HOUSTON — Canadian Y2K specialist Peter de Jager fell victim to a hoax when he tried to sell the domain name Year2000.com in an E-bay auction.

The highest bid received for the domain name was US$10 million, a record high price for the sale of a domain name. The previous record was US$7.5 million, which eCompanies paid for the Business.com domain in November of last year to launch a business-to-business Internet service.

The winning bid, however, was a hoax. The highest legitimate bid turned out to be for the much less impressive sum of US$2 million.

Wal-Mart makes play to be E-Mart

BENTONVILLE, Ariz. — Retail giant Wal-Mart has launched an online store.

The site was launched on New Year's Day. It offers shopping in 24 categories, from shoes to pets, as well as a photo centre and travel centre where customers can book flights, rental cars and hotel rooms. The site also includes "My Wal-Mart," a personalization service that keeps track of purchase and customer information, allowing for such things as faster checkout and, for Wal-Mart, easier customer tracking.

iCraveTV.com offers Canadian TV

TORONTO — Upstart Web broadcasting company iCraveTV.com, known for offering TV-over-IP to Canadians, has found a loophole that may allow it to gain an audience in the U.S.

U.S. laws regulate the broadcast of American television over the Internet in the U.S., but as far as iCraveTV's CEO William Craig is concerned, those rules don't apply to Canadian television signals.

iCraveTV currently broadcasts both American and Canadian signals, but asks viewers to certify that they are watching from within Canada. The company is hoping that offering Canadian signals in the American market will attract advertisers.

— Compiled by Owen Ferguson