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In, Around and Online- Issue 2.35 - Week Ending 9/1/95
Copyright (C) 1995 Robert Seidman (robert@clark.net). All rights
reserved. May be reproduced in any medium for non-commercial
purposes.
IN THIS ISSUE
=============
One Year of "In, Around and Online"
No Newsletter Next Week!
Salute - AOL's 10th Anniversary
MSN Performance Update
USA TODAY Update
What's the Deal With Pathfinder on MSN?
Dave Pool's One Man Crusade Against Microsoft
HotWired Lines Up Backers
Miscellany
Stock Watch
Disclaimer
Subscription Information
ONE YEAR OF "IN, AROUND AND ONLINE"
===================================
This issue marks the 52nd consecutive edition of "In, Around and
Online."
I wish I could thank everyone personally, because this is one of
the most rewarding experiences I've had. There are many of you
who have made contributions -- from CEO's to Webmeisters --
those offering comments, asking for stock quotes or sending me tips.
It's been a blast.
At times, it is difficult finding time to write "In, Around and
Online." I lead a double life. Frankly, I'm not sure it will
continue for another full year. Nonetheless, I wouldn't have
traded the past twelve months for anything.
Six months ago I joined IBM and I'd like to thank my management
there. They allow me to write the newsletter and go out of their
way encouraging me to continue.
I especially want to thank my co-workers (at IBM and for the first
6 months of the newsletter, FYI Online) for putting up with my
early-morning crankiness, which resulted from burning the midnight
oil on newsletter pursuits. Okay, so maybe I was a little cranky before
I started writing the newsletter...
NO NEWSLETTER NEXT WEEK!
========================
Grassroots Internet zines like this one have a history of "here
today, gone tomorrow". I'm proud that I've published every week
consecutively for one year. In honor of this achievement, I'm
taking next week off. :-)
Next week I'll be traveling to France and Israel on business. Since this
is my first trip abroad, I'm also planning on packing the camera and
bermuda shorts for a few days of sightseeing.
I won't have much access to e-mail, so please keep this in mind if
you plan to write me.
Now, Speaking of anniversaries...
A SALUTE TO AMERICA ONLINE'S FIRST 10 YEARS
===========================================
A Long, Long Time Ago..
In the spring of 1985, a management group rose from the ashes of
Control Video,( a company that had planned to provide video games
via modem just as the Atari video game market was bottoming out)
to form Quantum Computer Services. In September of the same year,
Quantum Computer Services launched their first service, "Q-Link",
which was an online service for the Commodore 64 computer.
In September, 1985, Q-Link was more than just an "online service".
It was the first online service aimed at the mainstream consumer
providing an easy to use graphical interface. Then, MS-Windows was
just a glimmer in Bill G's. eyes -- a shadow of what it would one day
become, the PC's of the day didn't have the fast processors and
require mega-mega RAM.
Quantum had done something truly distinctive. While their competition
were text based services (CompuServe and The Source) Q-Link,
delivered a "multimedia" interface complete with sound (music),
graphics (albeit cheesy, but hey, it was 1985), and games.
The first time I logged onto Q-Link in June of 1987, though already
online for many years, I saw that with a modem-equipped computer and
an intuitive interface, a piece of the future could be had in the
present.
Admittedly I'm no longer much of a "chatmeister", but I'll never
forget the first time I went into Q-Link's "People Connection".
I sat in awe for over an hour merely "lurking". Modems were
about communications -- but there is a vast difference between
"computers communicating via modem" and "people communicating
via computer". What I saw was a tool that made it so easy to
communicate that anyone could do it. I believed that sort of
tool was powerful.
I knew for sure on that June night over 8 years ago, that someday
online services would reach the critical mass they're experiencing
today.
The only surprise at all is that it has taken this long, and the
proliferation of MS-Windows as the operating system of choice, to bring
online to the masses.
Most of you know that Q-Link grew up to be America Online. While
America Online is more powerful, has more to offer and is, in general,
better than it ever has been, the core group, led by Steve Case has
never wavered from its original intent. Make a service that is easy
and fun to use. For me, and a lot of other former "Q-Link" folks, the
America Online of today is not vastly different from the Q-Link of yesterday.
