In, Around and Online- Issue 2.37 - Week Ending 9/22/95 Copyright (C) 1995 Robert Seidman (robert@clark.net). All rights reserved. May be reproduced in any medium for non-commercial purposes. Note to AOL subscribers. This message is approximately 33K in length. I'm advised that the way AOL mail now works, the first 2K of the message will be displayed. The _entire_ document will be available as a downloadable attachment. IN THIS ISSUE ============= -News From the Editor -CompuServe Denies Interest in Prodigy -An Update on Last Week's CompuServe Piece -MSN Growth -When Will They Ever Learn (Content Ain't King)? -Update on NetGuide Now -- Make Sure you subscribe to Edupage -Awww C'Mon! -Miscellany -Stock Watch -Disclaimer -Subscription Information News From the Editor ==================== This past week I attended the Online Developers conference hosted by New York Based Jupiter Communications . Gene DeRose and the gang at Jupiter put on another great show. It was great to meet some of you face-to-face. Those I didn't meet I hope to catch up with at a future conference! For those reading this newsletter on Sunday, September 24 before 10PM ET, (assuming I get it out by then!), America Online invited me back for one of their Internet conferences and I remembered too late to plug myself last week. So, if you're free at 10PM ET, please come harass me at Keyword: BOWL . (No, I'm not partial to doing conferences on America Online -- none of the other services have invited me yet!). COMPUSERVE DENIES INTEREST IN PRODIGY ===================================== Last Monday, Advertising Week magazine reported that sources close to CompuServe had informed them that CompuServe was in discussions with Sears about buying out Sears' 50% stake in Prodigy. CompuServe and Prodigy both denied that such discussions have taken place, though CompuServe chief Robert Massey and Prodigy "prez", Ed Bennett both had fun at the Online Developers conference bantering about the possibilities of a CompuServe "White Plains". In recent weeks you've read here that Sears is in the process of evaluating their position on Prodigy. Sears' Chairman, Arthur Martinez had been quoted saying, "It is not clear, frankly that we bring anything (strategically) to it," speaking about Sears' 50% stake in Prodigy. Such comments indicate a potential willingness on Sears' part to sell. Analysts value Sears' stake in Prodigy at about $500 million. As services, such a deal would make sense for Prodigy and CompuServe. If you combine the two services' subscriber bases, it should add up to the largest service. CompuServe reports 3.4 million subscribers, and the best numbers I've seen on Prodigy recently come in at about 1.6 million. If anyone from Prodigy wants to provide numbers, please send them on -- frankly, Prodigy has been awful about providing numbers recently. While CompuServe and AOL publish subscriber numbers with every press release, Prodigy instead speaks only of "members" (not accounts), who have downloaded the World Wide Web software. Prodigy reports that 1 million "members" have downloaded the software, and as such, they are billing themselves as the largest dial-up provider to the World Wide Web. If we combine the numbers we know about, the two companies would come in at around 5 million subscribers. Even if you subtract the 850,000 or so customers that CompuServe counts for Nifty-Serve, a combination of the two companies would still eclipse AOL. (Nifty-Serve is an online service in Japan, CompuServe helped design the service and receives royalties for Nifty-Serve subscribers. They are not, however, CompuServe subscribers. Some Nifty-Serve subscribers, DO sign up for CompuServe, but they are not included in the 850,000.) While the combination of the two services may only be rumor today, such an alliance would be no surprise. In a market that is increasingly competitive, such a move might provide CompuServe and Prodigy with a nice foothold. An Update on Last Week's CompuServe Piece ========================================= A Prodigy/CompuServe combination would play nicely into my prediction that H&R Block ultimately wants to sell CompuServe. Over the last year, I've received some inflammatory mail, but nothing comes close to the venom I received regarding my piece on CompuServe last week. So, I'd like to take this opportunity to clarify my position. It is easy to sit here and type about what CompuServe should've done in hindsight, but I'm no Monday morning quarterback. I've been saying for over a year now that CompuServe should realign their pricing to compete with AOL. CompuServe was faced with a dilemma -- whether to face the "red ink" now, or face it later. They decided to wait until the launch of the Microsoft Network. They incrementally have been reducing rates for well over a year, but only recently dropped from $4.80/hr. to $2.95 hour. Without astronomical growth (and as I said last week, I define astronomical growth as something even more dramatic than AOL's growth), CompuServe will now run into some red ink. It doesn't matter that they've been making money and had great margins. Without huge growth, with the drop to $2.95/hr., those margins are gone and there will be red ink for CompuServe in the 4th quarter of 1995. For those of you who wrote in