Matthew Hicks

Bloglines, one of the largest Web-based aggregators of syndicated news feeds, is stepping beyond RSS and Weblogs. In its first feature launch since being acquired by Ask Jeeves Inc., Bloglines is offering the ability to track packages shipped through United Parcel Service Inc., FedEx Corp. and the U.S. Postal Service. The package-tracking option went live […]

VeriSign has taken a major step toward retaining control of .net after beating out four rivals in a rating of the contenders seeking to run the Internets third-largest domain. VeriSign Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., ranked the highest in a report released late Monday by ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the […]

Google Inc. took a step into the Web analytics market late on Monday by announcing an agreement to buy Urchin Software Corp. San Diego-based Urchin sells analytic tools for measuring user experiences, tracking marketing performance and improving content on the Web. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Google announced that it plans to […]

Posting an online “help wanted” ad might deliver the resumes, but an upstart Internet company wants to uncover those talented professionals who wouldnt usually respond to traditional job postings. Jobster Inc. on Wednesday is introducing an online service for recruiters that combines viral marketing and social networking techniques to attract job candidates who are not […]

Further evidence emerged this week that phishing attacks are spreading far beyond e-mail inboxes. They also are using instant messages in the quest to trick users into divulging personal information through spoofed Web links of well-known companies. Yahoo Messenger is the latest to come under threat by phishing. Security researchers and Yahoo Inc. confirmed that […]

Yahoo has created a search site for finding digital content that can be reused and shared for free. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company Thursday will announce Yahoo Search for Creative Commons, a service for searching millions of Web pages which include content that is available under the Creative Commons license. Yahoo Inc. developed the service, available […]

A European Union Web address took a critical step toward becoming a reality this week after gaining the approval of the Internets domain-name oversight body. ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) announced Thursday that its board of directors has backed the creation of .eu, a country code top-level domain name first proposed […]

Three of the nations largest newspaper and television chains have gained a majority stake in news search engine Topix.net. The search startup will announce Wednesday that Gannett Co. Inc., Knight Ridder Inc. and the Tribune Co. each have acquired a 25 percent stake in Topix.net. The investment comes about a year after Topix.net launched its […]

Yahoo Inc. has taken its first step to move desktop search beyond the data sitting on a users hard drive. Late Tuesday, Yahoo updated its desktop search application with support for indexing and search across the Web-based Yahoo Address Book and archives of Yahoo Messenger instant messaging sessions. When Yahoo first released a beta of […]

By buying Ask Jeeves for $1.85 billion, IAC/InterActiveCorp hopes to boost the search engines market share and create a powerful combination of search and structured content for verticals such as local search. While the acquisition will create the potential for IAC to reach those goals, the companies also will face challenges in attempting to fit […]