• Buying Time Online (U.S. News)
    During the height of the tech boom, McDonald's sat on the Internet advertising sidelines. Sure, the fast-food giant bought into the Web with its own site, but Mickey D's wasn't interested in shifting any part of its $1 billion advertising budget to uncharted online waters. "Unlike cable TV, where you have 300 channels to choose from, the Internet consists of millions of sites," says Neil Perry, McDonald's senior director of national marketing. "Effectively buying space on the right sites is art more than science."
  • Spam's Not on Fed's Menu (ZDNet)
    In June, politicians in Washington had finally declared an all-out war on spam, vowing to take speedy action to curb the Internet's No. 1 menace. One senator gave an impassioned floor speech warning that without a law, "we risk the destruction of all legitimate expression and commerce on the information superhighway." The New York Times predicted "a lively congressional debate" on spam over the next few months. Well, almost. Those events did occur, but the year was 1997.
  • Philips Talks to Web Music Stores, Eyes Media Role (Reuters)
    Philips Electronics said on Friday it is talking to Internet music retailers to help them sell songs and prevent piracy, as it aims to prevent rivals from defining and controlling the industry's digital future.
  • Hearts and Minds: AOL's Agency Problem (IAR)
    While AOL tried to win back the hearts of fans with a free Dave Matthews Band concert in New York's Central Park Wednesday night, the Internet service has waged a quieter, yet equally important battle behind the scenes to win back the respect of agencies.
  • California Is Set to Ban Spam (New York Times)
    California is trying a deceptively simple approach to the problem of junk e-mail: it is banning spam.
  • AOL Reaches Cancellation, Rebate Pact with US FTC (Reuters)
    The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday that AOL Time Warner Inc.'s America Online unit had agreed to promptly honor consumer cancellation requests as part of a settlement with the agency.
  • Blackmailed by Pop-Up Advertising (Wired News)
    Windows computer users are fuming over a new breed of pop-up ads with a dubious sales pitch: Buy our software, and protect yourself from pop-ups like this one!
  • VeriSign Sued over Controversial Web Service (Reuters)
    An Internet search company on Thursday filed a $100 million antitrust lawsuit against VeriSign Inc., accusing the Web address provider of hijacking misspelled and unassigned Web addresses with a service it launched this week.
  • Microsoft Throwing Its Weight Behind Web Search (Reuters)
    Microsoft Corp., which is trying to drive growth by investing in everything from small business software to video games, has quietly set its sights on a new industry -- searching the Web.
  • News Sites Loosen Linking Policies (Online Journalism Review)
    News sites that once staunchly refused to link offsite -- especially to competitor sites -- are now testing the waters with offsite links in blogs and e-mail newsletters.
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