to suggest that such a prediction is way out in left field, let's talk in February or March when CompuServe's numbers for the 4th quarter are released. If I am wrong, I'll gladly say so. Hey, there's nothing wrong with red ink in the online services market -- it's fairly commonplace. The cause of the red ink (the drop in hourly rate) should ultimately attract many more subscribers. It is, without a doubt, what CompuServe needed to do. Dollars spent on research and development will also, in the short term, hurt CompuServe's numbers. But CompuServe needed to do that, too. My basis for suggesting that H&R Block wants to sell CompuServe is largely hunch, but it is not groundless. For one thing, Dave Pool was appointed executive VPof strategic development for both CompuServe AND its parent, H&R Block. Pool is a mover-shaker-dealmaker kind of guy. H&R Block, well, they've always been a pretty conservative company and in the online/Internet marketplace, playing it close to the vest is dangerous at best. However, my prediction that H&R Block wants to sell is based mostly on the craziness associated with the industry right now. I can sum it up in one word: Netscape. The Wall Street world went crazy over Netscape. But, even if Netscape lives up to every expectation, it could take many years for them to truly be worth where the market currently values them. Years. It would be pointless for CompuServe to look back now, and under the direction of Bob Massey, they definitely appear to be looking forward. I think CompuServe is a great service. They've dropped prices, and they're working on a new interface. An easy to use interface and marketing are critical factors for success. AOL is winning that race right now. But, the good news for CompuServe supporters is that in addition to behind the scenes development of a new interface, I've already received my second CompuServe disk in the mail! I don't think CompuServe is a bad service -- I think it is a very good service. My prediction that H&R Block wants to sell CompuServe shouldn't be taken to mean I think CompuServe is a bad service. It is merely a reflection of how crazy this industry is right now. MSN Growth ========== It will be a while before MSN releases anything officially, but at the Online Developers conference in San Francisco, MSN VP (formerly GM), Russell Siegelman did say that he was pleased with the growth and that they're now bigger than GEnie and Delphi. I'm not sure what that means anymore, because I'm not sure how low the subscriber totals for those services have dipped. All we know for sure is that MSN doesn't have 500,000 yet (they plan to freeze new subscriptions once they hit 500,000 to evaluate performance issues). MSN has a ways to go. Today, the service doesn't have much content, and the interface needs work. But at the Online Developers conference AOL President, CEO (and now Chairman), Steve Case reminded us all that the Microsoft way is to improve with time. Historically, that is quite true. In my mind, today, Microsoft Network is sort of about where Windows 3.0 was -- I can use it, but it doesn't do everything I want, and there isn't that much available to use with it. While the same could be said even of Windows '95, it is a matter of degrees. In the case of Windows 3.0 to Windows 3.1, the number of degrees was substantial. The MSN interface will improve. They will add more and more (and more and more) content. Earlier, I said that interface and marketing are the kings of the consumer online service market. Microsoft definitely knows something about marketing. At the Online Developers conference, before a panel discussion between heads of the major online service companies, panel moderator and Jupiter Communications president Gene DeRose pointed out that when MSN launched, the world didn't end. Russell Siegelman agreed. But, Steve Case said that while he was surprisingly less impressed with MSN than he thought he'd be (then he brought up how Microsoft software always improves with time), he still expressed concern that MSN was bundled with the Windows '95 operating system. Case vowed that as long as Microsoft had a significant distribution advantage (which he considers unfair) with MSN, he will continue to fight that battle with the Justice Dept. As Case vowed to fight on, Siegelman shook his head in what seemed like sincere amazement. But don't "Start Me Up" on that one... (For new readers, I agree with Case. You can peruse the back issues of the newsletter at to get a feel of where I stand on that issue.) When Will They Ever Learn (Content Ain't King)? =============================================== "Content is King," - Michael Kolowich "Your everlastin' summer, you can see it fadin' fast, So you grab a piece of somethin' that you think is gonna last Well, you wouldn't even know a diamond if you held it in your hand; The things you think are precious I can't understand" - From Steely Dan's "Reelin' In the Years" I know some of you don't want to believe that it's true, but right now, in the consumer online market, content isn't king. I know some of you are thinking, "But, Robert, if content isn't king, why complain that Microsoft Network doesn't have enough content?" Okay, you're right. Content is king. Huh? *WHAT IS CONTENT?