"In our first five years (1985-90), we were in bootstrap mode, creating
private label services for Commodore (Q-Link), Apple (AppleLink Personal
Edition), Tandy (PC-Link), and IBM (Promenade)," America Online's
Steve Case explained to me in a recent e-mail.
"In our second five years (1990-95), we launched America Online as an
independent brand, and established it as the #1 1 online service," Case
added.
In 1992, the company went public with an IPO and became America Online,
Inc. Aggressive pricing, bundling and direct mail came next. Finally,
original services such as PC-LINK and Q-LINK were abandoned so that all
focus could be put on the
single America Online Brand. The marketing strategy has paid off in spades.
Case is pleased with the Company's progress to date, but notes
that "there's still a long road ahead in terms of realizing the
full potential of this medium."
"In the next five years (1995-2000), I am hopeful that we'll really
hit our stride, and play a defining role in developing and shaping this
interactive medium as it reaches out and attracts a mainstream
audience," Case said.
Indeed he should be optimistic. In spite of many technical
problems associated with skyrocketing growth, AOL has 10 years of
experience operating an online service _the right way_. Though
far from perfect, America Online has perfected "not being
perfect" better than any of their competition.
Despite AOL membership's embarrassing Internet moments and heat
from seasoned netters, America Online has done more than any
other company to bring online to the masses.
They developed a proven marketing strategy and if imitation
really is the sincerest form of flattery, then AOL should be
flush from flattery from their competition, specifically Prodigy,
CompuServe and newer services such as The Microsoft Network.
America Online will either evolve into something new and better
or go the way of the dinosaur. While the Web is great, the Web is
controlled by no single entity. As a result, efforts to standardize
the foundation of the Web are scattered. America Online is
a controlled environment, and they have a strategic advantage:
a clear vision. They want to be the biggest and best online service
in the world. If they stick to the principles that have made them the
number one online service in America, they should help lead the way
into the next century by leveraging the state-of-the-art multimedia
technology.
My hats off to everyone at America Online for a fine 10 years. The next
10 will be interesting to watch. Let's just hope they bring better
quality
America Online commercials.
DR. DAVE SAYS
=============
Dr. Dave is my technical adviser. He doesn't say much, but when
he does I listen.
Friday afternoon, I received this message from Dave:
---
From: Dr. Dave
To: robert@clark.net
Subject: Hot Java for WIN95
Date: Fri, 1 Sep 1995 17:06:53 -0400
http://www.netex.net/w95/windows95/new/hotjava-alpha3-win32-x86.exe Got
it, tried it, ditched netscape. Blows netscape into yesterdays low tech.
Have a fun weekend.
---
I couldn't get to the program via the URL Dr. Dave supplied, but
was able to get it direct from Sun at:
http://java.sun.com/installation-alpha3-win32-x86.html
Note: You'll need to use Win 95's 32-bit winsock.dll for this to
work -- if you've installed Win 95, it's probably there already.
While the HotJava browser is impressive, I'm not as taken with it
as Dr. Dave for several reasons. Sooner or later I'll get around
to writing about them. Besides, Netscape has already licensed the
HotJava technology from Sun and hopes to incorporate it by next year.
MSN PERFORMANCE UPDATE
======================
While the performance problems persist, MSN's General Manager
Russell Siegelman has clarified some of the points I raised last
week, especially with regard to caching graphics.
"Your column isn't entirely accurate," Siegelman wrote me. "We
do cache graphics, but not all. For example we cache bitmaps and
icons from the content tree (the category windows that you use to
traverse the hierarchy of services). This cache is persistent
across sessions (ie. across logging off and on again ).
"A lot of the content you view is done by a tool called Media
View. This tool does cache graphics and text within a title (say
within MSN News or MSN Today) on a per session per title basis.
So, for example, if you are using MSN News, and you download page
1, then go to page 2, then 1 is cached and is quickly to retrieve
it when you go back to page 1. If you close MSN News, or you log
out, then you need to download page 1 again. This is NOT true of
the category tree, as above (it is persistently cached across sessions).
