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February 1, 1999
ClickZ: Developing A Privacy Policy.
Let the buyer beware.
Builder.Com: Macromedia tools getting cooler all the time.
Dan Shafer. Macromedia really gets it.
Webmonkey: MP3: Legal and Ethical Issues.
A look at the MP3 audio format.
News.Com: Federal judge blocks COPA.
"I conclude that, based on the evidence presented to date, the plaintiffs have established a substantial likelihood that they will be able to show that COPA imposes a burden on speech that is protected for adults..."
CNNfn: Amazon seeks new products.
[Jeff Bezos] "A year from now Barnes & Noble won't even consider us a direct competitor..."
Internet World: Web-Only Stores Know a Thing or Two About Satisfaction.
People were frustrated with products being out of stock, with slow-running sites, and with the high costs of shipping and handling.
ZDNN: Will Amazon.com offer greeting cards?
Speculation over Amazon's registration of two domain names (Amazongreetings.com and Amazoncard.com).
Wired News: French Stage Second Net Strike.
To connect to the Internet by modem in France, a user pays US$3 an hour during the day and $1 an hour at night.
Adobe: Web Chaos or Control?
Web site chaos is commonly caused by undefined roles and responsibilities and an absence of Web leadership across the company.
CIO Web Business: Good Working Order.
Are you doing enough to guarantee users a high-quality Web experience?
NY Times: Trying to Get in Tune With the Digital Age.
"The notion that music could be free is really something we have to contend with," Bowie said.
Wired News: Lycos Gets Fast with MP3.
"I would be surprised if the RIAA doesn't come down on it."
Microsoft Backstage: A Passion for Customer Privacy.
Richard Purcell is the Manager of Customer Information and talks about Microsoft's privacy policy.
Industry Standard: Microsoft's Search for Portal Profits.
...its plans for instant messaging and other new features have been plagued by delays.
SJ Mercury: Voice R Us?
``Ten years from now, everyone will talk to his computer, to his car, to devices in his home. Everybody.''
Advertising Age: Portals rethink retail strategies, shopping agents.
As the hype over holiday shopping settles, portals are re-evaluating their retail strategies and the way they balance the needs of consumers> with those of their retail/advertising partners.
Interactive Week: The Net's Bottom Line: Create Time.
On the Internet, the key is not to watch the bottom line; it's to watch the time savings.
ClickZ: Click-Through As The Wrong Metric.
Here's the truth: Click-through is nothing more than a convenient, easy-to-get-a-handle-on measure of an ad's ability to create an impulse response.
Wired News: The Ultimate Source.
Former MS exec, founder and CEO of Infospace, wants to syndicate content for portals.
Useit.Com: Jakob spotlights a paper by Hal Varian on the economics of information goods.
USA Today: Tech leaders make case for e-commerce.
[Bill Gates] ...he saw the biggest potential for small companies to trade worldwide because they ''are able to offer their unique services through the Internet.''
February 2, 1999
Search Engine Watch: Search Engine Standards Project.
One of the chief complaints professional researchers have told me they have with search engines is the fact that there's a lack of standardization.
News.Com: Far-reaching patent suit hits Microsoft.
Chicago company sues Microsoft over patent covering plug-ins and applets.
News.Com: Wired founders each get $1.5 million.
Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe get $1.5 million each from sale of Wired Digital to Lycos.
Industry Standard: France Telecom to Offer Flat-Rate Net Access.
French Telecom hints at introducing flat-rate Internet access during a presentation in Paris.
Freedom Forum: Y2K bug demands clear-headed coverage.
Jon Katz. The media can't seem to find a comfortable place when it comes to preparing the public to deal with powerful new technologies.
News.Com: Content revival in Redmond.
"They're not all about content aggregation or about search."
NewMedia Magazine: The Search Continues.
In the headlong rush to transform themselves into portals, sites that began life as search engines have left something behind -- good old-fashioned searching.
NewMedia Magazine: 10 Cents a Glance.
But it's time to acknowledge that you don't need to give content away.
USA Today: Lycos to work with record industry.
Lycos to consult with the RIAA on their new MP3 search engine.
Internet World: Metadata Standard Advances, But Widespread Usage Waits.
...showing promise, but still waiting for broad industry adoption.
February 3, 1999
Online Journalism Review: Seven More Web Wonders for Freelancers.
Introduction of Content Exchange from Steve Outing and Amy Gahran. And seven websites that use freelance writers for original content.
Online Journalism Review: Niche Works.
...niche content sites have slowly and quietly been carving out their own paths for success.
W3C Acknowledged Submission: User Agent Authentication Forms.
Agranat Systems and Microsoft. This note proposes a new HTML capability to aid in the development of authenticated web user interfaces.
WebTools: The High Cost Of Browse Incompatibility.
Q&A with Glenn Davis about the Web Standards Project.
News.Com: GoodNoise gets first MP3 license.
Harry Fox Agency issues a Digital Phonorecord Delivery License to GoodNoise.
News.Com: Microsoft missing the portal boat?
"They're living in a different world from the rest of us."
Upside: Couch Potatoes Take Control.
David Coursey highlights set-top boxes from TiVo and Replay Networks. Keep in mind that these companies are selling personalized television, not interactive TV.
Forbes: Replay's squeeze play.
[Marc Andreesen] "Remember when Kentucky Fried Chicken tried a half-spoon half-fork called the spork? Turned out it wasn't a very good spoon, nor was it a good fork."
Editor & Publisher: Original Content for Community Weeklies.
Steve Outing. ...how a small weekly might employ a Web strategy that stands a better chance of success, by employing online-original content.
Webmonkey: MP3: The Transformation of an Industry.
...why the development of such a powerful format is causing so many changes in the distribution of media and what the results of these changes could mean.
February 4, 1999
Salon: Reach for the hits.
Scott Rosenberg. In the beginning was the hit. And the hit was with the server, and the hit was ... whatever you wanted it to be.
A List Apart: Brand That Site!
The line between sublime and so-so sites is often a matter of branding.
Web Review: Microsoft Awarded Style Sheet Patent.
Includes comments from Thomas Reardon, the director of standards for Microsoft.
Web Review: Who Owns the Patent to Style Sheets?
Web Standards Project Press Release. [Tim Bray] "I'm confident that Microsoft will do the right thing and simply ignore the existence of this patent."
Web Review: XML: Text & Context.
...the way XML effects the way developers view document structures in a bottom-up environment.
NY Times: A Regretful Tone in Judge's Decision on Internet Pornography.
He said he had "personal regret" that his injunction might delay once again the protection of children.
ClickZ: Prescriptions For An E-Commerce Hangover.
Some of the e-commerce lessons learned from Christmas '98.
Upside: The Net According to Tim Draper.
Q&A with Tim Draper the managing director of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
The new search engines, the future of Hotmail and other interesting trends.
Industry Standard: NBC Mulls Deal With Lycos.
The deal would give NBC a substantial equity stake in Lycos - probably 35 percent...
Wired News: MS Wins Patent for Web Standard.
Microsoft says it will allow broad and open licensing of the stylesheets technology.
Industry Standard: Retailers Want Customer Communications.
Key Measures of Online Retail Success in a KPMG survey.
Industry Standard: Some Kind of Community.
Such a feat would necessitate tying together the publishing platform of GeoCities with forums for interaction that are easier to use and more flexible than any forums now on the Web.
Industry Standard: Carl Has Left the Building.
Carl Steadman. Where's Carl?
Wired News: ETrade Users Aghast at Service.
...saying the company's focus will continue to be on electronic support features, such as chat and email.
Freedom Forum: Online, not all sex is XXX.
Jon Katz. Sex is one of our last great taboos.
San Francisco Chronicle: Print Your Own Stamps.
``It's all about convenience and avoiding paying for pricey postage meters...''
News.Com: Mozilla comes of age.
"One of the things that kind of bothers me is that it's been a year now and we haven't had a baby yet."
Web Standards Project: Opera's Top 10 CSS Problems.
This is the second of a series of WSP standards-compliance reviews.
TechWeb: Lab Probes Effects Of Virtual-Reality Exposure.
Prolonged exposure to virtual reality can temporarily rewire the brain's perceptual systems...
ClickZ: Sidestepping Disintermediation.
What happens to the distribution chain in a wired world?
MSNBC: Wall Street gets hot on community.
...The more you know about your members, the more you can charge advertisers."
February 5, 1999
AtNewYork: Size Matters: Big Companies Will Dominate Interactive Market.
Jason Chervokas. It's too bad then that their place in the sun, at least as powerhouse independent businesses, is teetering on the brink.
NY Times: Recruiting Firm Unprepared for Post-Super Bowl Traffic.
"The bottom line is, you have to deliver and you have to have the underlying technology to handle spikes in traffic..."
Industry Standard: Hocus Pocus.
Carl Steadman. "When I say 'Web-based application,' what's the first thing that comes to mind?"
Industry Standard: E-commerce Spec to Debut.
Commerce XML to be unveiled on Monday. The new standard will enable real-time business transactions on the Web.
Industry Standard: Open Source: The Cathedral and the Bazaar.
Q&A with Richard Stallman, Eric Raymond and Eric Allman.
Smart Reseller: Web patent issues plague Microsoft.
Some standards bodies have patent rules. Some say you can submit technologies that are patented but companies must be able to license them on a nondiscriminatory basis."