* It's like this -- e-mail is content. People love e-mail. Message forums are content. People love message forums. Files to download are content. People love to download files. Even interactive chat may be considered content, and people love that, too. This newsletter is content. This newsletter is FREE. And such it is in the consumer market that FREE or very cheap (as in included in the price of the service, whether it be hourly fees or monthly subscription) content is popular. But right now, with few exceptions a service driven by content alone in the consumer market is doomed for failure. Interchange can not succeed in the consumer market based on its content driven strategy. While it was no surprise that AT&T recently announced that they'd be offering a business service with Interchange as its platform, if they ever want to see Interchange succeed as a consumer service, they'll need to do some heavy duty repositioning (a la make ALL the content available for $9.95/mo. plus time). Either that, or wait until there are 100 million people online. *PUBLISHERS STILL BELIEVE CONTENT IS KING* The second panel of executives at the Jupiter Online Developers conference consisted of executives who were responsible for services on the Web. The question asked by the title of the panel "Blueprints for consumer web sites: Are They Services?" was not clearly answered by all the panelists, but the consensus seemed to be that they were services. With the exception of Starwave president, Mike Slade and Bruce Katz, CEO of The Well, none of the panelists are currently charging for services (and The Well does not charge for services on the Web today, but rather, for Internet access). I applaud Starwave for experimenting by charging for the ESPN SportsZone service. As mentioned previously in this newsletter, much of the content is still free and supported by advertising. The more in-depth coverage will cost you $4.95/mo. Sports is a fanatical enough market that it can perhaps drive enough revenue to make the subscription service profitable. Starwave admits that it is way too early to tell. The content publishers are the most crazed when it comes to the "content is king" theory. It's understandable, they have a vested interest. Kolowich comes from the publishing environment of Ziff-Davis, so it is not hard to understand why he has his particular point of view. Peter Winter, CEO of the New Century Network (NCN) (he's also is an executive for Cox Newspapers), was perhaps the most entertaining panelist. NCN is venture of 9 newspaper companies seeking to produce localized branded content services on the Web. Winter made many valid points, and it was entertaining to see he and Newscorp/MCI venture president, Scott Kurnit trade barbs. Mostly though, Winter and Kurnit, and the others attacked Steve Case (he wasn't present at this panel) and his proprietary AOL model. Meanwhile, AOL has 3.5 million subscribers. After a year, the Access Atlanta service (an online service of Cox's Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper), available on Prodigy, has 20,000 subscribers. A Prodigy source wishing to remain anonymous pleads that content is king, that the demand is there. According to my source, when they open up services like Access Atlanta and TimesLink (a service of the LA Times) for "free weekends", usage is very heavy. The problem, according to the source, is not many people are willing to pay extra. Indeed, that is a problem -- a problem that publishers are increasingly aware of. Winter is well aware that to be successful, you need to do more than just put up newspaper content. Clearly, the advantages of the combined forces of NCN should allow them to streamline and create efficiencies in producing services on the Web. Still, it is not clear how they can make money. Today, the web lacks nice versions of many of the communications tools necessary to form "communities". Prodigy doesn't have that problem though, and the newspaper services on Prodigy are still money losers. While Winter seems to know what not to do, he didn't seem to have any predictions on what it would take to make money. *TODAY'S LANDSCAPE* Jupiter president Gene DeRose analysis is that by the end of the year, 5,000,000 "consumers" will have access to the Web. Interestingly, he also predicts that by years end, 80% of those 5,000,000 will originate from the consumer online services. Remember though, 5 million with *access* isn't the same thing as 5 million using the web. During the first day's panel, to me, the most interesting question, was asked by former CMP executive and NetGuide publisher, Don Tydeman, who asked the AOL, CompuServe and Prodigy what percentage of their respective services usage came from Web usage. They all said about 10%. Tydeman didn't ask Mike Kolowich of Interchange because they don't have their browser up and running yet. Later Tydeman told me that he didn't point the question at MSN because he figured it might be too early to tell. Apparently, not so, as Russell "Why Do We Need Our Own Content When We Have the Web" Siegelman piped up saying that Web usage is currently responsible for about 30% of overall system usage on MSN. (FYI, Don Tydeman is now running his own business, Interactive Ideas LLC. Don can be reached at dtydeman@pipline.com) Many of the