| |
Anvil
Issue Thirteen
--------------------------------
*Anvil is a weekly newsletter and Web site providing insight into
online industry news, issues and trends in easy to swallow caplets.
In this week’s issue:
--------------------------------
TOP
INDUSTRY NEWS
*Holiday Gifts: Winners and Losers
*c/net’s Top Ten Stories of 1996
*Beyond Mediadome
DESIGN
*Two More Notches
*FCC Sets Future TV Standards
HOSTING
*SATAN Returns
*Wireless Addendum
MARKETING
*Advertising Influences Content
*Web Site Audit Reports Get Standards
TOP
WEB PICKS
*Research It!
*BigBook
*USA Counties 1996
*Cost of Living Calculator
*Roget’s Thesaurus
--------------------------------
TOP INDUSTRY NEWS
--------------------------------
*Holiday Gifts: Winners and Losers
Now that the holiday season is over, it’s time to tally up the score.
So far, the big winner in the electronics industry this season was
gaming equipment, specifically Nintendo 64. The new system takes
a step above the commonly used 32-bit gaming systems from Sony,
Sega and Nintendo. While Sony’s PlayStation and Sega’s Genesis 32-bit
game systems are selling well, Sega recently announced a special
loss of $200 million due to large inventories of outdated 16-bit
product inventory and losses at their U.S. subsidiary. Beyond the
gaming industry, digital TV satellite systems sold well this year
in response to large rebates. personal digital assistants (PDAs)
also moved off the shelves, possibly due to renewed interest after
the recent release of Microsoft’s Windows CE operating system for
PDAs. Unfortunately, the PC market did not share similar robust
sales, market saturation being the primary culprit. Hot selling
PCs this season included Compaq, Sony and Monorail, a stripped-down
system selling for $999.
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,6517,00.html
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,6521,00.html
*c/net’s
Top Ten Stories of 1996
c/net’s NEWS.COM recently announced their Top Ten Stories of 1996.
The Top Ten stories include: Apple: What’s next?, Java: Better with
age, Microsoft vs. Netscape: The missing story, Online services:
Rough road, Network Computers: Living the dream, PointCast: Pushing
the paradigm, Cybershopping: A model for the books, Legal battles:
Rights of passage, Intranets: Doing double duty, and IPOs: The bubble
bursts. While the list is fairly comprehensive, I believe they might
have left a few things out. If I were to create my own Top Ten Stories,
it would go something like this: Microsoft vs. Netscape: The battle
for the OS, PointCast: Opening a new realm, Online services: New
territory, Security: Information compromise, Java and ActiveX: Multimedia
enablers, Network Computers: Living the dream, IPOs: The bubble
bursts, Apple: The poisoned fruit?, Online Advertising: Dictating
content?, and Cybershopping: A model for the books.
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,6584,00.html?nd
*Beyond
Mediadome
c/net’s has partnered with Intel to create their latest endeavor,
Mediadome, which merges media properties with technology to create
a new brand of Web-based entertainment. Mediadome will debut a new
program every two weeks, each "Webisode" offering a variety
of interactive elements that allows the user to become a participant
in the experience rather than just an observer. The Webisodes include
streaming audio and video via Xing’s StreamWorks or audio-only via
RealAudio. While the concept is pure and true to c/net’s innovative
nature, the implementation is confusing and buggy. I installed StreamWorks,
and was unable to get it to work properly on Internet Explorer 3.01,
whereas the new Netscape Communicator 4.0 couldn’t even download
the site itself. These problems may speak of the browsers themselves
more than the software, but it’s a negative experience regardless.
Hopefully c/net will iron out the bugs shortly.
http://www.mediadome.com/index.html
--------------------------------
DESIGN
--------------------------------
*Two More Notches
VIVOMEDIA recently launched two Web sites: insync and Desktop Management
Task Force (DMTF). insync is a public relations consulting firm
focusing on translating technology into business benefits with a
goal of helping clients establish leadership in the PC marketplace.
insync’s site offers detailed information on clients, services and
employment opportunities. DMTF, a cooperative industry-wide effort,
was formed in 1992 to develop and deliver the enabling technology
for building a new generation of PC systems and products.. The site
experienced a complete redesign to meet the changing needs and objectives
of the organization members.
http://www.dmtf.org
*FCC
Sets Future TV Standards
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently signed off
on a compromise set of standards for advanced digital television,
ending a nine-year deliberation. The standards will allow the broadcast
theater quality pictures and sound by 1998. The new standards has
sparked a race between television and computer manufacturers to
provide the next generation of televisions. The first models may
cost between $1,500 and $2,000, but should drop quickly when production
ramps up. The digital broadcast channels will exist alongside current
analog stations for many years to come. Currently, the FCC is deciding
how to allocate bandwidth to the networks for testing. Look for
major television and PC manufacturers to buyout one another in the
mad scramble for first-to-market rights.