Industry Standard: Herman Miller in the Hot Seat.
At the risk of alienating distributors and dealers, Herman Miller is starting an ambitious campaign to sell furniture on the Web.
News.Com: World is waking up to Net radio.
The two factors driving this rapid maturation are mergers and popularity.
PC Week: Questions raised about Microsoft patent.
...we offer the same licensing agreement that we've established since the beginning, which is that it be royalty-free and reciprocal [by other companies' submissions]..."
RCFoC: "Never Before in History...".
"The little guy can communicate and use the Web in such a way to bring about new channels of communication and success."
DaveNet: John Shoch on Clean Rooms.
From December 19, 1996. This response to a DaveNet might be of interest in light
of the flurry of patent stories.
ZDNN: Publishers want online ad guidelines.
We ought to be able to expect ethical leadership from sites like Wired and USA Today. Instead, we're all let down..."
News.Com: Are e-commerce patents patently absurd?
"It's one thing to get a patent, and another to get people to license it."
Wired News: A Moment in Internet Time.
MIT's business school froze the Internet in time Thursday in a digital time capsule that will be opened in only five years...
February 6, 1999
PC World: E-Mail Isn't the Best Route to an E-Merchant.
Welcome to virtual customer service, circa 1999.
EE Times: Digital display interface to debut at Intel Developer Forum.
Digital Display Working Group to unveil the digital display interface specification this month.
Business Week: The Shrinking World of the Computer Reseller.
"If resellers are disappointed with Compaq, they're disappointed in the wrong culprit," he says. "They need to be disappointed with the fact that their marketplace is leaving them behind."
NewMedia Magazine: Proper Intellectual Property?
"It's going to mean that too much of the cost of a product is going to be caught up in litigation..."
PC Week: Putting Web Findings to Work.
Hot Off The Web, CatchTheWeb help desktop PC users store, share captured content.
Wired News: The Myth of the 56K Modem.
...the state utility commission of Washington is looking into mandating a minimum 28.8 Kbps speed limit on the state's phone lines.
Project Cool: That Manicure Bowl is Mine!
The system no longer works the way it was intended to work. And we're all losing.
InfoWorld: Welcome to the `new Web order'.
"As far as the stand-alone Web cowboys go, I think those days are numbered..."
February 7, 1999
NY Times: For Sale: Amazon.com's Recommendations to Readers.
"But it will always be a question in my mind: Is this 'destined for greatness' or is this paid for?"...
NY Times: One Man's Dream to Spin a Faster Web.
..., Alan Huang, contends that more powerful routers can be assembled from arrays of routers that are less complex and less expensive.
ClickZ: ClickZ Q&A: Don Peppers.
True one-to-one marketing involves direct interaction with an individual customer and then some form of customized treatment of that customer.
Editor & Publisher: Zip2 Touts Local 'Web-Enabled' Commerce.
Steve Outing. Strategies are starting to emerge for local retailers — aided by local media partners — to benefit from online commerce themselves.
SJ Mercury: Netizens raise a virtual barn called the `Open Directory Project'.
Dan Gillmor. There's power in numbers -- and satisfaction in community.
Useit.Com: Why People Shop on the Web.
A survey of 1,780 people who have bought something on the Web found that convenience and ease of use are the main reasons to shop on the Web.
WebWord.Com: Snapshot of a Usability Warrior.
Q&A with Keith Instone.
New York Post: Alley cats ask, 'How many portals is too many?'
Report from New York Media Association's "State of New York New Media" panel.
February 8, 1999
MSDN Online: To Web, or Not.
Robert Hess. I'm going to describe several aspects of Web-based application deployment.
MSNBC: With a hiss, air seeps out of Net bubble.
Sinking shares of Lycos, Amazon, others tell the story.
NY Times: USA Networks and Lycos Said to Be in Merger Deal.
USA Networks and Lycos rumored to combine into USA Lycos Interactive Network.
NY Times: A Swedish Model for Sales: Hold the Content.
"Move away from content if you want to sell things."
ClickZ: Forrester Forum: Day 1 Preparing for Dynamic Trade in an Internet Economy.
And just what is dynamic trade? Simply put, it's doing business online in a customer-driven environment.
ClickZ: Measuring One-to-One Efforts.
"However, web sites will have to produce the evidence to justify the higher CPMs associated with online advertising..."
Wired News: ICANN Seeks Input on Net Rules.
The 30-page proposal touches on everything from maintaining a database of domain names to setting rules for new registrars.
Wired News: Euro-ISPs: Don't Outlaw Caching.
In the headlong rush to legislate what can and cannot be copied online, European ISPs worry that caching -- which is critical to network performance -- may be adversely affected.
Wired News: Buy.com's US$40,000 Typo.
"The courts are never going to allow people to cash in on someone's mistake..."
InfoWorld: Microsoft's Vizact blurs line between Word, HTML.
Vizact will also allow for text, images, and hot buttons to be wrapped and delivered within an e-mail, as well as for a time limit to be placed on how long the text and images can be viewed.
PC Week: Microsoft shows off microbrowser technology.
The simple interface will work with specially created, text-based Web sites.
Washington Post: By Selling Online, Manufacturers Bypass Retailers.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for wholesalers and manufacturers to decide whether they are the true merchants in the game -- if they want to take charge of selling the products directly to consumers..."
ZDNN: The dark side of the digital home.
"The wonderful convenience systems in our homes require lots of information about us. The question is where that information will be kept..."
Useit.Com: Spotlight of Amazon's practice of selling recommendations to readers.
Amazon's market capitalization dropped by $1.3 billion today. It costs to be exposed on the front page of The New York Times...
ZDNN: New Microsoft portal targets women.
http://womencentral.msn.com/ is MSN's new specialty portal for women.
FEED Magazine: Read Only Memoir.
...the technomemoir can be a useful forum for delving deeper into the psychological connection between humans and computers.
Wired News: The 'Dead' Grateful for MP3.
The surviving members of the Grateful Dead give a gift to their online following -- and get a call from the RIAA.
Spyglass Press Release: Spyglass Ships Prism 2.2 Internet Content Delivery Platform.
...the ability to format content in WML, the markup language used by WAP-enabled cell phones, has been added.
News.Com: Microsoft addresses W3C on patent issue.
Microsoft is calling a brewing patent controversy a tempest in a teapot. More surprisingly perhaps, so is Netscape.
TechWeb: Lotus Preps Non-Notes Collaboration Tool.
Lotus will show off a Web-based collaboration tool Monday that does not use Lotus Notes or Domino.
News.Com: IBM forays into digital music software.
"Artists demand that albums not be broken up so the hit songs remain bundled with the softer tracks..."
PC Week: Estee Lauder at the center of online trademark dispute.
Does Excite have the right to sell space on its site based on another company's trademark?
Wired News: Have I Got an E-Deal For You!
Online car dealers and automotive suppliers are advancing a standard that they say will improve online customer service and expediate dealer response to information requests.
ZDNN: Internet2 to go live.
The next-generation Internet2 will achieve a major milestone this month when developers flip the switch on a new high-speed backbone network.
February 9, 1999
ClickZ: Forrester Forum: Day 2. Preparing for Dynamic Trade in an Internet Economy.
The vision for the doing business online has to come from the CEO, not the VP of IT.
ZDNN: Lycos-USA: No e-commerce home run.
Observers say merged company faces serious competition, branding issues.
Salon: Blurred lines in Times' Amazon story.
...the Times might have seen fit to mention its own complex interest in the rivalry between Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. Barnesandnoble.com happens to be the "exclusive bookseller" for the Times' Web site...
W3C Acknowledged Submission: Personalized Information Description Language.
NEC. The purpose of PIDL is to facilitate personalization of online information by providing enhanced interoperability between personalization applications.
Fairfax IT: Fighting the good fight.
Q&A with Phil Zimmermann.
USA Today: Amazon.com offers refunds on books.
Internet bookseller Amazon.com offered refunds Tuesday for all books it has recommended...
Amazon.Com: We stand behind our recommendations. They're not for sale. Jeff Bezos.
ZDNN: Report shows advertising innovation.
Online advertising brought in $490.7 million for the third quarter of 1998...
TechWeb: Dell Will Expand Wares For Online Business.
[Michael Dell] "You'll see Dell leveraging that interaction to sell peripherals, software, and accessories..."
News.Com: Amazon backs off promo plan.
The company says it will disclose when a publisher had paid for a featured spot on its Web site.
News.Com: Nike to sell direct on Net.
Selected products from its Alpha Project line.
Marketing Computers: MSN Takes Aim at AOL, Again.
The tagline: "The new MSN.com. All you need to get stuff done."
SJ Mercury: 2 new products will reach out to not-yet-PC masses.
Dan Gillmor. Dan reports from Demo '99 with a look at Qubit and Free-PC.com.
ZDNN: Big names claim spotlight at Demo '99.
Microsoft Vizact, Lotus Quickplace and other products at Demo '99 examined.
NY Times: Requirements for Internet Registrars Announced.
Monetary requirements are likely to raise a firestorm of protests from smaller Internet interests, who fear ICANN is being driven by large corporate interests.
Industry Standard: Online Trading.
Credit Suisse First Boston survey. Credit Suisse attributes much of this growth to investors' unsated appetite for Net stocks.
MSNBC: Lycos announces deal struck with USA’s Home Shopping Network.