analysts I spoke with had trouble with the 10% claim from the online services. I confess, if Prodigy truly has 1,000,000 folks surfing the Web with them, I would expect the number to be higher than 10%. CompuServe requires special access (NetLauncher) and AOL, though they've "officially" released their browser, they've seemingly not yet given it the big push one might expect. Could be they're still trying to work out some of the kinks I've experienced with the browser. *WHY THERE'S NO REAL MONEY IN IT TODAY* Don't get me wrong, there is money in the way of advertising revenues that the bigger services are generating. But, HotWired's Andrew Anker, when asked whether the advertisers on his service were happy, confessed that AT&T, MCI, and SPRINT represent about 50% of his advertising base, and because those companies have a big stake in this industry, they're pretty happy about their relationships with HotWired. But the truth is, as much as the Web has grown, there's still not enough people to generate megabucks for everyone. Paul Sagan, a senior vice president at Time Inc. New Media said that Pathfinder ultimately plans to try a subscription based service. While I have gotten on Pathfinder executives in the past for talking about "hits" (and to be fair, Sagan didn't talk about hits at all), one thing is clear -- Pathfinder is one of the most popular sites on the web, perhaps even the most popular. In spite of "hit counts", I'd estimate that Pathfinder gets less than 250,000 unique individual visitors per week. Forget about the fact that if they go the subscription route, they'd probably get less than 1 out of 10 of the 250,000 to pay. Truth is, if they got all 250,000 to pay, it's still not a cash cow. And if Time-Warner-Turner can't make a lot of money at it, who can? *ONE OF THEM AGREES* DON BRAZEAL, Editor and Publisher for the Washington Post's Digital Ink service on Interchange second guessed the ability to make money on an online service. On a track titled "Negotiating the Thicket: Online Deals and Options" at the Online Developers conference, Brazeal wondered out loud if there "is such a thing as a good online deal." He referred to the leaders of the big 5 companies AOL, CompuServe, Prodigy, MSN and Interchange (where Digital Ink lives) as "5 wolves in sheep's clothing". Brazeal said, "The cost of producing (online content) is much higher than the potential revenue streams." Brazeal indicated that his revenue model with Digital Ink on Interchange is based on advertising. He's not sure if that can work on Interchange. No kidding! Why did he ever think it WOULD work? You need EYES to advertise. You want to make people pay $9.95 a month for 5 hours, plus $2.95/hr. for just Digital Ink and the basic Interchange service? And you want them to pay for ads too? Well, that works in the newspaper world, but so far, it isn't working online. Plus, in the Interchange model, Digital Ink has the responsibility for marketing their service. For Brazeal though, the bigger issue seemed to be with the online service model there is a question of who "owns" the advertiser, the service provider or the platform provider. In the case of Interchange, it appears to belong to the service provider. On AOL, apparently AOL (the platform owner) wants to own the advertiser as well. Brazeal then spoke of how companies like AOL pump out start-up disks , but that the magazines don't share in the marketing success. WHAT? Sheesh, it sounds like Brazeal is whining because he picked the wrong "wolf". Unfortunately for him, that "wolf" just announced that they were launching their own local based content services. Now AOL is a publisher too. They're making they're own content with the new local services and with offerings created by the AOL Greeenhouse. Their first local service? Digital City. You guessed it, aimed at the Washington, DC market. Brazeal probably views it as a direct competitor to his Digital Ink service. He's right. But unfortunately for Brazeal, AOL already has 100K-150K customers in the Washington metropolitan area. With the way things are going with Interchange, it could take Brazeal years to have access to that many eyes. And even that isn't going to set the advertising world on fire. I take issue with the notion that the magazines should share in the marketing success. AOL, CompuServe and Prodigy do pay handsomely to get shrink-wrapped in those magazines. The more they succeed, the more they'll advertise, so, in that fashion, the magazines do share in the success. Brazeal went on to say that it seems to be turning out that the technology vendors are turning into their competition. Brazeal believes it may be necessary to partner with other content providers rather than a technology vendor. *WHEN IS TOMORROW?