Danny Sullivan's wide-ranging keynote address at Search Engine Strategies San Jose prodded several raw nerves in the industry, sparing neither search marketers nor the search engines themselves.

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has today issued a ruling against an on-line DVD rental company that sent marketing e-mails to addresses on a list that it had bought under the impression that those on the list had consented to third party marketing.

Advertisers including Paramount Pictures, The Wall Street Journal, and The Gap are successfully reaching niche audiences for a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising and a handful of bloggers are earning six-figure incomes from their blogs. Why aren't more advertisers and bloggers getting together? Fear, ignorance and the knowledge that a lot of pioneers got shot.

The Federal Trade Commission believes that no place is more fraud-friendly than the web. The agency estimates that more than one in 10 Americans (perhaps as many as 30 million people in this country) have fallen victim to fraud. Last year, internet-related fraud complaints surpassed all others, comprising 55 percent of all digital malfeasance, and for the first time the net supplanted the telephone as the most popular initial point of contact for dupers to meet dupees.

Dennis Stacey had one of the best seats at the Ansari X Prize launches, right alongside the taxiway where Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne rolled out to make history earlier this month. But the Montreal entrepreneur was at California's Mojave Airport not to catch a space launch, but to prove that he can bring internet access to people wherever they happen to be. Stacey, 30, is CEO of WanderPort Wireless, a 2-year-old firm that's established itself as a provider of Wi-Fi hot spots in business, boutique and luxury hotels in Canada and the United States. Now Stacey and his 15-person firm want …

Internet whiz kids Marc Andreessen, Josh Kopelman and Joe Kraus share something in common besides reaping huge jackpots during the dot-com boom. All three belong to LinkedIn, a rapidly growing online networking service whose ability to connect people with common friends and work interests helped persuade the trio to invest in the company before it even started to generate revenue.

Iranian authorities have arrested at least six Internet journalists and webloggers in recent days, colleagues and relatives said on Wednesday, in a further blow to limited press freedoms in the Islamic state.

Search engine firm Google Inc. yesterday announced the launch of Froogle UK, its online comparison-shopping service for Britain and its first expansion outside the United States.

In what could prove to be one the great second acts in Internet history, erstwhile king of spam Sanford Wallace takes center stage this week as exhibit A in a federal crackdown on invasive online advertising software.

An estimated 98 percent of retailers expect e-commerce growth this holiday season, according to the 2004 Shop.org/BizRate.com Online Holiday Mood Study. The survey also showed 32 percent of consumers aim to conduct more of their holiday shopping online this year.