It's official: USA Networks and Lycos join to form USA/Lycos Interactive Networks.
February 10, 1999
Cal Law: Speed Over Substance?
PTO expands but can't shake critics in face of record patent filings.
Industry Standard: Report Counts 147 Million Global Net Users.
"The one [finding] that sticks out the most is that Scandinavian countries had the highest number of Internet users on a per capita basis than did any other country - even than the U.S."
Industry Standard: Nike Puts Its Best Foot Forward.
[Philip Knight] "With the Internet, we have an opportunity to recapture a level of intimacy with our consumer and simultaneously drive potential buyers to our retail partners."
ClickZ: The Internet Is Not A Medium.
To refer to it as a medium trivializes it into a kind of online sandwich board.
ClickZ: Different Strokes For Different Folks.
Creating a site with both new users and experienced users in mind.
WebTV Networks: What is Vertical Blanking Interval?
Along with TCI, CNN, Disney and others, WebTV is working to define a standard for information transfer along the VBI.
InfoWorld: DVD forum unveils DVD audio specification.
Version 1.0 DVD-Audio, as the specification is known, calls for a five-inch disk that can handle up to six audio channels, and in two-channel stereo can hold over 74 minutes of recorded audio...
W3C: The World Wide Web Consortium Statement on US Patent #5860073.
...the W3C reiterates its commitment to the evolution of new technologies that may be implemented by all, without restriction.
Wired News: The Empire Service Online.
BBC looks to webcast all their World Service programs by 2005.
Editor & Publisher: Learning To Be a Publisher, the Hard Way.
Steve Outing. ...news sites need to establish policy walls between advertising and editorial and clearly state that to their users.
DaveNet: Mail to the Future.
It's an idea out of the science fiction books.
FEED Magazine: Under The Hood.
Though free software might not make proprietary code obsolescent, it stands to restore consumer choice and, even better, control.
News.Com: Yahoo aims at small business.
For a non-refundable $199 fee, Yahoo will notify customers within seven days whether they'll be included the directory or not.
Inc. Magazine: I Was Seduced by the New Economy.
7 Myths of the New Economy.
News.Com: When will data change the wireless world?
"It's great on paper, it's great in the lab...but we don't have anything yet."
USA Today: Portals open new frontier.
"...In any given space there are literally 12 or 15 people pursuing the same opportunity."
Userland: Mail To The Future.
"Send mail to yourself or others at a specified date and time.. in the future!"
Wired News: Nullsoft Plays the MP3 Song.
"We're taking more of a micro-casting approach...
February 11, 1999
Smart Reseller: Don't count out MSN.com.
Microsoft told MTB attendees to expect the company's forthcoming knowledge-management server products to incorporate a portal which will function as a "knowledge desktop..."
Online Journalism Review: What Do You Tell the Boss?
This moonlighting has created a new set of procedural questions for newspapers and their ambitious staffers: Are standard freelance guidelines adequate to cover Web sites?
RCFoC: A Stitch In Time...
On the new versions of WindowsCE: Color goes a long way towards increasing readability and usability, and in this day of color notebooks I must admit to an initial less-than-positive reaction when I see a dim monochrome screen.
NY Times: Lawsuits Challenge Search Engines' Practice of 'Selling' Trademarks.
"I would estimate that 20 to 30 percent of a portal's ad revenues" are generated from such targeted banner ads...
NY Times: Yahoo Offers to Expedite Its Site Reviews, for a Fee.
"They find themselves in a very strong position and they believe they can command these fees, and they probably will be able to. It just seems a bit disingenuous because these are the same kinds of sites that helped to build Yahoo."
Editor & Publisher: At Work, But Not In the Office.
He's a poster boy for the type of work relationship that can be accomplished in the new media world, applying the latest digital communications technology.
A List Apart: Directories: Bread Crumb Trails Across the Web.
I say we as the "masses" ought rise up and just say no to inept search engines.
Sonnetech Press Release: Collaborative Effort to Improve E-Color; Industry Leaders Gather to Address Color Accuracy on the Web.
Support and evangelize the implementation of consistent Internet colors from source to screen.
News.Com: W3C aims to streamline vector graphics.
We've been discussing how to create a new specification that has all the right features, significantly improves the state of graphics on the Web, and can be finished and implemented sooner rather than later..."
InfoWorld: Microsoft pulls together a knowledge management strategy.
Tahoe would apparently become a knowledge repository for integration with Microsoft's MSN.com portal technology so that developers could create their own enterprise information portals...
MIT Sloan School: Digital Time Capsule.
Sloan students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends worldwide filled the capsule with digitized representations, drawn from the Internet, of the people, places, products, events, trends and news shaping business and the Internet in early 1999.
PC Week: Internet Challenges Game Publishers.
They suggest the solution may be to build several revenue streams and target charge different audiences different prices.
Computerworld: Demo: Microsoft unveils Vizact 2000.
For example, a static Word document can be quickly reformatted to include text that expands and collapses by clicking a bullet.
Freedom Forum: Rethinking those '40s values.
Jon Katz. Pre-tech journalism had its flaws, but it had a healthier respect for privacy.
USA Today: Playboy files suits against Web sites.
Playboy filed federal lawsuits against portal sites Excite and Netscape, saying that the sites were abusing Playboy's trademark in the way they deliver search results.
Business Week: The Next Net Craze: Wireless Access.
It won't be here tomorrow. But recent deals mean it's being developed.
Wired News: Third Dimension for the Web.
On Wednesday, the group began defining Extensible 3-D, or X3D, a spec for building three-dimensional content into Web sites.
W3C: Scalable Vector Graphics Working Draft.
From the Scalable Vector Graphics Working Group at the W3C. SVG is a language for describing two-dimensional graphics in XML.
DaveNet: Syndication in XML.
As it turns out we were ahead of the curve, but now we're right on the edge.
Washington Post: A New Market for Middlemen.
Q&A with John Hagel III author of Net Worth. ...Hagel says the chaos on the Internet is a breeding ground for "infomediaries," automated consumer advocates that with our permission will take control of our personal World Wide Web profiles and bargain on our behalf with online merchants.
Business Week: Making All the Right Postmerger Moves.
Now in its eighth acquisition, Razorfish provides a how-to guide.
Red Herring: LookSmart looks to MSN.
"Our mission is to build the best collection of content on the planet," says LookSmart CEO Evan Thornley. "We'll follow any reasonable model to do so."
News.Com: Beware the "dot com" temptation.
However, there's just one problem: in three out of five cases, the companies preparing these spin-offs today are, in my opinion, spinning off their futures.
February 12, 1999
Site Note: As you can see, I've recently on feedback removed the use of
italics to indicate quotes from articles. Instead, I'll use more selective
hilighting of words and phrases.
And with that change will also bring some changes to the layout
of this main page as it has moved beyond the scope of the type of linking I was
doing when Today's Links started.
PC World: Internet2 Project Poised for Launch.
But the network will provide a testing ground for technologies that are expected to trickle into the global, public Internet, including IP multicasting, enhanced security applications, and Quality of Service...
Industry Standard: The Next Kaypro?
They'll be the survivors, the theory goes, because they were the first in.
Red Herring: Rafe Needleman, Editor of RedHerring.Com, in his Catch of the Day sidebar talks about the chasm between editorial and advertising.
"Tell your customers when their clicks for content generate direct revenue for you. The public deserves to know where its news is coming from."
ZDNN: Microsoft mulls alternative to Java.
"Everyone has a different idea about what Cool is. Some people are saying Cool will be based on the technology Microsoft acquired from Colusa [Software Inc.] a few years ago. [Colusa was] building a run-time language like Visual Basic"
Industry Standard: The Littlest Murdoch.
James Murdoch looks to build News Corp's presence on the Web.
Wired News: Slate: Free Again.
[Slate Editor Michael Kinsley] "It's painful to think of turning away so many Slate readers from so much of our content."
Salon: Slate rejoins the Web.
...Slate was doomed to be Microsoft's guinea pig in the company's effort to test online business models...
MSNBC: Hi-tech rivals search
for ‘sticky’ Web sites.
[Jeff Mallett, Yahoo President] By keeping users rattling around in Yahoo-owned sites, he figures, Yahoo will generate more usage, "which pings our business model," particularly in strengthening Yahoo’s ability to sell ads.
Time Digital: Can Teeth Magazine Save the Web?
Now the Web’s in a sad state -- these portals just want to keep you on their site, and as a result you get a very slanted view of things.
Slate: Slate Goes Free.
Michael Kinsley. In a nutshell, it now looks as if it's going to be easier to sell ads but harder to sell subscriptions than we thought a year ago.
MSNBC: Slate backs off subscription plan.
Moore said the switch made sense, since Web ad sales are surging, and online subscription services — except for sites selling financial services or pornography — are not.
FEED Magazine: Bubatech: The Future Of Web-Link Technology?
Steven Johnson. ...we've also seen successful, link-driven sites that are targeted at narrow, professional niches: sites like Slashdot and Macintouch where the links are the articles, even though they rely on a human editorial filter building the connections.
NewMedia Magazine: Mike Braun Interviewed.
Q&A with Mike Braun general manager of IBM's consumer division.
Web Review: Are Butt Hinges for Unhinged Patent Investigators?
The U.S. Patent Office has figured out that it has a license to print money.