* I hope the executives on the second panel of executives are right and that the open model does prevail. Then I can get Pepsi to sponsor my web page for 2 million dollars per year. Okay, I'm dreaming, besides, I'd probably settle for payment in free Diet Pepsi. Pathfinder may get 10 million hits (and growing) per week, but until they start talking in terms of millions of visitors, it doesn't mean anything. Once there are millions of visitors, then they're is real money to be made. Unfortunately, none of the executives on the second panel spoke about "when" the model will allow anyone to make money. It could be a while. Niche services, and smart entrepreneurial types who come up with unique offerings may be able to make money in the short run. For bigger publishing conglomerates, the future appears to be at least a couple of years off. Those services require the masses. Today, only 7% of the homes have access to online services. Steve Case made comparisons to the cable industry. He believes cable really took off when it had about 30% penetration in the 80's. He seemed to indicate that online needed to get to that level before it could truly prosper. The growth has been incredible, and while the 30% plateau probably won't be reached next year, I believe it definitely will happen before the dawn of the new millennium. The year 2000 is not that far away, but I expect things will be a lot different by the time it arrives. The bashing of AOL and other consumer online services by most of the "Web" panel was interesting. Very interesting, but stupid. Excuse the Rowan and Martin's "Laugh-In" reference, but it's true. If you're on the Web, you should be pulling for AOL, CompuServe and Prodigy to get as many subscribers as possible. Either way you can't lose because those people will either access web services from their chosen online service, or, as a result of their cyberspace initiation, will learn about other, Internet based access methods. Update on NetGuide Now -- Make Sure you subscribe to Edupage ============================================================ I'm not sure what happened, but NetGuide Now isn't what it used to be. Seems like it lost its "news" section. I don't know if this is just a problem for the current week or not -- but since I no longer strive to talk about EVERYTHING, if you're interested in EVERYTHING in this industry, you'll want to subscribe to Edupage. It not only covers online, but all high-tech. It's free. Here's how to get it: To subscribe to Edupage: send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type: subscribe edupage Garry Kasparov (assuming that your name is Garry Kasparov; if it's not, substitute your own name). ... To cancel, send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type: unsubscribe edupage. Awww C'Mon! =========== And this, my friends, is why "hits" are a totally bogus and dangerous method of counting. This comes from CMP's main page on the web at: :

September 22, 1995

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CMP's main page has a lot of "hits" in it anyway, but adding 9 blank "space" GIFS above for formatting, seems rather shifty when you consider that those unseen "spaces" provide them 9 extra hits per access of their main page. And before anyone says "yeah, but they DO need them for formatting -- if they need nine spaces via a GIF (and I question this need) it seems to me, that at the very least, they could make one GIF with all 9 spaces. Awwww C'mon! Note: I hear that CMP will be using the Nielsen-I/Pro, I/Audit software which does only measure hits in terms of a visit to a particular page. I can't wait until everyone starts using software like that. Of course, once that happens, we probably won't hear any numbers for a while. MISCELLANY ========== NETSCAPE NOT SO SECURE -- To make a long story short, a couple of U.C. Berkley students figured out how Netscape generates session encryption keys. As a result, they were able to crack the keys quickly with only moderate computer power. Netscape has confirmed their findings and working quickly to release updated versions that truly generate the keys in a random fashion (apparently, the method currently used isn't really random, but relies on things like date and time). To find out more, either check out Netscape's home page at or where information on how the code was broken is posted. -- NETSCAPE TO ACQUIRE COLLABRA SOFTWARE, INC. Netscape announced that it was acquiring Collabra, an independent developer of collaborative computing software. According to the press release, the acquisition s aimed at extending Netscape's position as a premier open software provider for linking people and information over enterprise networks and the Internet into the burgeoning collaboration and messaging market. Netscape acquired Collabra with 1.85 million shares of stock, which at the time of the announcement were worth about $109 million. The stock closed up $4 on Friday, to finish the week at $62.75 and make the Collabra gang a little richer, if only on paper. -- AOL TV ADS. I confess when I saw the lineup of celebrities for the 15 second spots created by CHIAT DAY, I was@8ptical. I mean come on, the celebrities featured include: Jack Lalane, Adam West, Emmanuel Lewis, and Anna Nicole Smith, one could only wonder. The only spot I've seen so far, I actually liked. Look for the one ending with the little girl saying, "Ma, Pa done shot the America Online again!". Definitely better then the previous AOL commercial! -- PRODIGY PLANS THEIR OWN "GREENHOUSE". Ed Bennett, Prodigy's president, speaking at the Online Developers conference said that Prodigy planned to start a "Greenhouse" service. Steve Case said he thought it was a good idea, but took issue with the use of the "Greenhouse" name. -- AT&T ANNOUNCED many things this week. Besides