January 15, 2000
Internet World: Deconstructing Boo.com.
Jennifer Fleming and Jakob Nielsen. After a year of hype and six months of delays, Boo.com arrived this fall to a chorus of-well, boos, most of which had to do with crashes, lost shopping carts, and alienated Mac users. Boo.com has fixed its most obvious bloopers, but it still has some tweaking to do.
Advertising Age: Dot-coms prep for Bowl traffic jams.
Dot-coms advertising during the upcoming Super Bowl hope to make a big splash, but avoid an image-damaging crash. To ward off problems that ads before and during Super Bowl XXXIV could bring to their Web sites, some dot-coms have spent "millions" to ensure their online properties remain open for business on game day and beyond.
Wired News: Trying the E-Friendly Skies.
Not everyone gets the warm fuzzies from all this competitor collaboration, however. "We have stayed away from those sites," said Southwest Air spokesperson Beth Harbin. "Our core philosophy is to develop a direct link with our customers. We don’t want there to be barriers for our customers."
Advertising Age: Critique of a Driveway Corp banner ad.
Even beyond all of this, however, is the problem of yet another start-up.com failing to tell the consumer in its banner ad what it has to offer. Although the name Driveway and giving away a car suggest it, this site has nothing to do whatsoever with anything automotive.
SF Chronicle: Wal-Mart Poised to Swoop.
One element of Wal-Mart's decision to spin off its Internet operation that hasn't gotten much attention is the fact that the new firm will be able to avoid sales taxes for most of its online transactions. Companies are now required to collect sales taxes for online and catalog purchases in all states where they have a physical presence. Wal-Mart has more than 2,400 outlets nationwide.
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