The Web offers the best values compared with catalogs and retail channels, according to the results of an Online Co-Op Survey by list firm Millard Group released yesterday. Of the respondents, 68 percent said value is very important with another 30 percent saying it is fairly important. Also, 71 percent said value is more important now than it was five years ago.

Sendmail has taken a first stab at software to authenticate the source of e-mail messages, a technology that will be key to preventing the proliferation of spam.

Direct marketing veteran Michael Aronowitz was named yesterday as executive director of the Association for Interactive Marketing, the Internet-focused subsidiary of the Direct Marketing Association.

The U.S. government has asked the Supreme Court to reverse an appeals court ruling that could lead to heavier regulation of cable companies' high-speed Internet service.

People fed up with the proliferation of credit cards, IDs and key cards that fill their wallets to bulging may soon have an alternative. New technology could bundle such functions into just one item: your cell phone.

While the title of the punk band Dead Kennedys 1987 album, "Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death" may be a little extreme, people today have gotten pretty bellicose in their demands for service. And one of the areas in which we are most thwarted is in our desire to use the Internet while traveling on planes. Oh sure, we can surf in the airports, but once we set foot in the cabin, the laptops go off and our In Boxes lie fallow.

There is no question that IM is entrenched in the enterprise. More than 90 percent of businesses report IM activity, according to Osterman Research. A main reason, as we discovered in "Getting serious about enterprise IM," is the improved productivity and reduced communications costs that IM delivers. What should concern CIOs is that unsanctioned consumer IM networks -- such as those from America Online, ICQ, Microsoft, and Yahoo -- make up 80 percent of corporate IM use today, and the number of users of these unsecured IM networks is growing at a fast clip, according to The Radicati Group.

More broadband access and more sophisticated ad-serving technology means advertisers increasingly use rich media and streaming video to stand out from the crowd. According to DoubleClick's Q2 2004 Ad Serving Trends, the number of rich media ads served has grow 34 percent year on year for Q2 2004.

The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. redesigned its BusinessWeek Online's home page with easier navigation and new content features. The changes on businessweek.com come a year after BusinessWeek magazine was redesigned to commemorate its 75th anniversary. The online redesign aims to differentiate the two versions.

When Microsoft unveils its online music store later this week, the first song offered should be Dave Brubeck's "It's Déjà Vu All Over Again." For Microsoft, taking a trail blazed by others - then trying to dominate the market - is a familiar tune.