February 13, 1999
SJ Mercury: Skinny start-ups that grew into brawny successes.
Dan Gillmor. David Cowan calls it his ``anti-portfolio'' -- the list of now-successful companies he turned down when entrepreneurs asked him to invest venture capital in their businesses.
InfoWorld: Netrepreneur of the Year is a crusader for Web site usability.
Mark Hurst. ...recipient of the first annual InfoWorld Netrepreneur of the Year award, for his contributions to Internet commerce in 1998.
NY Times: Big Stakes in Online Job Listings.
"We disappointed a lot of people," he said. "But the traffic isn't tapering off."
MacInTouch: Apple Store Security Glitch.
Turns out when Apple sent out the order confirmation, they sent it to both me AND him.
Computer Shopper: Entertainment for the Working Masses.
...broadcast.com is being promoted as a way for advertisers and content providers to reach people where traditional media cannot.
Interactive Week: Broadcast.com Plans Do-It-Yourself Webcasts.
...enable everyone from affinity groups to individual Internet users to cheaply narrowcast audio and video programming via the Web.
Interactive Week: Content Is King Even In Wireless Arena.
Compelling content is one of the roadblocks facing the wireless data market.
Project Cool: Minds for Sale (aka -- Yours).
On the web, it seems, everything is for sale.
Computer Reseller News: Adobe Acrobat 4 Ready To Jump Into Big Business.
With this product, a user can pull down an entire Web site and convert it to a PDF file in which it can easily be viewed and edited.
AtNewYork: Is the Time Right for Micro-commerce?
"I think people have figured out that most of the free information out there is a commodity," said Chard. "It's the lowest common denominator."
AtNewYork: Barry Diller Stars In Death of a Salesman.
Jason Chervokas. ...the nature of the Internet allows you to capture eyeballs quickly and relatively cheaply, yes. But it also allows users (encourages them, actually) to slip away...
InfoWorld: IBM brewing advanced video transmissions.
The network, which is code-named the QBone, will use IP Multicast technology for efficient use of bandwidth, as well as the emerging Differentiated Services (DiffServ) protocol for prioritization of traffic.
ZDNN: Just do it -- online.
If a retailer does want to go online, they must get "express written approval" from the company and are subject to stringent requirements...
February 14, 1999
NY Times: Ticketmaster and Microsoft Settle Linking Dispute.
...Microsoft agreed not to link from its Sidewalk city guides to pages deep within the Ticketmaster site. Instead, the guides will point visitors interested in purchasing tickets to the ticketing service's home page.
NY Times: 'Holy War' Over the Future of Wireless.
But that process is being threatened by a general reluctance to compromise on arcane technical standards and in particular by intransigence on the part of Ericsson of Sweden and Qualcomm Inc., of San Diego...
NY Times: Slate Ends Its 10-Month Experiment With Subscriptions.
"People see their personal computers as a utility device, and they're going to pay for information that leads them toward a task, or that helps them with a purchasing decision," he said. "So consumers don't have a natural proclivity to pay for content on line."
ZDNN: Now showing on the Net near you.
"Some central server could multicast the content out across the network ... then at the edges of the network, caches would be able to accept that multicast stream... and just serve it up on demand..."
MSNBC: AOL says, ‘You’ve got coupons’.
Rappaport sees the "absolutely growing" popularity of coupons as part of an even larger trend of "incentive based web surfing" in the form of affinity programs some Web publishers are creating to reward users for spending time at their sites.
NY Post: Slate Chalks Subscriber Fees Up To Experience.
But the online zine suffers because it could have been building its brand and traffic.
InfoWorld: Jonathan B. Postel wins '98 Internet Plumber of the Year award posthumously.
ICANN, do as Jon would have done. Keep open, act wisely, and get the job done.
Seattle Times: `Rules for Revolutionaries' offers curt, sage advice.
Review of Guy Kawasaki's book. One of the joys of Kawasaki's approach is that his aphorisms are open to a variety of interpretations.
Seattle Times: Wireless in Wyoming: Lusk, darling of Microsoft, isn't quite 'wired' yet.
High-speed fiber-optic and coaxial cable girds the town. But it stops at the end of a 100-foot coil sitting - unconnected - in an alley behind the U.S. West switching station.
February 15, 1999
NY Times: Online Ticket Vendors Have an Easy Sell.
The benefits are obvious: consumers don't need to touch or see the product to know what they're getting, they can get better information online than in person or on the phone and the product is waiting for them...
ClickZ: Editorial vs. Advertising.
...the sponsor has no influence over the editorial product that our writers produce each week.
ClickZ: Pointed Clicks: Right Ad, Right Person, Right Time.
Now, pity the poor web banner as it moves from a novelty to a commodity.
LA Times: Buying Into E-Commerce.
They know how to build a store, but most have forgotten how to sell.
Washington Business Journal: E-lectric Avenue.
"With e-commerce, you need to have a product you don't have to see, touch and feel," Herbert said. "Then you need to establish a widespread community of users, where large transactions can be made. It was a long process, but then I came up with the answer -- light bulbs."
Advertising Age: IAB: Internet advertising will near $2 bil for 1998.
In other IAB findings, banner ads continued as the predominant type of advertising (53%), followed by sponsorships (30%), interstitials (6%) and other forms (11%), such as rich-media ads.
News.Com: Patents rise through U.N. treaty.
International applications for patents rose by 23.1 percent last year, led by U.S. inventors and industry...
Industry Standard: Web Advertisers Search for the Promised Land.
Special Report. Advertising and marketing over the Net offer powerful tools for reaching consumers. But they still have a long way to go.
Fairfax IT: Beware of the slashdot effect.
Slashdot embodies a growing trend in online news - sites that generate little of their own content yet are rapidly gathering devout readerships, including journalists, who want to stay abreast of developments.
Industry Standard: Online Editors Aim to Sharpen Blurry Lines.
The Online News Association, a group so new it doesn't yet have a Web site, is hoping to raise awareness about the need for a separation of editorial content from advertising on the Internet.
TechWeb: Q&A: Hasbro Leaps Into the Information Age.
Q&A with Thomas Dusenberry, the president of Hasbro Interactive.
SF Chronicle: Amazon -- Read at Your Own Risk.
To one degree or another, most commercial Web sites intersperse paid ads with news, feature stories and opinion pieces.
News.Com: When ".com becomes ".$$$".
Q&A with Don Telage, senior VP of Network Solutions.
Interactive Week: A New Golden Rule: Customer, Serve Thyself.
"As a customer, if I self-provision, it's a double hit for a corporation - not only are you making me happier, but you don't have the service-load cost of delivering that service to me."
Wired News: Taking the Pulse of the Media.
A new diagnostic tool for spin doctors will automatically analyze news coverage, extract key messages, and react accordingly.
Useit.Com: Spotlight of the latest statistics on the number of hosts on the Internet and websites.
We are nowhere near saturation, but the hyper-growth phase is over.
February 16, 1999
Salon: The war for Wired.
A joint project between TheStreet.Com and Salon. A long-simmering dispute among Wired Ventures shareholders is close to boiling over into the courts and could imperil the company's acquisition by Lycos...
NY Times: Digital Copyright Agreement for Video.
The new technology is also expected to be used to protect video distributed electronically via digital broadcasts and networks.
Upside: Big, Bad Middleman.
Since sellers can lose a customer with just one click, the customer's needs will shape the Internet into vertical markets...
Freedom Forum: The end of the Microsoft Age.
Jon Katz. Microsoft wasn't just a company but a culture, the embodiment of the future itself.
News.Com: eBay cuts live support.
The immediacy and convenience of Internet commerce may have also inflated consumer expectations about service.
News.Com: A markup language for talking browsers?
...SpeechML will let Web authors write content for speech-enabled browsers using simple markup tags.
TheStreet.Com: E-Commerce Affiliate Programs: Building Brand, Losing Money.
"But that is the strategy: Spend a lot of money to get new customers..."
Wired News: EFF Appoints New Director.
Tara Lemmey. Tara is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about the issues that EFF has always held as basic tenets, from free speech to privacy to IP..."
News.Com: Acrobat flexes new muscles.
Acrobat 4.0 now supports digital signatures enabling users to authenticate and safeguard information...
News.Com: Net privacy protection measures proposed.
Web sites could be forced to disclose their personal data collection practices under regulations being formulated by Sen. Conrad Burns...
Adweek: Analysis: In Web Sites We Trust?
As e-commerce grows, so does concern about privacy.
Adweek: Media.com Seal To Promote Rich Media.
The program calls for online publishers to display the seal on their sites to inform advertisers that they are willing to accept multimedia ad forms.
Interactive Week: Adobe Announces Acrobat 4.0.
...capable of capturing Web sites into formatted PDF files.
ZDNN: Compaq acquires Zip2
[Rod Schrock, AltaVista CEO] "We've got overall search and navigation, e-commerce and local content. Now the challenge is to integrate the three together..."
Time Digital: Free Fax Numbers from 'New' Net Company.
The bet, begun last summer with some market research, is on a sort of fax version of popular e-mail services such as HotMail.
Editor & Publisher: PR Profits From Online Revolution.
"The research time has gone down to less than a day; it used to be a week..."
TechWeb: European Ruling Could Outlaw Web Caching.