http://www.wsj.com
--------------------------------
HOSTING
--------------------------------
*SATAN Returns
Dan Farmer, notorious creator of SATAN security software recently
published his survey of 2200 computing systems on the Internet between
November and December of 1996. Out of curiosity, Farmer chose high
profile and commerce-oriented World Wide Web (WWW) sites as survey
participants, along with a scattering of randomly selected Internet
systems for comparison. The profiled systems hosted WWW services
for organizations such as banks, federal institutions, newspapers,
etc. The findings were quite disturbing: using simple, non-intrusive
techniques, Farmer determined that nearly two-thirds of the tested
sites had serious potential security vulnerabilities, a rate roughly
twice that of the randomly selected hosts. Seeing is believing.
http://www.trouble.org/survey/
*Wireless
Addendum
In a recent issue (Anvil Eleven), I discussed CellularVision and
Lucent Technologies wireless T-1 access technology. I failed to
mention CyberHighway of the Treasure Valley, in Boise Idaho, in
this story. To correct this injustice, I’ve included their Web site
in this issue. CyberHighway is the first Internet Service Provider
in Idaho (and one of the few nationwide) to be able to offer wireless
T1-class connections to the Internet.
http://www.cyberhighway.net/news/wireless.html
--------------------------------
MARKETING
--------------------------------
*Advertising Influences Content
The Web has created new opportunities for publishers and advertisers.
Unlike print, radio and television, the Web is highly measurable,
generating hits traceable to companies, universities and organizations.
The drawback to this new medium is the possibility of measurability
to affect content for online publishers like Wall Street Journal,
c/net Online and CNN. Some industry influencers speculate that the
importance of hit counts could turn the Web into a ratings-driven
mass medium similar to television, with a focus on sensationalism
over substance. Many editors and publishers agree hits may influence
the placement of particular stories, but do not directly affect
topical coverage. The potential for abuse is also on the minds of
many industry experts, especially as the competition heats up between
online publishers. Arguments against influence by advertisers and
individual readers include the low barrier of entry into the online
realm and a virtual lack of time and space limitations online compared
with television, print and radio. On the plus side, hit feedback
allows publishers to keep in touch with their readers and determine
general areas of interest.
http://www.news.com/SpecialFeatures/0,5,6530,00.html
*Web
Site Audit Reports Get Standards
As Web developers and advertisers mire in syntax, the Audit Bureau
of Verification Services (ABVS), recently agreed to endorse definitions
for common terms used in Web audit reporting. ABVS, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), was established
in 1995 to serve the verification requirements of new and non-traditional,
census-based advertiser-supported media. Commonly used terms discussed
at the recent meeting include page impressions, visits and frames.
A "page impression" is defined as the combination of one
or more files presented to a viewer as a single document as a result
of a single request received by the server. A "visit"
is a series of consecutive qualified page impressions between a
user and a Web site. "Frames," defined as multiple documents
or pages viewed on one screen simultaneously, count as one valid
page impression, no matter how many pages are displayed on the same
screen. Hopefully, these definitions will gain acceptance industry-wide,
and help to reduce current confusion.
http://www.accessabc.com/
--------------------------------
TOP WEB PICKS
--------------------------------
*Research It!
One-stop online tool for all your research needs. The all-in-one
reference desk includes: dictionary, thesaurus, translator, quotes,
biographical, historical and financial tools.
http://www.itools.com/research-it/research-it.html
*BigBook
BigBook, Inc. was founded in 1995 to build a whole new kind of yellow
pages targeted at both consumers and businesses. BigBook features
include business listings by category, name or location, job listings,
contests, maps and a personal address book option.
http://www.bigbook.com
*USA
Counties 1996
USA Counties, from the Census Bureau, compiles useful demographic,
economic, and governmental information spanning several years and
sources for county comparisons and profiles. Find out if you make
more than the average annual income for your county and compare
it around the U.S.
http://govinfo.kerr.orst.edu/usaco-stateis.html
*Cost
of Living Calculator
Initially provided as a freebie for journalists, this utility allows
users to convert dollar values between any two years to adjust for
inflation. For instance, $6,678.38 in 1971 had the same buying power
as $26,629 (average annual income for Multinomah County from above
Web site) in 1996 for the Western United States. The handy percentage
change calculator tells us that’s a 298.7 percent increase.
*Roget’s Thesaurus
The Internet version of the reliable resource includes the six main
classes relating to words: abstract relations, space, matter, intellectual
faculties, voluntary and sentiment powers. The site is highly functional
and clutter-free.
http://home.thesaurus.com/thesaurus/
|
|
