July 1, 1999
Web Review: Dethroning the Content King.
[Mark Frost, the head of BBC Online] "The only reason AOL even has content is to have something to fill in between the advertisements," Frost said. Something that Frost calls "abbreviated living" has reduced the drawing power of real content.
News.Com: Yahoo in marketing trial with Proctor & Gamble.
Yahoo will expand its relationship with Procter & Gamble by launching a series of sites sponsored exclusively by the latter's household products.
Wired News: Yahoo Gets Fat on Pringles.
Yahoo will make money off the "microsites" in three ways: P&G pays a basic rate for every thousand surfers who see the sites, pays Yahoo to develop and maintain the site, and pays fees for return visitors.
CIO WebBusiness: Leaders of the Pack.
If there's one trait all great Web ventures share, it's this: They make it easy, pleasant, even downright enjoyable for customers to do business with them.
Adweek: Behind the Yahoo!
"As the Web gets more specialized, I wonder about their long-term prospects. It reminds me of Time Inc. and Warner Bros. when they couldn't get their shit together to offer good packages..."
News.Com: Marrying e-commerce and instant gratification.
When it comes to distribution, most e-commerce companies are really no more than electronic mail-order catalogues, sending their products by post to consumers in three or more business days.
Adweek: The IQ Q&A: The New York Times Co. Chairman Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.
Q: Why isn't the newspaper being used as a vehicle to drive traffic to the Web-like having a URL built into the stories? A: I guess because none of us have felt we need it.
Wired News: Music Licenser Shakes Down Web.
ASCAP, an organization that collects licensing fees for musical performances, is asking webmasters to pay for the right to link to online music, even if it is stored on another site.
Industry Standard: Bill Proposed to Loosen Net Access.
The Baby Bells have complained that they cannot compete easily against cable television companies in the high-speed-access market because the cable carriers do not face the same federal regulations.
ChannelSeven: Bell Rings In Streaming Conference.
[George Bell, president Excite@Home] He held out the possibility that exclusive content and proprietary content will become more important in the broadband world than it does in the narrowband world.
Industry Standard: I'll Take Broadband for $200, Alex.
Despite optimistic presentations by technology companies like Nortel, Microsoft and RealNetworks, it was clear from the discussions onstage that content producers are wary of throwing their resources into broadband programming.
Wired News: Waiting for WAP.
"It's going to be a very rapid adoption of technology as sites realize they can buy a lot of users with a very small investment."
Upside: What Wall Street Wants.
Firms that are obsessed with comparison shopping and offering a better price on commodity items often forget to consider their overall consumer experience.
InfoWorld: WAP Forum releases new wireless spec.
Version 1.1 now includes enhanced client-side state model and added support for a caching mechanism in the user agent...
Web Review: What Users Need vs. What They Want.
According to Nielsen, true usability is determining what the customer needs, not adding feature after feature based on what they say they want.
Washington Post: Making Web Users Feel Right at HOME.
Nielsen and Norman said the next big challenge for Web designers is to address "banner blindness..."
PC World: Microsoft Revamps Tech Support.
"The problem was, these two camps spoke two different languages," Lindstrom says. A computer technician researching a printing problem might search for "print spooler," but an average consumer wouldn't use that term.
TechWeb: Japan Turns New Page With E-Book Test.
The experimental launch will expand to become a nationwide field test in November, involving about 5,000 titles and 500 e-book readers.
News.Com: WebTV meets demands for RealAudio.
...RealNetworks will provide an upgrade of existing WebTV products to support the latest RealAudio G2...
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