breaking themselves into 3 separate companies, they also announced the creation of AT&T Business Network aimed at business professionals. The service, which will use the Interchange platform enters testing within the next and is expected to be generally available this fall. The service will cost $39.95/mo. for 10 free hours, and then $2.95 an hour. AT&T Business Network is the first service offered by a new unit of AT&T, AT&T New Media Services. The content is king theory should play out better in this market, which is good for Michael Kolowich, who was named president of the new unit. The unit is also responsible for Interchange, and plans to carry forth the strategy of not creating their own content, but to let publishers develop their own branded areas on their platform. -- ANOTHER MALL ON THE WEB. This time, it's DreamShop, from Time-Warner cable programming unit, Digital Marketing Group. This is intended as an upscale electronic mall. You can check it out on Pathfinder at: -- NETMANAGE SIGNS licensing agreement with CYLINK for technology that "incorporates the fundamental patents covering public key cryptography." They wasted no time jumping on the Netscape announcement. From the press release: "NetManage will be providing support for public key authentication and data encryption as a fundamental component of its Chameleon Enterprise strategy. The two firms further announced that they plan to provide support for an open interface for Internet security which will address recent flaws found in cryptographic implementations used by Netscape Communications and other unpublicized security holes in existing Internet security protocols. "The standard is further intended to eliminate the financial and interoperability barriers that have been holding back widespread use of public key cryptography on the Internet" -- IBM ANNOUNCES INFOMARKET. IBM has launched an Internet search service that allows you to search multiple databases simultaneously. The service is currently FREE, but will migrate to a pay service by the end of the year. Brought to you buy those wonderful folks that pay my check, keep a roof over my head and food in my stomach so that I may continue to write this newsletter for free. In other words, you don't want to take my word for it, but check it out, and tell them I sent you. It has a ways to go, but as they add search databases, it should become a very valuable tool. Try it while it's free at: Stock Watch =========== Notes: Mecklermedia Corp 2-1 stock split. This Last 52 52 Week's Week's Week Week Company Ticker Close Close High Low ------- ------ ------ ------ ------- ------- America Online AMER $73.13 $65.75 $74.50 $14.94 Apple AAPL $37.06 $35.88 $50.94 $32.50 AT&T T $63.38 $58.25 $65.38 $47.25 Bolt,Beranek & Newman BBN $35.75 $36.13 $39.38 $12.63 FTP Software FTPS $27.13 $25.25 $35.50 $19.50 General Elec. GE $63.00 $63.88 $63.88 $45.38 H&R Block HRB $37.13 $37.50 $47.63 $33.00 IBM IBM $93.88 $92.75 $114.63 $67.38 MCI MCIC $26.69 $25.50 $26.88 $17.25 Mecklermedia Corp. MECK $19.38 $21.79 $24.38 $ 2.13 Microsoft MSFT $89.75 $93.44 $110.25 $53.88 Netcom NETC $45.63 $38.38 $47.63 $16.75 Netscape Comm. Corp NSCP $62.75 $53.25 $75.00 $45.75 NetManage NETM $25.63 $23.00 $27.25 $ 9.50 News Corp. NWS $22.63 $22.75 $25.13 $14.38 Performance Syst. Intl PSIX $18.75 $19.75 $25.50 $12.00 Sears S $35.50 $36.25 $36.63 $21.50 Spyglass Inc. SPYG $37.50 $41.25 $54.00 $26.50 UUNET Technologies UUNT $46.50 $46.75 $51.75 $21.75 Disclaimer ========== I began writing this newsletter in September 1994, at the time I was working for a technology company that is now owned by MCI. In March, I began working for International Business Machines Corporation. As of July, my management has agreed to allow me to do some work on the newsletter during business hours (probably about 6-8 hours a week). I speak for myself and not for IBM. Subscribing and Unsubscribing ============================= To subscribe to this newsletter by e-mail: Send an e-mail message to: LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM In the BODY of the message type: SUBSCRIBE ONLINE-L FIRSTNAME LASTNAME Example: Subscribe Online-L Robert Seidman If you wish to remove yourself from the list please DO NOT reply to this message -- send an e-mail message to: LISTSERV@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM with the text SIGNOFF ONLINE-L in the body of the message. An HTML version of "In, Around and Online" is available on the Web at: http://www.clark.net/pub/robert/ . --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AUTHOR'S CORRECTION The great thing about "publishing" on the Internet is that you get intstant feedback. Within an hour of distributing this week's newsletter, I received letters from six people explaining why CMP's HTML method (using many small albeit blank images) was appropriate. But, I'm a cynic so I checked myself, created some HTML in a similar fashion and then looked at my hit logs. To make a long story short, using Netscape and Spyglass browsers, although the image was in the HTML 9 times, it did in fact only generate one hit (because of the way these browsers cache images). My sincere apologies to CMP . For being such a bonehead, I am "re-awarding" this week's Awww C'Mon award to myself! Robert Seidman