InfoSpace Monday purchased eCom Live, a provider of Web-based collaboration and interaction software designed for electronic commerce and other vertical applications. eCom Live's software allows users to share data, conduct audio and video conferencing and jointly work on applications and documents using a standard Web browser.

PricelineMortgage is now available to homebuyers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Developed with First Alliance Bank, the service is designed to allow customers to name their own interest rates and cut closing costs. Alliance Mortgage is an approved Fannie Mae seller, and will provide Fannie Mae's Desktop Underwriter automated underwriting system. PricelineMortgage handles first mortgage loan requests of up to $240,000.

In a landmark decision for Web users, the Federal Communications Commission gave a big boost to high-speed Internet connections Thursday by voting to require major local phone companies to share their lines with data carriers. The move is expected to bring wider high-speed access at lower prices. But local phone companies warn that it could also end up clogging voice lines and adding static to their customer’s conversations.

The FCC’s decision is designed to make it cheaper for a host of smaller, upstart businesses to compete with Baby Bell telephone companies in the race to offer Web connections that are dozens of times faster than conventional dial-up modems. But the decision sidestepped a critical question in the white hot battle for DSL market share: just how much will phone companies get to charge for access to their lines.

The FCC’s ruling requires the local phone companies — some of which are offering their own high-speed services — to let these DSL (digital subscriber line) providers share lines that are already carrying basic voice connections. Current rules require data carriers like NorthPoint Communications Group Inc., Covad Communications Group Inc. and Rhythms Net Connections Inc. to provide service over a separate line.

The decision was a major win for the DSL upstarts, who stand to see their costs reduced and demand for the service explode. Widespread anticipation of Thursday’s decision has sent the stocks of these companies surging in the last month.

With the New Hampshire primary just around the corner, the dot-com mania has found a new target: the American voter.

Helping Americans fulfill their civic duty used to be the exclusive preserve of shiny-eyed idealists, but voter education has become big business.

In recent weeks, there’s been an explosion in the number of sites offering "unfiltered" information on campaigns and candidates for potential voters. And many of them plan to make money doing it.

"People are looking at the Internet and seeing dollar signs. There is the push to create niches," said Mike McGill, media director at FreedomChannel.com, a nonprofit site that allows voters to view unedited clips of candidates speaking on various issues.

A new browser war is shaping up, with combatants this time aiming for control of the tiny screens on Web-ready mobile phones.

The real estate now belongs almost exclusively to a company called Phone.com, the leading producer of the Web browsers and servers that stream news headlines and email to mobile phones. But as the market begins to grow, other players--from Microsoft to the world's biggest mobile phone manufacturers--are aiming to knock Phone.com from the lead.

The wireless data market is still in its infancy. Most of the major mobile carriers in the United States are just beginning to offer cellular Web services, trailing European carriers. The market potential is huge, however, as worldwide more people own cell phones than PCs. By 2003, industry analysts expect there will be more than 1 billion mobile phones in use across the globe.

Web phone surfing surely won't supplant PC use, analysts say. But the opportunity to read quick news headlines, get sports scores, check train schedules or buy tickets is attractive to consumers, and services should increase as wireless download speeds get faster.

Just another reminder about signing up for our ActiveWindows Community on MSN. It allows you to chat with us in our chat room or via our message board, it also lets you post your own screensavers and backgrounds for other ActiveWindows readers to download.

So please don't hesitate to join our community--we would love to have you! We are currently the largest Windows site on the MSN community list.

We have an upcoming chat taking place on Saturday November 27th at 7pm EST 12pm GMT, we will all be there.

The maker of super-cheap PCs is also planning to jump into the market for even cheaper, special purpose Net-enabled devices.

eMachines Inc., Irvine, Calif., company best known for making cheap PCs, is eyeing appliances.

No, not refrigerators or washers. Instead, its top executive hinted that the Irvine, Calif., company is ready to jump into the market for even cheaper, special purpose Internet-enabled devices. eMachines "will put one in our roadmap soon," said president Stephen Dukker.

"I do believe there is a market for these devices. We view it as truly a different market from the PC space. (It is) for the other 40 percent that don't want a PC," he said. "It's a way to get connected (to the Internet) for people who really count perceive needing a PC."

The same group that rates video games will also rate any game on AOL. Now will other online gamers follow AOL's suit?

In a move it hopes will set a new standard for the online gaming industry, America Online Inc. announced Thursday that all games played on its service will be rated by the same group that rates nearly all offline, packaged games.

"We really think it's important for consumers to be informed and help them make the best decisions for what their children do online," said Ginny Wydler, director of standards and policy for AOL (NYSE: AOL).

The ratings body, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), ranks games in categories ranging from "early childhood" to "mature" and "adult." So far, the majority of online games are unrated. Arthur Pober, executive director of ESRB, hopes AOL's announcement will help change that situation

"When we created the ratings system (for packaged games) originally, we didn't have the entire industry," he explained. "As consumers became more and more aware we garnered a major part of the industry. I hope that's what AOL helps us do in the online world."

The House approved legislation intended to protect businesses from cybersquatters, those who register company trademarks as Internet addresses and try to sell them for a profit.

The legislation, previously worked out in conference with the Senate, is an amendment to the omnibus budget bill that today passed by 296-135.

Under the bill, cybersquatters are liable for penalties up to $100,000 for registering a domain name that is similar to a company's trademark.

Business interests have favored the legislation, while civil libertarians object on grounds of free-speech concerns.

The Clinton administration has said it is opposed to a similar standalone bill called the Trademark Cyberpiracy Prevention Act, passed by the House late last month. But the administration would seem unlikely to try to block the measure approved today, since the $390 billion budget bill that incorporates the cybersquatting legislation also covers five of the federal government's 13 yearly spending bills, and has recently been the subject of high-stakes negotiations.