June 21, 1999
ClickZ: The Web And TV.
This is a very different business model from the mass marketing consumer one we know. As Esther Dyson has stated, it is based on giving attention, not getting attention.
Industry Standard: Getting to Know All About You.
"This is not about banner ads," he says. "This is about recommendation engines. Most people are pretty impressed by what Amazon can recommend to them, but the window Amazon has on my book-buying behavior is pretty small. The kind of window they could have with the Abacus database is huge."
Useit.Com: Spotlight of recent product placement deals by portals.
Instead of having their PCs dedicated to optimal productivity (with the intranet home page as the starting point), the machines will spout distractions attempting to get employees to go to websites unrelated to their jobs.
- FEED Magazine: From December 9, 1998; All Kinds of Places are Good For Ads.
Steven Johnson. Perhaps we are on the verge of another advertising encroachment, and in ten years the idea of a software app without a permanent banner will seem as odd to us as a city without billboards.
- Red Herring: From February 24, 1999; The Pixel Company rides the edge
ZDNN: eBetween spawning setup spam?
The technology effectively allows the companies to interrupt the Windows setup process to offer consumers options for Internet service providers and other deals.
ZDNN: New Notes will include Lycos.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although a Lotus official said his company will collect a share of advertising revenue generated by users it sends to Lycos Web sites.
Editor & Publisher: The Argument for Allowing Web Content 'Reprints'.
Steve Outing. More publishing executives are realizing that there can be financial benefits to allowing their content to be hosted by other parties — that by not allowing external publication of their owned Web content, they're "leaving money on the table."
NY Times: On the Web, as Elsewhere, Popularity Is Self-Reinforcing.
...the research indicates that the traffic distribution follows what is known as a universal power law. This means that a small number of sites command the traffic of a large portion of the entire Web population.
NY Times: As E-Commerce Surges, So Do Technical Problems.
For now, though, the more daunting problem for many E-commerce sites is not so much the threat of angering or losing customers, but the prospect of attracting new ones in droves.
PC Week: Warning! E-com under construction.
High-traffic e-commerce sites are pushing the technology envelope well beyond its means, sometimes inventing and relying on unproven systems in an effort to stay ahead of traffic demands.
Information Week: Customer Disservice.
Self-service Web sites could become the E-commerce equivalent of the voice-response unit: a low-cost mechanism that makes it more difficult for customers to reach a service representative.
- Useit.Com: From December 27, 1998; Predictions for the Web in 1999. A flexible Web user interface would allow the user easy access to fixing the problem without having to call anybody.
USA Today: A chat with Michael Dell.
Taking phone calls costs at least $3 apiece. It's almost nothing on the Internet. Tech support costs almost nothing on the Net because you have to develop the content anyway for our support teams that answer phone calls.
Wired News: Digital's Long, Winding Road.
The infobahn may be winding a lot more slowly into living rooms than pundits predict, according to the opening panel at the Digital Living Room conference.
Industry Standard: Frequent Flier.
The past two decades have seen spending on incentive programs and other forms of direct marketing eclipse traditional advertising. Online, banner ads still account for most marketing dollars spent, but the balance of power is shifting.
News.Com: AOL to invest $1.5 billion in Hughes.
The companies said AOL's high-speed Internet service, AOL Plus, will be available over Hughes' DirecPC satellite network early next year.
Internet Week: Get A Handle On Handhelds.
Companies that have resisted handheld computers as part of their IT and Internet strategy can do so no longer.
Industry Standard: Media Walls Keep Falling.
Now instead of merely buying ads in print pubs or on Web sites, commercial companies are becoming business partners in new-media ventures.
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