Web-access costs could rise by an average of 67 percent in Europe if an attempt by the European Parliament to outlaw Web caching is successful.
ICANN: ICANN Startup Fund.
...support the initial operating expenses of the corporation until a permanent funding mechanism has been selected and funds are received.
TechWeb: E-Mail, Browser Clients Are Rage At Demo '99.
"We didn't want to have to put another application in front of users for Web services. If we did that, they'd kill me."
ZDNN: Newspapers ain't dead yet.
Will the Internet kill newspapers anytime soon?
February 17, 1999
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NY Times: Music Publishers' Internet Plans May Include Lyrics Site.
The International Lyrics Server and National Music Publishers' Association may
reach agreement to see the site return as an authorized commercial venture.
NY Times: But First, Another Word From Our Sponsor.
The Web has become an irresistible tool for many marketers looking for ways to capture some of the estimated $130 million a year children spend as well as the $500 million in purchases they influence.
Useit.Com: Spotlight of Randy Cassingham's This is True Service.
...how he succeeded in narrowly focused Internet publishing with his This is True service.
Salon: Bear essentials.
Q&A with Christopher Byron. ...Byron presents a coherent view of what is making the market explode -- and how the influx of new day traders has combined with a raft of thinly traded stocks to inflate the tech stock sector.
Adweek: Firm Finds Banners Work as Well as TV.
...the recall level of an online banner ad is equivalent to that of a television ad when measured for immediate recall, the industry norm for online advertising.
Internet Week: A Question Of Balance.
In the Web economy, network uptime is the lifeblood of the business, and the pressure is on corporate IT to keep Web site availability optimal 24-by-7.
PC Magazine: The Wireless Web.
"The Internet is a major driver of wireless data. Because of the Internet and the technologies that allow you to send and receive e-mail, we're seeing the market evolving..."
Wired News: No Surprise: Net Keeps Growing.
He added that one important trend depicted in the survey is the growth rates in other than well-connected Western nations.
Interactive Week: Geoworks Shares Rally On Amazon.com Investment.
"The engineers might be the main reason for the deal but at this point I'd only be guessing at Amazon.com's intentions..."
TechWeb: Book Publishers Mull XML.
"We're struggling to see if we are going to use proprietary coding or an industry standard."
TechWeb: Internet Domain Name Registry Up For Bids.
"We are trying to make registration into an open market..."
Industry Standard: New Music Site Drops a Bomb on Major Labels.
Teller hopes it will compete with the major labels by luring artists into a world where they will get a greater share of the profits, as well as provide a more direct way to reach fans.
Editor & Publisher: 'Online Content For Sale, Only $1.99!'.
Steve Outing. As consumers, we all know that it's a "trick" to get us to think that an item is cheaper than it really is.
ZDNN: Sidewalk, Ticketmaster settle on links.
...there is little reason to try to create hard-edged legal rules when standards are inherently subjective and cases often need to get to juries and a trial.
ZDNN: Media's pecking order.
John C. Dvorak. Web writers will always be perceived as low-rung characters for a number of obvious reasons.
News.Com: Sony switches channels in big picture.
Sony not only offers entertainment content but also consumer electronics and set-top boxes, providing the basis for a robust Web strategy.
News.Com: Road Runner to get Fox programming.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation today signed a deal with Time Warner's and MediaOne's Road Runner to provide online news and sports programming...
MSNBC: Yahoo goes direct for dollars.
‘I can’t see online marketers supporting a $30 billion business with generic ad targeting. Yahoo needs better targeting capability.’
TechWeb: Virgin Spends $80M On Net Drive, Attacks AOL.
[Richard Branson] "I read this morning that Frank Keeling, marketing director of AOL, believes people will always be willing to pay to look at interesting and relevant content," he said. "We are offering it free to the customer, along with free access."
February 18, 1999
A List Apart: Surviving Large-Scale Projects.
Plan Early and Plan Often, Talk to Each Other and Establish Responsibilities and Procedures
NY Times: Proposal on Internet Names Favors Corporate Interests.
"There are no safe harbors. A person might register his own name, only to find that someone in another country who has a trademark on the same word believes he should be entitled to claim the domain."
NY Times: Junk E-Mail Filters Spawn a Suit Against Microsoft.
"Filters of all kinds will increasingly have a substantial impact on a company's ability to conduct e-commerce, and the [blocked] company will have a desire to assert legal claims in order to secure an unfettered ability to compete."
ClickZ: The Importance Of Being Honest.
But customers and prospects online demand a level of honesty and integrity that you just won't find anywhere else.
Salon: When canadidates spam.
The politician seems to have been extremely naive about the culture and interactive nature of the Internet.
Useit.Com: Spotlight of comments made by Michael Bloomberg at the Editor & Publisher conference.
Why the people who drop newspapers and adopt high-quality web access will probably be the same people that are power users that can currently afford Bloomberg's proprietory
service at $1,225 a month.
ZDNN: The electronic side of Sears.
But in the hard goods market, such stores as Sears have an advantage over the manufacturers in that they are prepared to deliver the service and support that the goods require.
News.Com: GoTo.com suing Disney's Go Network.
GoTo.com today filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles alleging that Disney and Infoseek's coproduced Go Network portal's logo too closely resembles its own.
Red Herring: Financial information doesn't want to be free, says Michael Bloomberg.
Q&A with Michael Bloomberg. I would rather go found a steel mill than an Internet company, because if I could figure out a way to make better steel, I'd have the market to myself.
Interactive Week: COPS Close To Standard Status.
...service providers will be able to create a multitiered pricing scheme, analogous to the priority-based pricing schemes of express delivery companies, such as Federal Express.
News.Com: Newspaper execs gather for Net education.
Report from the Editor & Publisher Interactive Newspapers conference in Atlanta, Georgia. [Michael Bloomberg] "Serious people" will always read newspapers, he added.
News.Com: Limits on domain speculators draw fire.
Most people will no longer have access to the root "zone" files, unless they sign a licensing agreement stating they will not use the files for speculation.
News.Com: USWeb looks to weave a success story.
Q&A with Robert Shaw, CEO of USWeb/CKS. I think the next set of firms that will be important to the world are services-oriented firms that are technology agnostic, that have the skills and abilities to mix and match the best technologies out there.
Wired News: Research Network Adds Turbo Leg.
[Vint Cerf] VBNS supports the exploration of advanced applications by the research and education community, some of which may one day become commonplace on the public Internet."
NY TimesSyndicate: Will Traditional Journalism Ever Be Marketable on the Web?
On-line ``consumers haven't yet shown that they're ready to pay widespread money ... for published editorial material...
Industry Standard: Dvorak on Lowly Web Columnists and Reporters.
The Blustery One reasons that they get lower pay even though some outfits have cashed in with IPOs (no firms mentioned by name), and that the overall product is shoddy and "minimally edited, if edited at all."
Boston Globe: Copyrights and wrongs.
Simson Garfinkel. When firms abandon products - and toss away the key - users are the losers.
Industry Standard: Study: Banners Match Impact of TV Spots.
The study focused on "ad recall," the portion of the audience that remembers seeing an ad after a single exposure.
News.Com: The customer is never right.
The problems began when I requested, heaven forbid, that my shipping address be changed after my order was placed.
USA Today: American sickout increased Web traffic.
"But it's also a double-edged sword. The (pilot protest) drove lots of consumers back to travel agents. They needed an intermediary, and those capabilities just aren't available on the Web."
February 19, 1999
NY Times: The Internet Has Spawned a Language of Its Own.
Although judgments vary, what seems clear so far is that the Internet has propelled the traditionally deliberate pace of language evolution to higher speeds.
RCFOC: Terrorism.com.
...as we become ever more dependent on our valuable Internet resource for business and personal activities, the Internet's security becomes ever more important.
devhead: Survey Your Users.
Jakob Nielsen. Surveys are indirect methods, since they do not study the user interface itself but only users' opinions about the user interface.
Wired News: Drudge: Don't Fear the Internet.
[Matt Drudge] "If in the future there are hundreds of millions of reporters out there, why then do I need Dan Rather to put his makeup on to deliver the news?"
TechWeb: E-Book Poised To Eclipse 10,000 Units Sold.
"The business is in the distribution model, not the end device..."
Computer Shopper: Getting a Read on the E-Book.
For now, the main hindrances to the e-book are consumer acceptance and the need for specialized hardware.
FEED Magazine: The Low-End Game.
But Datek and E*Trade beg a bigger question: who needs NASDAQ and the NYSE?
Freedom Forum: TBTF: a site to behold.
Jon Katz. TBTF makes the point that news can have a point of view, can be personal and idiosyncratic — and still profoundly useful.
Online Journalism Review: Lack of Job Standards Creates Confusion, Tension.
"Isn't the Web site where the paper sends people it doesn't want to fire but doesn't know what else to do with?"
Editor & Publisher: Editors Encourage Colleagues to Retain Integrity.
[Dan Farber, VP and editor-in-chief of ZDNet.Com] "Basic journalism principles and ethics apply. While the medium changes, we have to stick to our ethics and principles."
Shelly Taylor & Associates: Click-Here Commerce.
ST&A's new e-commerce study. $2,750.
Editor & Publisher: Paper's E-commerce Strategy Aims For Win-Win.
Steve Outing. ...Jacksonville.com's goal is to get local merchants using the online medium to make and promote sales.
