Hollywood -- always in search of hip, influential people who can get others to go see a film -- is spending an increasing portion of its collective marketing resources online, shifting budgets and attention from traditional media like television and print toward the Web.

Free-for-all music sharing online has drawn the ire of the recording industry, but some commercial online music providers and even a few recording artists are opting to allow music fans to share the songs they've bought.

ABC, which has no cable network, is offering 24/7 coverage of news and politics -- but only to those at the other end of a narrow technological pipeline.

Sixty-five per cent of all emails sent in June 2004 were spam - up from just eight per cent three years ago, according to email monitoring company Brightmail. The steady increase in spam rates shows no sign of slowing, and existing legislation such as the US Can Spam Act will have little effect, claimed the company.

"Let's Get the Party Started," screamed a Drudge Report headline Monday morning -- in 48-point Arial, no less. Then it linked to a drab Associated Press story on Bill Clinton's role in the convention, and the "relentlessly upbeat" approach of Democratic Party organizers. "This is going to be the most harmonious convention we've had in years," promised convention chairman Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico.

The Internet advertising industry will grow substantially in 2004 thanks to rising ad prices, according to Jupiter Research.

Google Inc.'s initial public stock offering next month will instantly transform hundreds of Silicon Valley workers into millionaires, at least on paper.

Fears of another costly buying spree and a looming Securities and Exchange Commission probe have clouded Time Warner earnings over the past few quarters.

Hundreds of reporters covering the Democratic National Convention were left without an Internet connection for more than an hour on Tuesday after engineers caused a portion of the network in the media center to go offline.

Internet advertising company DoubleClick was shut down by a denial of service (DoS) attack launched from computers on the Internet, a company spokeswoman said.