August 6, 1999
Feed Magazine: This Year's Skin.
Steven Johnson. But the question remains: if VCR remotes have been bewildering us for 20 years, do we really want them showing up on our computer desktops?
Wired News: Amazon: Everything to Everyone?
"They're not planning on taking more than 'how do I plug the VCR in?' calls. But they'll get them anyway. And people are going to be frustrated if they can't get an answer."
Internet Week: CompUSA Splits E-Biz From Stores.
...CompUSA is maintaining the wall between its traditional and Web businesses. It is also keeping the two IT departments and infrastructures separate.
Red Herring: Excite@Home takes some body blows.
Although Tom Jermoluk, CEO and chairman of the board, got in a few jabs of his own, questions remain whether Excite@Home can coexist with AT&T, particularly given Mr. Jermoluk's acknowledgment that his company simply has no desire to operate a "dumb pipe."
NY Times: Is Linking Always Legal? The Experts Aren't Sure.
Until the courts provide clear guidelines, the experts say, powerful intellectual property owners like movie studios will fill the legal vacuum with their untested assumption that deep linking is illegal.
Forbes: The more, the merrier.
"Sites are spending $40 to $60 per customer," Rose says. "We say, 'why not take a $50 piece of software, get 20 buyers together and cut the price by 10%?' So instead of paying $40 to $60 for a customer, they're spending just $5."
USA Today: Niche Web sites draw advertisers.
Advertisers who want to reach Internet users are finally learning an important lesson about the new medium: It's about class, not mass.
TechWeb: APIs Push 3-D Envelope Amid Setbacks.
"Just bringing the OS into the 3-D world will be a great help in filling the chasm [between professional and entertainment graphics]," Trevett said. "Average users will wind up using 3-D all day long without realizing it."
ClickZ: Beware Long Brainload Times.
It doesn't work because your customers are being flooded with an increasing volume of email each day. And that means each individual email will receive a little less attention.
Salon: New ethics for the new economy?
But since there's no professional qualifying exam or oath you take to become a journalist, it's pretty much up to the journalists themselves and the publications they work for to define the rules.
Upside: Marimba's Legal Nightmare.
The battle pits a company called Novadigm Inc., of Mahwah, N.J., against Silicon Valley's Marimba. Raise your hand if you've heard of Novadigm. Raise your hand if you've heard of Mahwah, N.J.
RCFoC: Not Your Father's Wireless Data!
Today, a cell phone can only be located within about a quarter-mile, but smaller cells and other techniques may eventually make it feasible to actually track your progress through the physical halls of commerce -- and to subtly guide your wanderings.
Boston Globe: Lang on the rise.
Lang's job is to deliver some of the same services to anybody with an Internet browser. She's the president and chief executive of NewsPage.com Inc., a NewsEdge subsidiary that lets visitors create a personalized news portal on line.
W3C Acknowledged Submission: NaVigation Markup Language.
Fujitsu Limited. In order to use the navigation service not only on cars but also on trains, on buses, and on foot with various mobile information appliances, a common data format for describing navigation information such as locations of points and route information is required.
Web Review: Color Calibration and a Web Color Primer.
I doubt if you're staying up nights worrying about the color accuracy of your web site. But the popularity of e-commerce might change that.
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