of the dot-com boom, companies began to cry for justice. Fort...

In some industries, it is easy to tell who is at the top of the heap. Theoffice software realm has Microsoft, the beer world has Budweiser, and formuch of the cola-loving planet, Coke is it. Among online brokerages, however, crowning a king is not so simple Although success can be measured by most trades or most assets, these can bemisleading disti...

While the Microsoft vs. Linux debate rages in boardroom meetings and aroundIT water coolers, IBM has chosen sides already Although Big Blue maintains a friendly relationship with Microsoft, itsefforts in touting Linux worldwide have shown that the company isstrolling down the aisle hand-in-hand with the Linux penguin....

Call it the CTO's top 10 list. Every week, Keynote Systems releases a list of the top-performing Web sites in terms of load times, separating the lightning-quick from the sadly sluggish Keynote examines the 40 most popular sites in four categories -- portal/search, e-shopping, brokerage and travel -- and measures the average dial-up download time f...

When e-commerce first became popular, it was not long before affiliate marketing sprung up as a way for small-site Davids to drive traffic toward e-tail Goliaths -- and make some change in the process. However, as minor players soon found, many affiliate programs were structured so that the house always won, and they were left with empty pockets Is...

It is a scene that retailers have seen since the world's first bazaar opened: the slow sales period, complete with idle clerks, empty aisles and languishing goods. E-tailers have come to know these stretches -- the low-revenue valleys that lie between peak shopping times -- well Despite the now-predictable cycle of consumerism, some e-tailers are r...

The browser wars of a few years ago, once so lively, now seem like a footnote inInternet history. With 90 percent market share, Microsoft's Internet Explorer is kingof the hill, while Netscape's Navigator trails far behind at about 7 to 8 percent of themarket, Yankee Group senior Internet analyst Rob Lancaster told the E-Commerce Times However, eve...

Thanks to dutiful sons and daughters, the approach of Mother's Day has become highly visible online, with a profusion of flowers, candy and other tokens of esteem displayed It is harder to predict, however, which e-tailer will come out ahead in the race to win the affection of online shoppers, who last year made the holiday a pretty one indeed. FTD...

Even as AOL faces intense scrutiny surrounding an ongoing SEC investigation into possible revenue misstatements, the company is moving ahead with marketing initiatives designed to appeal to its members and partner retailers. One such event, a one-day sale April 16th that highlighted some of the ISP's retail partners, resulted in at least a tenfold traffic spike for most of the 32 sites involved, AOL said, and a healthy clickthrough rate from AOL's promotional jump page.

Some believe eBay is the perfect e-commerce machine, with lean operating costs, swift strategy implementation and boundless growth opportunities. Yet, how large can the company become before it meets the playground law of "the bigger they come, the harder they fall"? After all, the auction giant has set the pace for a host of imitators and wannabes...

Although innovation can be a wonderful thing, there is something to be said for sticking to the basics. In fact, that is how venture capitalists seemingly have come to feel about high-tech companies as they contemplate which to fund with now-limited resources "Funding has slowed to a trickle," Forrester research director Charles Rutstein told the E...

A few years ago, it seemed that the CIO position could be filled by a wide range of managerial types, ranging from tie-wearing executives to young creatives who favored jeans and sandals These boom-era CIOs were called on to implement creative strategies, especially at dot-coms. They also were asked to hire more IT staff and to run a tech-focused s...

In some ways, brick-and-mortar companies have it easy. They can study the successes and failures of firms that came before them. When contemplating a new venture, they can leisurely peer at the practices of giant corporations and thriving mom-and-pop operations to decide which strategy to employ In the past, brick-and-clicks and pure-plays have not...

A few years ago, much content and many services could be had for free, even though the companies providing those services were not posting profits. But then the bills arrived, online advertising revenue dropped, and the free-content providers had to tighten their belts and look for other ways to make money To stay afloat, many of those companies ha...

With consumer confidence beginning to ebb, brick-and-mortar stores are implementing new strategies designed to lure consumers across their thresholds. But for retailers trying to balance an actual store with an online presence, the challenges of attracting customers seem even fiercer Such retailers must compete not only with each other, but also wi...

Internet market research is designed to be evergreen, so that clients who buy advice about online customer service or traffic-building tactics can use that advice later Typically, Internet market research is so geared toward business goals that companies use large doses of analyst insight when planning future strategies. But Internet market researc...

Few companies in recent history, with the exception of spectacular flameouts like Enron, have inspired the kind of loathing that Microsoft has in its climb to the top The Redmond, Washington-based software giant has been the target of late-night comedians' barbs as well as anti-Microsoft Web sites....

To say that eBay has a devoted following is like saying the Beatles were liked by some teenage girls. While true, the statement does not reflect the full scope of fans' zeal. Analysts love the company, competitors fear its power, and users flock in ever-greater numbers to its homespun marketplace But the adoration is not universal. Recurrent compla...

In a preemptive strike against hackers, Microsoft has posted advisories on TechNet about newly discovered security vulnerabilities in the company's SQL Server software and three of its operating systems The most critical hole is in Microsoft's RAS (remote access service) software, which runs as an option in Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP....