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Anvil
Issue Ten
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*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:
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TOP
INDUSTRY NEWS
*U.S. Internet Council Discusses the Future of the Internet
*Netscape Bids for Bells
*Managing Internet Congestion with Packeteer
DESIGN
*Netscape SuiteTools Give Web Sites Life
*Java for Everyone
HOSTING
*Feature Article: Cable Modems
*UUNET Subsidiary Offers High Speed Access
*Compaq Forms ISP Division
MARKETING
*Web Ad Banners Gain Interactivity
*Searching the Search Engines
TOP
WEB PICKS
* BUYDIRECT.COM
*The WWW Anagram Generator
*Wall Street Journal’s Year on the Net
*WorldPages
*Yahoo! Image Surfer
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TOP INDUSTRY NEWS
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*U.S. Internet Council Discusses the Future of the Internet
Rapid growth of the Internet has spawned the need for regulation
in certain areas, much to the chagrin of veteran users and companies.
The United States Internet Council (USIC) recently held its first
forum on "The Future of the Internet." The conference,
targeted at state legislators, members of Congress and industry
representatives, is designed to inform state lawmakers regarding
the current status of emerging Internet issues such as content regulation,
free speech, tax policy, education, competition, self-governance,
privacy, security and electronic commerce. The USIC’s mission is
to provide an information exchange network for state legislators
who are responsible for Internet issues in their states. The effort
is well-funded and supported by major players in the Internet industry,
including America Online, Inc. AT&T, Bell Atlantic, Bell South,
Center for Democracy and Technology, Center for the New West, Circuit
City Stores, Hewlett Packard, Highway 1, IBM, Intel, Information
Technology Industry Council, Jones Intercable, Microsoft Corporation,
Progress & Freedom Foundation, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
While USIC is a step in the right direction: education and information
exchange, let us hope bureauocracy and corporate interests don’t
cloud the issues at hand.
http://www.merc.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=681742-b8b
*Netscape
Bids for Bells
In an attempt to stem Microsoft’s market share growth in the browser
market, Netscape recently announced a distribution deal with 5 Baby
Bells, boosting Netscape’s stock price by 7 percent to 64 3/16.
In the agreement, the Baby Bells will make Navigator the default
browser users receive when they sign up for Internet access services.
Participating Baby Bells include Ameritech’s Interactive Media Services,
Bell Atlantic Internet Solutions, BellSouth, Pacific Telesis’s Pacific
Bell Services, and SBC Communications. Netscape looks to tap a portion
of the estimated 72 million customer-base. While the potential customer-base
is enormous, industry experts estimate only a small fraction will
subscribe to Internet access services. In addition, Netscape’s estimated
75 percent market share in the browser arena will be further eroded
by Microsoft, which has distribution deals with the leading Internet
access providers, including America Online, Netcom, and AT&T,
the latter with 500,000 subscribers. While Baby Bells suggest the
move was customer driven, Netscape likely sealed the deal with a
new service, ISP Select, which will heavily promote the participating
Baby Bells on Netscape’s popular site. The effort demonstrates Netscape’s
belief that the company refuses to abandon the lucrative browser
market for intranet applications.
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,6053,00.html
*Managing
Internet Congestion with Packeteer
Packet loss, as discussed in previous issues of Anvil, is reaching
critical mass. A new hardware and software product, Packeteer, offers
a solution to this dilemma. Specifically, Packeteer allows system
administrators or Webmasters to set and enforce packet priorities
by detecting network latency and access speed of individual users.
In English, workers with time-sensitive projects can receive priority
access to packet information, resulting in faster, more efficient
Internet access.
http://www.packeteer.com/
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DESIGN
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*Netscape SuiteTools Give Web Sites Life
This week at Internet World in New York, Netscape unveiled SuiteTools.
Each SuiteTools product allows Enterprise Developers to quickly
build, deploy, and manage sophisticated web sites via the Netscape
ONE platform. Netscape SuiteTools products include Symantec Visual
Café, NetObjects Fusion, NetDynamics, and Netscape LiveWire.
Symantec Visual Café gives developers an easy-to-use scaleable
environment for creating Java applets and applications. NetObjects
Fusion, a visual tool, allows users to easily build web sites. NetDynamics,
a Java-based tool, enables the creation of web applications that
are dynamically tied to relational databases. Netscape LiveWire
provides automated site-management tools designed to embed server-side
JavaScript-based database connectivity in HTML pages. The products
will be sold individually by Netscape for the same prices for which
they are currently available from the respective vendors.
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,6100,00.html
*Java
for Everyone
Sun Microsystems has been busy this week at Internet World, pushing
new Java-related products to developers. For starters, Sun’s JavaSoft
division unleashed their "100 Percent Pure Java" campaign,
which provides training for developers and compatibility testing
services. The campaign includes heavy advertising and logo branding,
and is supported by 70 developers. The Pure Java campaign is a response
to concerns that Java is endangered by companies promoting proprietary
extensions of the language. Specifically, Microsoft is promoting
ActiveX as their Java solution for Windows, while Netscape’s Java-based
Internet Foundation Classes and Abstract Windowing Toolkit all promote
proprietary extensions. Sun hopes the campaign will communicate
the primary benefit of writing Java script, platform independence.
While Netscape and Sun have put aside their recent differences,
Microsoft has yet to openly support the campaign. Sun will introduce
two servers at Internet World as well. The Java Web Server supports
the Java servlet API, which will enable developers to create database
applications in Java, rather than the less efficient CGI script.
Designed to support the NC, the Java Network Computer Server is
designed to deliver applications to network computers running JavaOS
and HotJava Views graphical user environment. Look for the Java
Web Server in Q1 1997 and the Java Network Computer Server in late
Q2 1997.
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,6059,00.html
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HOSTING
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*Feature Article: Cable Modems
Internet users are constantly bombarded with information regarding
bandwidth and access issues, including the latest modem technology.
Most dial-up users currently use 14.4 or 28.8 bps modems, which
offer limited bandwidth. Modem manufacturers will be releasing a
new line of 56.6 speed modems early next year. While these modems
can double access speeds, other, higher bandwidth options are available
including ISDN, ADSL and cable modem. Pete Mackie, president and
CEO of VIVOMEDIA, recently contributed an article on cable modems
to Business@Home, an online gathering spot and information resource
for the working-from-home community. Check out the article on Business@Home’s
Web site.
http://www.gohome.com/Sections/Technology/199608-Tech1.html
*UUNET
Subsidiary Offers High Speed Access
MFS Communications will soon offer low-cost high-speed links to
the Internet over conventional telephone lines with their Digital
Subscriber Line (DSL) service. The new service, available Q1 1997,
competes directly with the Baby Bells in the small and medium-size
business access market. DSL technology uses existing copper wires
owned by the regional Bells, which have their own high-speed copper
solution, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). The DSL technology
uses copper wires to transmit digital bits rather than sounds, which
greatly reduces bandwidth and increases efficiency. Users will be
able to use existing phone lines for voice and data simultaneously.
New DSL lines will be installed along-side existing telephone lines,
which will greatly reduce congestion on local phone switches. MFS
will initially provide business customers with high-speed access
connections equivalent to more than 20 times faster than conventional
modems through its subsidiary UUNET Technologies. Interestingly,
long-distance provider WorldCom is slated to purchase MFS in the
near future to strengthen their Internet access division. Pricing
will be below the $50 and up monthly service fees currently charged
for ISDN connections. Even with a generous marketing effort, Baby
Bells face revenue loss on ISDN service when DSL goes mainstream.
http://www.merc.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=714990-f91
*Compaq
Forms ISP Division
According to Compaq Computers, outsourcing is becoming a popular
solution for large companies looking for a complete Internet solution.
In an attempt to profit from this developing profit center, Compaq
is leveraging their existing technologies and support structure
to create a new Internet division. The new division, Internet Service
Solutions (ISS) will provide hardware and software solutions to
ISPs and telecommunications companies. Hardware solutions will include
powerful servers sold in "farms" or multiple servers working
in unison. Software solutions will likely include Internet fax and
videoconferencing. Along with highly integrated client/server solutions,
ISS will provide robust support. Current customers include ISP Digex
and Microsoft.