"Later this fall/winter a lot of our MediaView content will be moving
to the Blackbird tool. With Blackbird, there is persistent caching across
sessions. It is not clear if we will make caching improvements
with Media View," Siegelman noted.
So, essentially until Blackbird flies, the methods used by Web
browsers and proprietary services such as America Online will
offer superior performance to MSN since they perpetually cache.
In previous issues, I've noted that when using the "Internet and
MSN" combo via UUNET, the access to items on the net was very
fast and reflected a 28.8 Kbps connection, but that usage of the
proprietary MSN software seemingly operated no faster than MSN
via a 14.4 Kbps connection.
This led me to ask Siegelman if they were back throttling high
access speeds to the "online" portion of the Microsoft Network.
"We are not throttling," said Seigelman, adding that while
they've had "slightly slower" connections via their data center
on an intermittent basis, they are working very hard to ensure
good performance on all connections.
USA TODAY UPDATE
================
Last week, I reported that USA TODAY launched a service on MSN
(via Web links) and that they've abandoned their exclusive
approach of a "closed Web service" which they first launched in
April, 1995. In other words, anyone with Web access can access
all of the USA TODAY content, not just MSN subscribers or folks
who originally signed-up for the web-based subscription USA TODAY
service.
Evidently I scooped USA TODAY's own PR folks. This week, they
put out an announcement stating that they were in fact now open
to the web, and that the full USA TODAY content could be accessed
for FREE... for a limited time.
As I noted last week, when you access USA TODAY via MSN, you go
to USA TODAY's Web pages. When you access USA TODAY via the Web
using a browser, you go to USA TODAY's Web pages. In other
words, the same content is accessed by either route.
This is an interesting "content acquisition" strategy for MSN.
Since USA TODAY took the time to make an announcement that they'd
launched a service on MSN, I was perhaps expecting different content
than the "freebie" Web links. However, it was another deal that made
me wonder about MSN's content acquisition strategy...
USA TODAY can be found on the Web at: http://www.usatoday.com
WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH PATHFINDER ON MSN?
=======================================
Time Inc. didn't put out a press release announcing that they
were launching the PATHFINDER service on MSN. However, the
Pathfinder service isn't positioned from the customer perspective
any differently than the USA TODAY service.
If you look in the "News" category on MSN, there are choices like
"MSN News," "up to the Minute News from Reuters," "Weather", "USA
TODAY", and PATHFINDER. Just like USA TODAY, PATHFINDER on MSN
is a series of icons that points to various pages on PATHFINDER.
I spoke to Stephen Baldwin, a PATHFINDER Editorial Department
member, about this arrangement. "We got mail from the MSN
Webmaster asking if they could put up some links to our content,"
said Baldwin, adding that they approved the link request.
Sure, why not, everyone wants links. Hell, MSN is CHARGING
web services for links to their sites, so why NOT take the freebie.
The problem here is that the way that PATHFINDER is positioned on MSN,
it appears to MSN subscribers as though it were an MSN content partner.
I wrote to Walter Isaacson, Editor of New Media at Time Inc. to
find out if PATHFINDER has a revenue sharing arrangement with
MSN. Mr. Isaacson has not yet responded (though given the time
of year he might be on vacation.)
While I can see why PATHFINDER might want to take the links and
increase their exposure, the way it looks on MSN is that
PATHFINDER is one of MSN's premier news providers. If USA TODAY
is in a revenue sharing arrangement with MSN, then PATHFINDER
certainly ought to get a slice of that action.
From an MSN standpoint, this is an interesting move -- they're
lacking in-depth content, so pointing to content that's already out there
and positioning it as if it were a part of the MSN service seems
pretty smart.
Pathfinder is available on the Web at: http://www.pathfinder.com
DAVE POOL'S ONE MAN CRUSADE AGAINST MICROSOFT
=============================================
Several weeks ago, I received e-mail from David Pool, a
CompuServe Executive Vice-President. Pool was the top dog at the
company formerly known as Spry. Last March, CompuServe shelled
out a cool $100 million to acquire Spry, best known for their
"Internet-In-A-Box" software.
