Napster's recently revealed plan to extend its music service to mobile phones has a long way to go before cells become iPod killers. On Wednesday, Napster and Swedish phone giant Ericsson announced a deal to develop the first digital music service for cell phones. The service will launch sometime in the next year.

Every week, it seems, Yahoo! or Google launch some new whiz-bang tool to make Web-surfing more efficient and enjoyable. While some of these utilities are pretty darn impressive, others seem to merely reinvent the wheel.

Automotive ad campaigns appearing on business, news and sports Web sites have far less effect on purchase intent than those on car sites, according to new research.

BitTorrent users, beware: Your download may include adware and spyware. Purveyors of the applications that produce pop-up ads on PC screens and track browsing habits have discovered BitTorrent as a new distribution channel. According to observers of the trend, videos and music that hide adware and spyware are increasingly being offered for download on various BitTorrent Web sites.

The variety of media and communication outlets for today's kids and teens is growing at an astonishing rate. From instant messaging and e-mail to social networking communities, blogs, and podcasts, marketers have more options than ever to reach these increasingly valuable audiences. Although many marketers struggle to find effective ways to wield these new tools, one very obvious outlet stands out.

Pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb will forego direct-to- consumer advertising on television, print and radio in the first year after it launches a new drug, but the company's new code doesn't rule out Internet spending during that period.

When I first heard of BlowSearch I thought it might be a search engine for porn. My mistake. Instead of connecting XXX searchers with XXX content, Brooklyn, New York-based BlowSearch is a metasearch engine that pulls results from 27 search engines, sorts them for relevancy and discards duplicates. What makes it special is the niche it yearns to fill. It guarantees advertisers the traffic they receive will be legitimate or their money back. Although tiny BlowSearch is a mere David among Google-iaths (comScore Media Metrix ranks it 24th in terms of popularity among search engines) it stands out for its …

The U.S. Department of Justice is quietly shopping around the explosive idea of requiring Internet service providers to retain records of their customers' online activities.

In the next few weeks, America Online will offer what it considers a radical new feature. At its newly designed free Internet site, users will have a choice of two custom-designed start pages ? one with picture and text links; the other loaded with video highlights.

The upcoming launch of America Online's new AOL.com site will need to meet the needs both of users and advertisers to succeed, and early indications are that the company is on the right track with media buyers.