Editor & Publisher: Using New Web Tools.
Small said the online news industry needs to examine the interests and surfing habits of the users and deliver content appropriately.
Upside: Moderating the Revolution.
[Jamie Zawinsky, Mozilla.Org] "Open source only works if you're willing to give up control..."
Web Review: The WebFont Wizard.
Review and tutorial of Bitstream's new product WebFont Wizard.
Web Review: Generating Flash on the Fly.
Review of Macromedia Generator.
San Francisco Chronicle: Home SMART Home.
``Early adopters may put this in, but until these things get easier to set up at home and people see a need for it, the market won't take off.''
Industry Standard: Indiana Banks on the Net.
Becker thinks his bank's ease of use, real-time transaction processing, and range of products and services offered will be enough to win over Net-friendly customers from large institutions.
Forbes: Searching in Dolby.
"Direct Hit is trying to become the Dolby of search engines."
SJ Mercury: @Home's license to do as it will.
Dan Gillmor. Subscriber Agreement obfuscates terms to ISP's advantage.
Useit.Com: Spotlight of some comments made by Douglas Adams at TED9.
...we learn now how to produce interactive content that puts the user in control of an information space.
February 20, 1999
Webmonkey: Whatever Happend to PNG?
Jeffrey Veen. ...it teaches us a few global lessons about the tension among Web standards, marketing hype, and the ivory tower of computer science research.
NY Times: Scrambling at the Online Mall: Can Traditional Stores Catch Up?
But many say they cannot simply ape the electronic merchants, especially when it comes to selling goods, like clothing, that are more high touch than high technology.
Upside: Better Slate Than Never.
The question isn't whether or not people will pay for content. The question is which people will pay for content, and how.
Marketing Computers: ZDNet Expands Use of "Smart" Ads.
ZDNet would like to merge its smart ad technology with geographic targeting and profiling systems.
NY TimesSyndicate: Online Community Discussed at Interactive Newspapers Conference.
[GeoCities chairman David Bohnett] ``Newspapers have the opportunity to wrap user feedback around content and give users the opportunity to interact.''
AtNewYork: The Good Guys Won the Battle But Stand to Lose the War.
Jason Chervokas. The Internet industry is all about creating value by drawing a crowd. Its business models are media driven -- subscription fees, advertising, direct marketing. Now no one cares about platform.
Apple Insider: An open message to AppleInsider readers.
When deciding what information is worthy of sharing with our readers, we consider several factors, including its accuracy, the reliability of the source, and the quality of the contacts of the source.
InfoWorld: Start-ups eye commerce, marketing at Silicon Alley show.
Like last year, experts say the hot Internet start-up markets in 1999 are focusing on Internet commerce, online auctions, content, personalization, intelligent agents, portals, and community building.
Editor & Publisher: Washingtonpost.com Dominates Eppy Awards.
Report from the 4th Annual EPpy Awards competition for interactive newspapers.
InfoWorld: Finally, an effort is under way to make Net searches easier.
Sullivan's goal is to bring together major search engine executives so that users need to learn only one set of search techniques, which will work across all engines.
InfoWorld: IBM, W3C advance XML standards.
"Schemas provide a richer mechanism for describing the data encapsulated in an XML instance."
Industry Standard: Net-Tax Food Fight.
The federal commission established to develop future Internet tax policy is already mired in politics – even though it hasn't yet held its first meeting.
InfoWorld: Toshiba's Web site struggles to get it right
Despite some improvements to the site, prospective customers still can't purchase systems directly from Toshiba...
February 21, 1999
MSNBC: A CompuServe for the millennium.
Although CompuServe 2000 — an all HTML format simplified for easy installation and use — is designed for non-tech savvy users, the targeted audience is adults.
Microsoft: Open eBook Initiative.
The goal of the specification is to quickly create a critical mass of compelling content.
Salon: Yay for Yahoo.
I guess I'll just have to content myself with calling Yahoo a great big honking huge mess of stuff, with pages that load quickly, displaying information that I want.
Salon: Boo for Yahoo.
A powerful and credible classification system for the Internet must be divorced from preferred providers -- heck, they never even should have dated.
NY Times: Microsoft Move Sparks Controversy Over Web Standards.
"Patents are good for rewarding innovation. But they can inhibit standardization. And the value that is created by standards accrues to everyone."
LA Times: A Clash of Cultures, Expectations at the Internet-Cable Frontier.
Perhaps the most serious is a cultural and philosophical gap dividing the two industries that must converge if @Home is to succeed.
SJ Mercury: E-commerce will stop as quickly as it started if the public feels security has been compromised.
So, as usual, it is people -- not technology -- who have the power to enable or inhibit the new levels of prosperity that the networked world offers.
ABCNews.Com: The Amazon.Commotion.
There’s something about the newness of the Net, and its insanely rapid pace of development, that makes relatively commonplace news seem wildly exciting or controversial.
ZDNN: Ballmer sounds alarm to MS managers.
...Microsoft's products are "too much hassle," with too many unwieldy features that aren't meeting customer needs.
Computer Shopper: Flat-Panel Sales Surprisingly Flat.
Now it might just be me, but I've seen few things that look as intrinsically silly as a sleek flat-panel display mounted on a standard AT form-factor computer.
February 22, 1999
SJ Mercury: Push technology has new pull as an idea that's truly practical.
Dan Gillmor. New expanded uses of Internet technologies will spawn many just-in-time Internet applications.
MSNBC: Service tries organizing chaotic e-mail lists.
Topica founder Ariel Poler argues that e-mail lists could have similar growth potential, with software tools available to make it easier for people to sign up for topics that interest them.
Salon: The DRUDGE dynasty.
Yes, Matt Drudge is not the only Drudge to have turned himself into a dispenser of online information.
Useit.Com: Poor Study Methodology Can Invalidate Web Research.
When new data contradicts existing evidence and established interaction theory, the first reaction should be to suspect the new data; not to overthrow the old insights.
Computer World: Microsoft plots E-commerce bid.
Event in San Francisco next week to possibly include plans for another revamp for the MSN.com portal and an e-commerce alliance for systems integrators.
Wired News: Net Investors, Breathe Easy.
In the beginning, "we thought the Internet would be more like a form of media, like TV," Benjamin said. "But the guts of the Internet is that it's become a communication vehicle."
News.Com: Viacom's MTV likely to make Net radio buy.
MTV expected to announce acquisition of Imagine Radio.
ZDNN: Another green Christmas online?
ZDNet poll finds total spending online could hit $12.6 billion in 1999.
News.Com: Catalog, specialty e-tailers picked as winners.
"Look for more than profitability--revenue growth, market share gains, and repeat customer rates."
SJ Mercury: IBM ready to test CD-dowloading system.
By using a cable modem delivery system, consumers in the test will be able to download a 60-minute album in less than 10 minutes.
Computer Retail Week: Compaq Suspends Direct Relationships With Internet Retailers.
"This is an emerging channel that is developing so quickly that we just decided to step back and evaluate our programs..."
News.Com: AOL home page service bombarded.
"Hometown AOL is new and extremely popular..."
PC Magazine: Microsoft's Secret OS Plan.
John C. Dvorak. A look at Windows 2001, code-name Neptune. "...Create a more valuable consumer PC by removing complexity, adding relevancy, connecting it to everything, and making it easy to operate."
Wired News: ICANN Fracas Moves to Singapore.
"A gray ribbon is like a discreet, walking signboard to give visibility to the complaint that ICANN's board meetings are closed..."
News.Com: AOL: You ain't seen nothing yet. [AOL Studios president Ted Leonsis] ...Leonsis said the key to AOL's success will be pinned to its multiple brands, such as ICQ, its AOL.com Web portal, CompuServe, MovieFone, and the Netcenter portal...
Wired News: AOL: 'We Want Your Credit Card'.
Ted Leonsis has been reading his Orwell -- and taking notes.
San Francisco Examiner: Web Stores Ignoring Customer Satisfaction.
Shelley Taylor & Associates' e-commerce study.
Industry Standard: I Seek Revenue? Chat App Goes Portal.
"The users haven't told us they don't want to be involved in e-commerce" or even that they don't wish to be subjected to marketing messages on ICQ...
Wired News: Thinner, Sexier PalmPilots.
Both models sport a new liquid crystal display screen that improves contrast and clarity...
Editor & Publisher: The Train Has Left the Station; Can Alta Vista/Zip2 Catch It?
Steve Outing. In many attendees, I sensed a foreboding for the newspaper industry. "Has the newspaper industry missed its window of opportunity on the Internet?"
Time Digital: Peace at Hand for Mobile Phone Formats?
Ironically, the cease-fire will likely have the perverse effect of preventing a clear winner from emerging in the 3G specs.
Industry Standard: HotBot Searches for a Direct Hit.
HotBot incorporates the Direct Hit Popularity Engine into their search results.
DaveNet: What a Month!
We're working on a new breed of content management software, putting the editorial tools right where the writers want them, in the web browser.
News.Com: The new face of Internet competition.
The least obvious, but most interesting, way the Internet is changing competition is through the blurring of the boundaries that have historically existed between markets.
Interactive Week: Major Maneuvers At Minor's Cnet.
...CNet shifts its focus away from being a publisher that survives on advertising; it is turning into a content aggregator, aiming to take a more active role in linking buyers and sellers.
Adweek: More Felix Than Oscar.