In the process, Pool probably became a millionaire. These days, Pool
heads up the "CompuServe Internet Division" which is also referred to as
"Compuserve Seattle."
A few weeks ago, Pool contacted me to discuss the fact that Win 95 will
overwrite any existing winsock.dll in the \Windows directory when it
installs. If you have an existing Internet setup that points to a
winsock.dll in the \Windows directory, once you install Win 95, that
setup is trashed. It's true. It happens and it happens whether you
choose to install MSN or Win 95's networking protocols or not.
The solution is to take a backup of your old winsock.dll (if you
have one) and replace it with the winsock.dll put in by the Win
'95 directory. But wait, there's more.
If you want to maintain your own connection, be very aware of a
winsock.dll in your \windows\sysbckup directory because there's
an identical Win 95 winsock.dll in there, too, which will
overwrite your preferred winsock.dll even after your replace it.
I confess that I was remiss in not reporting this. Making the
above changes doesn't seem like a big deal to me -- in fact, it
seems like a day in the life of a typical Windows user.
However, I am not a typical Windows user and NOBODY should have
to go through that just to fix what was already there.
Fortunately, Dave Pool didn't stop his efforts. He kept hammering on
reporters until some of them listened. This week, the Wall
Street Journal's Jared Sandberg covered these issues . CNN picked it up.
And I got about 57 pieces of mail on the subject within 3 hours.
For me, the problem described above was never "a problem." I use
Netmanage's Chameleon 4.5. Netmanage does something very nice
that all software makers should do. They put all of their files
in THEIR OWN DIRECTORY. So, even though Win '95 added a
winsock.dll to the "\windows directory", my configuration was
still intact.
If this problem sounds vaguely familiar it's because several months ago,
right here in this newsletter, I wrote about another company that
was overwriting existing winsock.dll files thus screwing up
existing Internet connections. That company was none other than
CompuServe with their Netlauncher (also knows as the CompuServe
Internet Dialer) created by Pool's division.
But this really isn't a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Pool has expressed disgust at what Win 95 does, and he's right on
the mark. At least the CompuServe's Netlauncher warned the user
through a prompt about the replacement and let the user decide if
the winsock.dll in the /windows directory would be over-written.
With Win 95 there is no warning, no prompt, no nothing.
And again, overwrites any winsock.dll in the \Windows
directory EVEN IF YOU DON'T INSTALL MSN or Microsoft's networking
protocols.
Bob Williams, Marketing VP for Netmanage isn't as concerned as
Pool, because after all, his software isn't affected by activity
in the \windows directory. But perhaps he should get more
concerned.
When I installed Win 95, I specifically chose NOT to have their
networking protocols installed in favor of the Token Ring set-up
that was already in place with the Netmanage software. So,
what happened? Win 95 went into my autoexec.bat and config.sys
files and remarked out all the statements that loaded drivers for
my Netmanage setup. It looked like this:
rem - By Windows 95 Network - C:\NETMANAG\NETBIND
Remember, I specifically asked NOT TO INSTALL their network
protocols. This is "SpiteWare" and it is so pointless.
Pool, however, believes there is a point. He feels Microsoft is hoping
everyone will just give up and use Microsoft's software and
services. It isn't difficult to see where he may draw that
conclusion.
While other online service executives are decrying the bundling of MSN's
access software, Pool is instead intent on making the Justice
Department aware of the Win 95 practices outlined above.
Pool is also upset that he hasn't received the Win 95 APIs so
that he can customize his software to the Win 95 stack.
Microsoft claims to have supplied Pool with everything he needs,
but Pool alleges that this is not true.
I've said before that I don't think Pool will be happy until
Microsoft is broken up into separate companies. Next on his
agenda -- Microsoft's Blackbird tool for developing software
applications for the Microsoft Network. Blackbird is not yet
commercially available, but he believes Microsoft is already
writing their own applications with it.
Pool worries about a day where Microsoft applications like Word
and Excel have built-in hooks to the Microsoft Network. He wants
the Justice Department to keep their eyes on that as well.
