September 7, 1999
Information Week: New Mantra: Usability.
While you could train your clerks, you'll have no opportunity to train customers to use your application--so its design had better be intuitive. Moreover, customers at your site are discretionary buyers and will abandon the order process any time they run into difficulty with your software interface.
SJ Mercury: Advertisers fear Web surfers aren't paying attention.
Companies are questioning whether the traditional banner ad on a Web page is the most effective way for them to deliver their message. They worry that consumers, fed up with irrelevant ads, may be tuning the banners out.
Internet World: Web Ads Push Onto The Desktop in a New Way.
But what if Quake and Quicken were free? Would you put up with ads? A growing number of publishers and ad software firms think so. They believe that advertising in desktop applications will reduce the price of software and turn shareware and store-bought shrinkwrap into freeware.
ZDNN: Judge puts brakes on Ford.
[U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds] "In the realm of law, we are only beginning to grapple with the impact of the communications revolution, and this case represents just one part of one skirmish..."
Information Week: Coping With E-Business Emergency.
Like Schwab, many companies are learning that having well-honed crisis-management procedures in place is more critical than ever in the intense battle for online customers and market share.
Useit.Com: Spotlight of notes from a special-interest group tour and presentation at WebTV.
WebTV is a paragon of usability methodology: regular user tests every week.
Adweek: Data Chase.
How, for instance, would you marry that same Mets fan's past offline behavior, such as buying tickets to three games, to his or her Mets-related activities on the Web? "The prevailing wisdom is that-with a little bit of duct tape-you can make it work..."
News.Com: E-tailers lure customers with free shipping.
Analysts say the strategy could be risky for some e-tailers. Not only does free shipping set customer expectations high from the start, it's also expensive.
Byte: What Is The Internet Good For?
The Internet is a much cleverer and potentially more useful network than the ones that preceded it, but I see it as an extension of our communications capability, not the creation of a wholly new communications medium.
Internet World: A Blurry Picture.
Web publishers are trying to convince photographers that copyrights are all the rights the photographers need, online or off. But the argument is specious, because business models are in flux in the online world--and because the copyright law has yet to be truly tested...
News.Com: On the Internet, there is such thing as free labor.
A growing number of Net companies, including Netscape, Lycos, and Deja.com, are using volunteers instead of salaried staff to build their content directories.
Forbes: Handspring tips its hand.
Handspring has sworn most of Silicon Valley to secrecy, yet it inadvertently has tipped its hand through material posted on its web site.
PC Magazine: LCD Panel Pricing Peaks.
The price of LCD monitors will continue to be at least three times as much as equivalent CRTs--a price differential that will be difficult to justify in typical business applications.
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