June 11, 1999
Salon: The great Web "brain drain".
Scott Rosenberg. What's happening in the Net job economy today isn't ultimately driven by money, but rather by what you might call the big-company bullshit factor.
Editor & Publisher: Those Who Left Newspapers, and Why.
Steve Outing. But today, many technology-savvy people are leaving newspapers for another reason: frustration with the industry over its inability to keep pace with changes in the business environment brought on by the Internet.
Forbes ASAP: Leading competitors join forces for e-commerce spinoff.
"It's clear our customers--the engineers and the purchasing managers--want to buy like this, searching across (multiple vendors)," Kauffman said. "If somebody else is going to cannibalize us, we might as well do it ourselves."
SJ Mercury: Furniture Brands: 'No' To 'Net Marketing.
The largest U.S. home furniture maker said Friday it would not sell its products on the Internet and wouldn't do business with any company that didn't have a real showroom.
Industry Standard: Can the Web Be a Diamond's Best Friend?
"If you look at shopping habits five years ago, you'd have thought there wouldn't be a market for this," Miller says. "But now QVC has 18-karat diamonds and gold from Italy, and it's their most successful thing."
Industry Standard: Here Come the Midwesterners.
What's next for the interactive agencies is the necessary drudge work: the cataloging of passenger lists, the engineering of inventory systems and so forth. "Our advantage is that people around here are truly interested in getting to work on clients' back ends..."
News.Com: Global Sports sets eyes on the Web.
In a move to focus strictly on its Web business, Global Sports today said it will divest all of its non-Internet assets and that Softbank plans to take a stake in the company.
Useit.Com: Spotlight of a survey of Web marketing by huge companies.
Two main findings: Maintenance budgets are 72% of the cost to develop a site in the first place and Less spending on Web advertising.
Editor & Publisher: USA Today Online Listens to its logs.
Since 1994, USA Today Online has listened to its user logs. The data collected has been used to make decisions about editorial content, staff expansion and transfers, and even budgetary expenditures.
Freedom Forum: Katz: On flaming and flamers — Part 1.
Jon Katz. Good ideas and bad get flamed, as do good writing and bad. There is, in fact, no real connection between what's written and the volume or style of the flames it inspires.
Builder.Com: How to make $$$ with your web site.
Products are important, but there's no substitute for carefully planned site navigation, a fully thought-out ordering and fulfillment process, procedures to ensure customer satisfaction, and fanatical quality assurance.
Webmonkey: Streaming Media Update.
"It's so confusing," lamented my friend, a graphic designer. "I've got Winamp, a RealPlayer, QuickTime, and the Windows Media Player — all just to handle the media-rich email I get."
Web Review: Scarcity Thinking and the Internet.
Scarcity thinking says that web businesses compete for eyeballs or mindshare in the same way that book publishers and potato chip manufacturers traditionally competed for shelf space. For every winner there's a loser.
News.Com: IBM harnesses Web data flow.
"Web intermediaries can provide the 'smart pipes' that automatically transform and customize a broad range of Web-based content so everyone can receive the information in the way they need it..."
Industry Standard: Companies That Build Companies.
In the Internet Economy, the hottest business concept of the moment is to create not consumer products or business services, but simply more Internet companies. Welcome to the age of the "incubator."
PC World: What's Ahead for Windows CE?
Some analysts say Microsoft made a crucial judgment error when it chose to scrunch the familiar but feature-heavy Windows interface onto the small handheld screen.
Forbes: Risk E-business.
The recent outages have not yet led to more Internet insurance policies. And they never may. Fear often has a short memory, and e-commerce providers compelled to consider a financial safety net usually overcome their fears quickly.
Interactive Week: Behind EBay's System Glitch.
EBay engineers are having a bad week, and their saga is spelled out for all Web users to read in a series of sometimes riveting "system updates"...
News.Com: Firms work together on payment standard.
The companies are expected to unveil a plan to create a standard for electronic wallets--software that contains credit card numbers, e-cash, other forms of payment, and digital certificates.
Internet Week: Trading Hubs Get Down To Business.
They are building business trading hubs-also knowns as Infomediaries-that cater to business constituencies ranging from metal manufacturing to industrial machinery and trucking services.
EE Times: Motorola to invest $1B in wireless network.
"Our objective is for people anywhere to feel like they are connected directly to the Internet, without a wired connection and without requiring dial-up access..."
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