While Pool is certainly looking out for his own best interests, his
work may benefit others. In any case, he won't stop talking until
somebody listens. Pool believes the Justice Department is listening
now.
Whatever his interests, I'm extremely intolerant of this sort of SpiteWare
and wish Pool success in his personal war against these annoying
Microsoft
practices.
HOTWIRED LINES UP ALLIANCES
=============================
I received several letters questioning the significance of
HotWired's recent announcement that it had lined up major
investors including, WPP Group plc, parent of J. Walter Thompson
and Ogilvy & Mather, and affiliates of Sega Enterprises, Ltd.,
Germany's media conglomerate Burda, and Pacific Telesis. These
investors combined for about a 15% stake in HotWired Ventures
LLC.
While raising capital clearly was one factor, according to
HotWired CEO, Andrew Anker, the alliances were about "more than
money." "We sought alliances that would strengthen our position
as an interactive media company," said Anker. The race to
secure advertising dollars on the Web is heating up. "[The Web
is not just] about a bunch of kids putting up a Web site, this is
big media," he noted. "We needed strategic alliances that help
us compete."
When Anker asks himself who his competition is, he comes up with
huge media conglomerates like Time-Warner (PATHFINDER).
"We don't own a cable company in Elmira, NY," (referring to recent
cable trials by a Time-Warner cable service) noted Anker. Anker
pointed out that an alliance with Pacific Telesis would possibly
allow them to participate in tests of high speed delivery of the
HotWired service. WPP has a lot of marketing and PR clout, and
Berda could assist HotWired in European and Asian expansion.
Keep a watch on HotWired. According to Anker, a lot of new
content, including things like the "Rough Guides" travel guides
will be coming up over the next few months.
HotWired can be found at http://www.hotwired.com
Miscellany
==========
THIS IS CNN. James Earl Jones I'm not, but you won't need to use
the force to check out CNN. Just fire up your Web browser and
point it to: http://www.cnn.com
--
A NEW REPORT from SIMBA predicts online revenues to reach $24.1
billion in 1999, up from $13.8 billion in 1994. Today, the
consumer market represents only a fraction of the sales cited in
the SIMBA report.
Online brokerage information services accounted for 45.9% of
sales, but the consumer sector is growing at a far more rapid
pace than the business services (40.7% growth vs. 15.3%). The
report predicts that by 1999 there will be 26 million consumer
online subscribers worldwide, compared to the 6.6 million counted
in '94.
--
STILL NOT BIG ENOUGH? Is the Internet by itself an effective
enough marketing tool to drive big revenues? Over month and a
half ago, the Wall Street Journal fired up its Money and
Investing Update at http://update.wsj.com.
This week, the Journal announced that over 65,000 have registered
for the site. Not bad, but when you consider that the service is
free now, it makes me wonder. Once the "Interactive Edition"
consists of the full contents of the Wall Street Journal, they'll
begin charging subscription fees. It will be interesting to find
out how many users they get then. For now, it seems a disk in
the mail is worth more than a free page on the Web. America
Online typically signs up 65,000 new users (and gets their credit
card numbers) in less than 10 days.
--
SEARS TO REVIEW PRODIGY options. According to Reuters, Sears,
Roebuck and Co. will complete its review of options involving
their 50% interest in Prodigy. "When we have that (review)
process done by the end of the year, we'll decide how we want to
play and if we want to remain a partner in the company," Sears
Chairman and CEO Arthur Martinez told Reuters.
While Prodigy is now turning a profit for the first time in 11
years, according to Martinez, the profits are not significant.
Prodigy is a 50-50 venture between Sears and IBM. Sears original
investment in Prodigy was based on financial reasons and it is
questionable whether the investment will pay off. "It is not
clear, frankly, that we bring anything (strategically) to it,"
Martinez said.
--
SPEAKING OF PRODIGY - Prodigy recently won the 1995 Dvorak award
for "Outstanding Commercial Online Information Service." at the
4th annual John C. Dvorak awards last month in Tampa (in
conjunction with One BBS CON).
