Gadget-loving music fans will buy more than 10 million digital music players in 2004, in one of the year's biggest consumer buying crazes, a study showed on Wednesday.

Federal authorities yesterday charged an online advertiser in Florida with tapping into the computer system of a large database marketer in Arkansas and stealing "vast amounts of personal information" about Americans in what they described as one of the largest network intrusions in recent memory.

New York Times Digital ran ads for two weeks on NYTimes.com for adware maker Claria, which it once called a "parasite" on its site. Immediately after being notified of this, NYTD yanked the ads.

Last week, self-proclaimed Spam King and ladies underwear seller Scott Richter, was staring down the barrel of a $20m fine courtesy of New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer. Now, Richter has agreed to play by the rules and Spitzer has agreed to drop his price by £19.95m.

Britain's Internet advertising market topped 350 million pounds ($650 million) in 2003, putting the industry solidly on track to surpass commercial radio within the next three years, an industry trade group said on Tuesday.

Verizon Communications is scheduled to launch its fiber-based broadband service, offering up to 30 mebabits per second to homes and small businesses and starting at a monthly rate of $34.95, the company has announced.

Monster Government Solution came to the Capitol this week in an effort to help federal recruiters find qualified job candidates online.

Walt Disney Co. has struck a deal with Comcast Corp. to provide news and children's Internet programming as part of the cable company's effort to distinguish its high-speed Web product, the companies said.

The company behind the Napster 2.0 online music service said Monday it has signed agreements with several universities to offer students its digital song subscription program.

Google is expected to give an indication of how much it expects bidders to pay for its shares in an updated initial public offering filing as soon as this week, according to potential investors.