target.com

Will Black Friday bruise Target.com?

The thing to watch in retail information technology next week will be Target and whether its e-commerce site can take the demand on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

In 2009, Target announced plans to separate from a partnership with Amazon.com, which used to run the retailer’s site. That 10-year deal expired in 2011, and now Target controls its own fate. Strategically, the breakup makes sense, but Target is winging it a bit when it comes to its e-commerce operations and managing demand spikes.

Meanwhile, the stakes for the 2011 holiday shopping season are high. Why the worry? Target’… Read more

Discounted Missoni clothing line crashes Target.com

Target's Web site buckled yesterday under the load of online shoppers who were interested in a luxury clothing line offered at a discount there and now bargain hunters are ticked off.

Apparently the handlers of Target.com and those who came up with the idea of offering part of the popular Missoni fashion line at a discount misjudged the interest. According to reports, Target.com crashed yesterday at 9 a.m., three hours after the Missoni items became available. The site was down for at least several hours according to The New York Times. Today, the site appeared to … Read more

Target adds bar code scanner to iPhone app

BYOBS. That stands for "bring your own bar code scanner," and more and more shoppers like the concept--so much so that Target has added bar code scanning to its existing free iPhone app along with a new TargetLists feature that allows you to manage shopping and gift lists from your phone.

Why would you need to use a Target bar code scanner in a Target store if you already know the price of the product? Well, the idea is you could instantly tap into more info without having to talk to a salesperson. "In addition to pricing, … Read more

Attackers booby-trap searches at top Web sites

Updated at 11:22 a.m. PDT Saturday to include a comment from Wal-Mart.

A million search queries have been "poisoned" at dozens of well-known Web sites over the past several weeks, according to security analyst Dancho Danchev.

Attackers are using programming errors to hijack keyword searches by automatically attaching malicious HTML code to specific search queries. Unwitting visitors who type in the selected key words while performing a search at the affected sites are then redirected to booby-trapped Web sites.

This is where the attackers attempt to install malware onto the victims' computers.

Among some of the … Read more