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,6029,00.html
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MARKETING
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*Web Ad Banners Gain Interactivity
In an attempt to offer online advertisers more freedom and functionality
in their banner ads, Dimension X recently announced an extension
to its Liquid Motion Pro Internet development tool. The new tool,
Liquid Promotion, will allow advertisers to conduct transactions
via the banner ad, without leaving the current Web page. The software
utilizes Java and will be available Q1 1997. Liquid Motion Pro is
currently available for $725 on the Dimension X’s Web site.
http://www.dimensionx.com
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,6048,00.html
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,5872,00.html
*Searching the Search Engines
Search engines have become a primary point of entry for a majority
of Web surfers. Unfortunately, these engines are indexing only a
small portion of all Web sites, and can generate useless query results.
In general, search engines offer a quick and easy way to find sites
of interest related to specific keywords. While directories like
Yahoo! filter sites by hand, search engines rely on "spiders"
or "robots" to search submitted Web sites, indexing all
text and sometimes images and sound files. The problem is that many
Web page designers and marketers are "stuffing" their
sites with keywords, sometimes irrelevant in nature to artificially
boost their sites to the top of the list. Guerilla marketers have
figured out many ways to trick the search engines, including titles,
white on white text, and tags. Titles are the easiest and best way
to generate query results. A descriptive title with keywords will
generate highly accurate query results. A more controversial method
of "stuffing" is white on white text, which is automatically
indexed by robots, although users cannot see the words without adjusting
their browser settings. Tags are used to identify various sound
and image files. These invisible markers include META, ALT and comment
tags. For a sample of these tags, check out Anvil’s Web site by
viewing the "source" file. The challenge now faced by
online marketers and researchers is to get past all the noise created
by overt abusers who imbed "sex sex sex sex sex" in their
site, even though they sell sponges. These sites negate the effectiveness
of these tactics, and actually hurt overall indexing efforts by
creating false query results. On the bright side, search engine
technology is advancing, and search engines like Infoseek Ultra
offer "intelligent" searching capabilities which help
to reduce the number of unrelated sites.
http:/www.anvil-media.com
http://www.wsj.com
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TOP WEB PICKS
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*BUYDIRECT.COM
C/net recently launched a new web site that allows users to purchase
and download software over the Internet.
BUYDIRECT.COM offers more than 100 Internet-related products including
web browsers, utilities, multimedia tools and plug-ins. BUYDIRECT.COM
is a companion site to c/net’s software resource DOWNLOAD.COM, which
offers free downloads of the Internet’s top trial software.
http://www.buydirect.com
*The
WWW Anagram Generator
An anagram is created when you take a word or phrase and, using
all the letters therein, make a new set of words. This handy site
can create all possible anagrams in a matter of seconds. The results
are guaranteed to be non-offensive.
http://csugrad.cs.vt.edu/~eburke/anagrams.html
*Wall
Street Journal’s Year on the Net
Wall Street Journal’s first annual Year on the Net offers comprehensive
coverage of online issues including: security, privacy, browsers,
and banner ads. This site also includes a brief timeline with milestones
and a one stop Internet FAQ.
http://interactive4.wsj.com/edition/resources/
documents/hypecover.htm
*WorldPages
This comprehensive directory contains contact information for personal,
business and government resources. Users can search via keyword
or geographical location. Search results include address, contact
information, and a map, all provided by ProCD. Currently the database
only includes the United States and Canada. Use the PowerFind function
to search for email addresses or web site locations.
http://www.worldpages.com/
*Yahoo!
Image Surfer
Excalibur Technologies Corporation’s search and retrieval technology,
Visual RetrievalWare, is now available on Yahoo!’s new Image Surfer
site. Using the Image Surfer, users can search the Internet for
images by topic or keyword.
http://isurf.yahoo.com
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