Coca-Cola announces Global Fund donation at Clinton Global Initiative meeting, teams up with Segway creator on clean water project and launches corporate blog.

GE's Jeff Immelt joins the few brave CEOs on Twitter.

IBM targets Amazon in the cloud.

AirAsia creates child-free quiet zones on flights.

Arby's sees gains under new owners.

Barnes & Noble plans to launch Nook video service.

Chase Bank tops customer-satisfaction study.Continue reading...

ABC handles product placement delicately for Modern Family.

American Ethanol sponsors NASCAR drivers.

Apache makes $3-billion acquisition in U.S. oil business.

Apple raises "made-in-America" questions about iPhone manufacturing.

BlackBerry future questioned as RIM's new CEO takes the reins.

Carnival CEO lies low during crisis as his company mishandles communications with survivors of shipwreck.

Cisco tests LinkedIn marketing campaign.

Facebook wants to become a bigger news player.

Fisker battles problems across the EV company.Continue reading...

Internet real estate as we know it will change irrevocably on January 12th, when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) starts taking applications for its new Top-Level Domain Program.

There are (currently) 22 generic TLDs (gTLDs) such as .com, .org and .net, and 250 specific country-code TLDs (ccTLDs) like .ca for Canada, .uk for the United Kingdom, .jp for Japan and .mx for Mexico. Come January, however, virtually any word or brand name can become a gTLD for a $185,000 application fee, proof of being able to pay for the gTLD going forward, and sufficient justification by the brand.

Dotbranding introduces a whole new way to surf the web, enhancing companies’ SEO strategy, heightening protection against interlopers and cybersquatters, and letting brand names serve as web addresses with the potential for a variety of sub-domains.

Deloitte, Canon, Hitachi, Motorola and UNICEF are filing for their .brand web addresses, according to Marketing Week in the UK.Continue reading...

A new era in Internet policy begins June 20th. That's when brands begin moving to the right of dot com, when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), officially announces the next evolution of domain names.

On that day, ICANN will open the application process for between 400 and 2,000 new top-level domain (TLD) extensions in keywords (like .sport and .law), cities (like .NYC) and brands (like .MTV), in a move that has been in the works since 2004.

Moving beyond .com, .net, .org., .edu and country codes, individuals and organizations will have much greater room for imaginative, representative addresses.

Ben Crawford, CEO of the U.K.-based domain registry, has been giving a "use it or lose it" message to companies to acquire extensions…or else. So far, companies like Canon, Hitachi, Unicef, and Deloitte say they’ll do so, as well as the cities of Paris and New York, and the League of Arab States, which will be grabbing .Arab.Continue reading...

Apple frustrates rivals who are trying to beat iPad’s price.

BBC announces agencies for branding and creative duties.

Disney's ABC Family channel spins gold in dramas.

Baby Gaga makers face possible legal action by Lady Gaga over breast-milk ice cream.  

Bank of America looks forward to “normal” performance. 

Barclays CEO gets huge bonus.

CBS hopes to conclude Charlie Sheen saga as Mark Cuban approaches him for HDNet project.Continue reading...

Dell says 3Par accepted its raised bid, trumping HP for control of the computer-storage company. (Updated).

US egg farmers launch a public reassurance campaign in the wake of nationwide salmonella outbreak.

Facebook is the leading social networking site in India for the first time, overtaking Orkut.

Academy Awards telecasts could move to Mondays to make room for NFL games on Sunday nights.

Alibaba Group, China's biggest e-commerce operator, expands travel business to include international airline-ticket sales and plans to undercut rivals' prices.

BHP, undeterred by rivals, vows restraint in its bid for Potash.

British Heart Foundation calls for more labelling on food after UK salt survey cites KFC, McDonald's, Pret a Manger and others.Continue reading...