The medium may be young, but new media sure knows a thing or two about old-school hype.
Interactive Week: Intel's Labs: Tying In The Connected PC.
Intel Architecture Labs. "Intel's overall strategy is very much a mixed bag," Barrett said. "My charter is to do it in software."
Washington Post: Search, and Now You Find the Right Stuff.
Google and Direct Hit. [Sergey Brin, Google President] Conceding his circular reasoning, Brin asserts that users get higher quality and more relevant results with this page-ranking method.
Forbes: Lost in cyberspace.
No wonder some merchants venture into cyberspace with no small amount of dread.
Forbes: Gateway 2005.
You make your money from a monthly contract, not from a one-time sale.
Wired News: Two Words: Net Startups.
Report from the Harvard Business School's sixth annual Cyberposium.
February 23, 1999
Today's Links Story: From Colons to Angle Brackets
ClickZ: Silicon Alley '99: Day 1.
But in the case of Silicon Alley 99, the sponsorship aim is clashing with the editorial aim.
News.Com: Internet2 going live.
Although Internet2 and its backbones will not be immediately available to the public, the advantages of new technologies and bolstered data speeds are expected to trickle down to the global Internet.
PC World: A Smaller Alternative to JPEGs.
That's because the company's image format, Wavelet Image, or WI, squeezes an image into about three times less space than a JPEG...
InfoWorld: Start-up star warns entrenched companies to retool or be surpassed.
[Jack Hidary, CEO of EarthWeb] Established companies in the finance, publishing, and recording industries had better embrace new media and the Internet more enthusiastically or risk becoming takeover candidates in the not-too-distant future...
Internet Week: Despite Advances, Digital Assets Still Vulnerable to Content Pirates.
"No matter what scheme is deployed, someone's going to find a workaround."
Useit.Com: iCab: New Browser With Structural Navigation.
There is now a standardized way for users to get to higher levels of the information architecture and to pages that have specific relationships to the current page.
- MacWeek: New browser made in Germany.
The browser was created by a German programming team and is based on an earlier version for the Atari OS.
- Wired News: Germans Make Mac Micro Browser.
Microsoft spokeswoman Cheri Hurdstrom said she already has heard the iCab name "thrown around" among members of the Internet Explorer team.
News.Com: AOL's latest goal: ICQ everywhere.
"This is one more way for AOL to capture another piece of real estate for whatever occurs in the future..."
Fortune: You Can Trust Me On This--Really.
Stewart Alsop. In this new order, our old indicators of trust--editors, retailers, profits, even real people--don't seem quite as reliable.
Industry Standard: The Missing Link
Thousands of potential customers visit sites seeking product information. All too often, they fail to get answers.
DaveNet: Blue Mountain Arts.
Can we work out a win-win here?
Interactive Week: USWeb/CKS Unveils Services.
...portfolio of outsourced application services this week, aimed at companies that are looking to do business on the Web but don't want the headaches that go with it.
News.Com: Handhelds the focus at Mobile Insights.
...manufacturers are trying to expand both the breadth and capabilities of their product offerings to fill in every available niche.
Wired News: New Cell Phone 'Gets' the Web.
The company is the first to announce a phone that is compatible with the Wireless Application Protocol, or WAP.
Wired News: George Bell, Excited by the Web.
Excite CEO George Bell's keynote at Silicon Alley 99. "The loyalty is to content. People don't watch distribution..."
News.Com: Viacom makes major online push.
Buggles Project and Project Nozzle. [Viacom chief executive Sumner Redstone] "We decided to follow the same strategy that we have used on television--a vertical strategy..."
MacWeek: Apple's Sony emulation.
Building sexier boxes is one such new method, and so is leveraging high-end technologies such as FireWire into the consumer space.
Useit.Com: Spotlight of an Irish Time article about the long term view on the Web.
...I agree that many sites are reckless in causing linkrot for any author that tries to give them business by linking to them.
ChannelSeven: Your Website is Somebody Else's Experience.
But user expectations are rooted in user experience and thus vary inversely to improvements in the medium.
Industry Standard: New York Times, TheStreet.com Get Cozy.
...a dual role that raises precisely the kinds of potential conflicts of interest that are typical in the Internet business but have long been anathema to traditional news organizations like the Times.
Industry Standard: Viacom: I Want My Internet.
Viacom will also be announcing the creation of the "Super Music Network," a consolidation of the company's music holdings into a single entity...
USA Today: Online advertising is smarter.
The Net's ability to provide layers of product info at the click of a mouse appeals to our intelligence.
News.Com: Yahoo, Netcenter draw loyal customers.
The new study is part of an IDC/RelevantKnowledge Web Trends Report series. IDC presents metrics for determining the relative success of six popular portals.
MacWeek: Mac Internet Explorer 5.0 on course for summer.
...said the group wanted to work on the Mac browser's architecture, including its rendering and standards support, before releasing the new version.
Washington Post: AOL Abandons Marketing Plan.
AOL Select, said Weil, could have done more harm than good. "They are being pristine and pure as the driven snow..."
News.Com: WIPO domain proposals coming.
WIPO's December 23 interim report calls for all domain name buyers, at the time of registration, to agree to submit to arbitration if any party in the world challenges their ownership of a name.
Wired News: The Western Wireless Showdown.
Western Wireless sees a niche for its fixed wireless service in rural communities.
NY Times: E-Commerce Sites Look For Money Where the Mouths Are.
The bottom line, industry executives say, is that chats are a cheap, effective way to generate return trips, boost impulse buying and promote slow-moving merchandise.
February 24, 1999
NY Times: Sony to Propose a Method for Protecting Digital Music.
"This is a marvelous reflection of everything that is good about the Internet, and the world is voting with its keyboards..."
News.Com: Media Metrix to go public.
Media Metrix, a market researcher that measures the audience for Internet sites, filed for a $48.3 million initial stock offering...
ZDNN: All the (online) world's an auction.
Report from Silicon Alley 99. ...suggested that online shoppers could soon find retail prices changing constantly as demand for products rises and falls.
Industry Standard: Compaq's E-commerce Conundrum.
"The channel is in a state of chaos right now – no one knows who are their partners, friends or enemies..."
Upside: Gagging on @Home.
Sure, TCI owns nearly 40 percent of @Home, but why should it be allowed to compel people to receive online content?
Red Herring: Our gov is here to stay.
Even the Internet will require rules, and enforcing rules requires some kind of authority. Existing governments will be happy to perform that role.
ZDNN: Intel won't back down on chip ID feature.
[Paul Otellini, executive VP Intel] "The people who are willing to give up their privacy for a free PC are our market..."
InfoWorld: IBM's HotMedia aids multimedia Web development.
Java multimedia development tool developed at IBM's research labs
Industry Standard: Giving Web Data the Hairy Eyeball.
Virtually every Web company churns out monthly press releases about the percentage of the Web audience it reaches.
Useit.Com: Rebuttal: Not Known That Study Bias is Worse For Online.
Rebuttal from Senior VP at of IPSOS-ASI Interactive addressing a recent Alertbox that referenced an IPSOS-ASI study.
Columbia Journalism Review: We're All Nerds Now.
Computer-assisted reporting, he continues, allows reporters to dig into this "overabundance of information to find what's relevant.
Industry Standard: Net Marketing: Diversification Drives Growth in Spending.
Forrester Research reports that the rise of focused, niche-market directories will drive online directory revenues to over $1.1 billion by 2003.
Wired News: MIT: E-Commerce Just Beginning.
[Pattie Maes, MIT Media Lab and Firefly] "If you really look at the way we do e-commerce today, I think it's actually not really a revolution in the way we transact goods and services..."
Smart Reseller: Microsoft Says Ready, Set, Shop.
...with consumers who prefer to buy software and hardware directly from Microsoft paying retail prices of 10 to 20 percent more.
Editor & Publisher: More News Site E-commerce Plays — But Not Enough.
Steve Outing. E-commerce-enabled advertising is what will drive Internet revenues in the coming years.
W3C Press Release: W3C Issues Recommendation for Resource Description Framework (RDF).
Introduces model for defining and organizing information.
ZDNN: Cost of Internet ads gives way to the forces of supply, demand.
Advertisers says they are demanding lower prices partly because it is tough to measure the online ads’ effectiveness.
Wired News: The Dawn of the Infomediary.
Like the handful of other infomediaries launching in the next few weeks, Lumeria aims to give consumers total control over their personal information...
Wired News: The Internet of the Future.
...the Internet2 project was established in 1996 as a test bed for the new networking gears and wires that will eventually be integrated into today's Internet.
February 25, 1999
NY Times: Caveat Emptor on the Web: Ad and Editorial Lines Blur.
...it is getting hard to find a source of information that does not have a financial stake in what users do with what they publish.
A List Apart: Rotating Banner Ads Stink.
Clickthrough rates on banners are low not only because banners are annoying, but because we've all learned, by sad experience, that those clicks usually take us to a humdrum page...
CBS MarketWatch: Internet mavens see more clutter by 2003.
By the year 2003, the Web will be more cluttered, more commercial and probably less private, Internet pundits predicted Wednesday.
ClickZ: Silicon Alley '99: Day 2.
But it was Esther that captured my imagination every time she opened her mouth. Her gift is her ability to crystallize the essential issues.
News.Com: Amazon tests shopping-portal strategy.