Accepting the award for Prodigy was Steve Larsen who played an
instrumental role in launching the Web and Chat services that
helped Prodigy get out of the red ink (even if only marginally).
According to insiders, Larsen plans to take advantage of recent
Prodigy reorganization and leave the Prodigy fold for greener
online pastures.
--
STILL MORE PRODIGY - Newsweek Interactive (one Prodigy Service
that I rave about) has begun offering links directly to the Web
from its magazine content. This is the way it ought to be.
---
OUR FRIENDS at CMP's Interactive Age ceased paper production in favor
of Web production and e-mail deliveries. Now you can buy the cow
by e-mail instead of getting the milk for free on the Web.
Interactive Age announced in their last stand alone paper version
that they would begin offering the Interactive Age Daily by
e-mail for $90/yr., $50 for 6 months, or $30 for 3 months.
Prediction: they'll drop this approach in 6 months entirely or in
favor of advertising subsidized version. Services which provide a
similar news for less money already exist. Chuck Martin, publisher
of Interactive Age, has not responded to my requests for comment.
---
NEWSPAPERS ONLINE aren't saving many trees. Access Atlanta which
launched about a year and a half ago on Prodigy has just
announced they've reached the 20,000 subscriber threshold.
Unless the operation only consists of a few people, this has to
be a real money loser. Same goes for TimesLink (also on
Prodigy). They made a similar announcement earlier this summer.
They must be biting their nails over at Interchange where the
Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Washington Post's Digital Ink are
hosted. And they said content was king in this medium. Free
content, perhaps.
--
EAT DRINK AND BE MERRY. Check out Conde Nast's Epicurious site
on the Web at: http://www.epicurious.com. Conde Nast continues
their trend of grouping Web sites by topic rather than magazine.
Epicurious is billed as being "For People That Eat". That ought
to have pretty wide appeal. Eating, drinking, playing with your
food and more. I tried it, I liked it.
--
ROCK AND ROLL IS HERE TO STAY on the Web, courtesy of the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Celebrate the grand opening
at: http://www.rockhall.com/ .
--
AOL insiders (and outsiders) have told me that the Los Angeles
Times report citing a 5,000 capacity for AOL during the Michael
Jackson simulchat were wrong. Many wrote in, including one
CompuServe employee to say that AOL's capacity during the event
was not 5,000 but 16,000. Insiders at AOL claim that they were
filled to capacity at the beginning of the event.
--
And for the first time in a year, I won't see you next week. But
I'll be back with the next issue of "In, Around and Online"
sometime around 2 weeks from now...
Stock Watch
===========
This Last 52 52
Week's Week's Week Week
Company Ticker Close Close High Low
------- ------ ------ ------ ------- -------
America Online AMER $66.50 $71.38 $74.50 $14.94
Apple AAPL $56.00 $42.94 $50.94 $32.50
AT&T T $56.00 $55.00 $56.63 $47.25
Bolt,Beranek & Newman BBN $33.13 $34.88 $39.38 $12.63
FTP Software FTPS $22.75 $25.13 $35.50 $19.00
General Elec. GE $58.75 $58.63 $60.50 $45.38
H&R Block HRB $38.88 $37.00 $47.63 $33.00
IBM IBM $102.75 $111.38 $114.63 $66.63
MCI MCIC $24.63 $23.44 $25.88 $17.25
Mecklermedia Corp. MECK $42.00 $40.75 $48.75 $ 4.25
Microsoft MSFT $89.75 $97.25 $110.25 $53.88
Netcom NETC $37.38 $32.75 $41.63 $16.75
Netscape Comm. Corp NSCP $48.75 $52.62 $75.00 $45.75
NetManage NETM $19.63 $20.00 $22.50 $ 8.88
News Corp. NWS $22.75 $23.75 $25.13 $14.38
Performance Syst. Intl PSIX $18.00 $21.62 $25.50 $12.00
Sears S $33.25 $34.75 $35.75 $21.50
Spyglass Inc. SPYG $42.75 $44.00 $54.00 $26.50
UUNET Technologies UUNT $45.13 $48.25 $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
=============================
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