Success lies in providing something the brick-and-mortar stores can't do...
Editor & Publisher: What Newspapers Should Do (IMHO).
Steve Outing. Do whatever it takes, spend whatever it takes, to become the dominant local portal site — replacing Yahoo!, et al as an essential information-gathering tool for people in your local market.
PC Week: MSN 'personalization' key to Microsoft's e-commerce push.
The Central ID is based on the Passport personalization technology Microsoft picked up in last year's acquisition of Firefly Networks Inc.
Computer Shopper: Using Personalization to Make Web Sites More Profitable.
If you're able to provide a custom view of your site to each individual user, chances are that those users will be encouraged to make return visits.
Wired News: Here's the Deal with Priceline.
The trick with Priceline is to name a reasonable price.
News.Com: Compaq vs. Internet retailers.
Any company that doesn't offer customers a variety of ways to purchase products may only lose sales in the long run.
PC Week: Cooking up self-service support.
Companies pursuing the self-help support model, therefore, should focus on getting users over the cultural barrier to depending on technology...
News.Com: VRML looks to open source.
...3D browser and tools owner Platinum Technologies has signed a letter of intent with the Web3D Consortium to turn over the source code to those products...
Washington Post: Sites Find New Ways to Profit.
Often they mix free content with time-based, event-based and a la carte payment systems.
Upside: The Rise of Little Brother.
While Big Brother evokes the aura of an omnipotent high-tech police state, Little Brother is more banal.
ZDNN: E-commerce study slams Web sites.
Click-Here e-commerce report from Shelley Taylor & Associates. [BarnesandNoble.Com spokesman] "When we launched the Web site, we did look at what was working for us in the stores and what made sense there..."
Forbes: A computer in every shirt collar?
The new technology is known as ferroelectric random access memory, or FRAM...
News.Com: Infoseek latest portal to plan frequent-use rewards.
Some analysts think giving away freebies, another effort to buy loyalty, is just a marketing ploy, and not a very effective one.
Wired News: Web Phone: Sizzle But No Steak.
The absence of compelling content may be a serious obstacle to the wide adoption of smart phones and alternative handheld devices.
ZDNN: Internet2: Test bed or boondoggle?
Among the project's detractors are several industry observers who describe Internet2 as the equivalent of a publicly funded playground reserved for the exclusive use of university faculty and computer science majors.
February 26, 1999
NewMedia Magazine: The Great Value Shift.
In the Net Future it will be possible for core assets to become peripheral in what I call "the great value shift," leading to the commoditization of various products.
NewMedia Magazine: Net Ethics.
Welcome to the new Web. The fact is, big business is buying the Internet, and ethics are on the auction block along with everything else.
Web Techniques: For Every Light Bulb an IP Address?
My epiphany of understanding the real value of the Web as a communications link between devices is more tangible.
Web Techniques: Netscape's Gecko.
Netscape's Rick Gessner outlines the Next-Generation Layout Engine. At the heart of every Web browser beats a powerful layout engine.
W3C: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Working Draft. Following these guidelines will also make pages more useful to people using a broad range of devices (desktop browsers, voice browsers, mobile phones, automobile-based PC's, etc.) and to search engines.
InfoWorld: Microsoft creates a BackOffice bonanza.
"Tahoe is a future BackOffice technology that will provide document services, including enterprise searching and Web-accessible views..."
News.Com: Microsoft calms resellers' fears.
"I've had five conversations in the past week with major software companies that are getting very frustrated with the retail channel in terms of its ability to generate growth..."
Interactive Week: 'Next Big Thing' In Portals.
My Eureka! is a portal product, because it can aggregate information from many sources and present it in a context that's easily searched...
InfoWorld: Microsoft to mount multifaceted I-commerce offensive.
MSN Marketplace is intended to attract consumers to use the portal to sell wares in a type of "federation" of merchants.
News.Com: Free-PC claims 1 million applicants.
...the lucky 10,000 will be determined by the audience that Free-PC's first batch of advertisers are attempting to reach.
BBC News: Triumph of the teleworker.
Nick Shelness, CTO of Lotus. "If you are in an office and go to meetings, you can have a false sense of your contributions. If you write down, once a week, activities completed, in progress, on hold and travel plans, I find it incredibly useful."
Useit.Com: Spotlight of NY Times' coverage of the MS trial and the absense of UI experts.
Maybe the reason is that both parties are afraid of a thorough usability analysis of the case...
Industry Standard: N.Y. Times Reporters Walk Thin Ad/Edit Line.
And while the Times earlier this month was breaking the story about Amazon.com selling editorial spots, Brill's Content was questioning the Times' own mysterious best-seller list.
PC World: Online Stores Need an Overhaul.
More details from the Taylor & Associates e-commerce study. Lack of recognizable URLs is another barrier to greater consumer acceptance of online shopping, the study found.
TechWeb: Microsoft Preps IE 5.0 Launch, But Pulls Beta.
...pulled the previously available beta version of the browser from its site to comply with a court order.
Forbes: Paradigm change?
Q&A with retired Chairman Citicorp Walter Wriston and author Leon Levy. Do we have a New Economy?
NY Times: Lawmakers Renew Encryption Battle.
...renewed their encryption fight with the White House by refiling legislation to lift the Clinton Administration's export controls on the data scrambling technology.
Wired News: The Sound of Busic.
Some call him a visionary. Others say he's a spinmeister. Robertson has built his reputation in the music industry with a business based on the audio format MP3.
February 27, 1999
Editor & Publisher: Get Ready to Sell Innovative, Unique Content Online.
Steve Outing. We're likely in the coming years to see more paid content become available online, because it's finally getting easier for consumers to purchase content online.
Wired: Terminal Velocity.
Internally, both the company and the man have trouble thinking beyond the box: New sales, Open Bloomberg or classic, are still referred to as "terminals."
Upside: PCs Wane (Again).
[Arthur Patterson, founding partner Accel Partners] ...reminded the audience that a television is nothing more than a thin client, and with the right connectivity, TV can be pretty interesting, too.
Online Journalism Review: The Early-Bird Media Critic: Scott Shuger of "Today's Papers".
Q&A with Slate's Scott Shuger. But Shuger does more than summarize the papers' offerings; he takes first crack at the major forces in the newspaper industry.
Project Cool: The Connected Community: from Me to Thee.
Jack Driscoll, Editor-in-Residence at the MIT Media Lab. The next wave of community computing is likely to revolve around narrowly defined interests.
ZDNN: Startup joins personalized players.
Responsys.com joins a flock of companies banking on the Web hosting model, which allows small- and mid-sized businesses access to the same heavy duty applications that larger companies use.
Red Herring: Startups get on the list
...building a critical mass of subscribers to email lists, and building direct marketing engines targeting those subscribers.
Wired News: Layoffs Threaten VRML's Future.
But with the prospects for VRML and the 3-D market hazier than ever, some think it will be more of the same for a technology that has had a slow, scattered, and mishmash evolution.
Wired News: 3-D Images, Without the Glasses.
...the inventors have achieved a simple, low-cost device that creates a very convincing illusion of volume and depth.
InfoWorld: IBM furthers its e-business strategy.
...IBM next month is expected to unveil an online catalog tool for such tasks as content personalization, customer relationship management, and Web-based catalog information maintenance.
February 28, 1999
Advertising Age: Agencies centralize Web ad serving.
...interactive agencies are turning to outsiders possessing technological muscle or centralized in-house staffs to serve their ads.
NY Times: Expert to Help Devise Format for Delivering Music on Internet.
Leonardo Chiariglione selected on Friday to head the Secure Digital Music Initiative group.
NY Times: Web Publications Break Away From Print.
The number of articles written exclusively for Web sites of newspapers and magazines is growing, according to a study to be released Tuesday...
NY Times: Exploiting -- and Protecting -- Personal Information.
If consumers can get money for their personal information and still control it, "they'll be much more willing to provide it."
ZDNet Anchordesk: Yahoo Schmahoo! Why Corporate America Is Disowning Consumer Portals.
Jesse Berst. Enterprise portals provide a personalized home base for one company's employees.
Online Insider: Barnes and Noble: Scrambling.
Change the URL to something else. Barnesandnoble.com is too long and too confusing...
Computer Reseller News: Microsoft 'Mega Server' Aims To Draw Traffic To Portal.
[Bill Gates' comments in a 1998 memo] He said Microsoft planned to use Mega Server to provide extensive business and consumer services over the Internet and described Mega Server as powerful software to store and manage customer data that could be accessed from nearly any computer.
- ZDNN: From October 13, 1998; Gates outlines era ahead -- including a 'Wintone'.
But Gates said that for the megaserver idea to become a reality, engineers need to improve the ability to search for data, and the company needs to continue encouraging a bigger, faster pipeline for information...
Computer Reseller News: Microsoft Tries To Breath E-Commerce Life Into MSN.
...CRN has learned that Microsoft sought out advice from privacy experts on the personalization feature.
CIO Web Business: The Wordlier Wider Web.
"The only problem is, by the time [Internet connectivity] has evened out, something else will come along."
CIO Web Business: The Perfect Host.
Paradoxically, however, relatively few companies are willing to surrender control of Web hosting.
Useit.Com: Spotlight of the return of Byte as an online-only publication on March 1.
And the value of their comprehensive archive of articles since 1994.
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