December 1998

The Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the undisputed king of electronic civil liberties watchdog groups. According to their own "About EFF" page,

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan organization working in the public interest to protect fundamental civil liberties, including privacy and freedom of expression, in the arena of computers and the Internet.

The EFF's mission includes:

1. Ensuring that network providers carry all speech, regardless of its controversial content;
2. Supporting broader public access to information, through an Electronic Freedom of Information Act and other legislation to make government information more accessible to citizens;
3. Supporting privacy in communications, including advocacy of measures that ensure the public's right to use the most effective encryption technologies available;
4. Supporting an Open Platform model of the global information infrastructure, providing nondiscriminatory access, based on open, private-sector standards, free from burdensome regulation;
5. Encouraging the government to provide support for schools, universities, and research labs that buy Internet services on the open market;
6. Encouraging the government to stimulate the development of experimental, precompetitive, network technologies and to fund the development of applications that are of use to "low-end" users, who are traditionally underserved by advanced digital media.

The EFF Web site is an unparalleled source of news, information, and activism. The archives are a surprisingly large warehouse of information on legislation and regulation, legal and intellectual property issues, censorship, privacy, surveillance, cryptography, Net culture and social responsibility. The organization's online bulletin, the EFFector Online Newsletter, is updated frequently. The organization has recently expanded into the print world with a new Internet liberty guidebook entitled Protecting Yourself Online: The Definitive Resource on Safety, Freedom & Privacy in Cyberspace (The book is free with your US$65 EFF membership ;-)

A key element to EFF's tremendous online success has been the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign. All Web users are strongly encouraged to place a Blue Ribbon Campaign icon on their Web pages, to show support for the essential human right of free speech, "A fundamental building block of free society, affirmed by the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights in 1948." The Blue Ribbon has become an important way for the EFF to raise awareness of online censorship and freedom issues. You don't even have to be an EFF member to join the campaign. HTML code and instructions are provided, and adding the attractive, animated .gif to a Web page is simple. Visitors that click on the image are taken to the Blue Ribbon Campaign Intro page. There are even Regional campaigns for both Canada and Portugal The EFF Web site has been ranked by WebCrawler as one of the 4 most-linked-to sites on the Web, due largely to this astute marketing tool.

"The price of freedom is eternal diligence". Unless we keep informed, decisions will be made before we even know that there are choices. The EFF has high public visibility and an authoritative voice on new media freedom and privacy issues, and is a wise addition to anyone's bookmark list.

November 1998

Webring

Is it the future of Internet searching, or just a good way to waste a few hours online? Webring is a grassroots system of organizing Web sites that might someday give search engines a run for their money.

Essentially, Webrings group sites with similar subjects in continuous loops. The home page of each member site contains a ring navigation bar, usually at the bottom of the page. In addition to the ring's identifying graphic, the nav bar contains links to the "next" site in the ring, the "previous" site in the ring, and a "random" site in the ring. Most also contain the option to see a list of the "next 5" sites in the ring or to view the entire "index" of the ring's sites. To surf the ring, all you have to do is click on the "next" link, and you will be taken to the next site in the ring. That site will also contain the nav bar, allowing you to continue your trek around the ring. There is a ring for every subject you might find on the Web, from Anarchy to Zen. Individual site owners join rings to increase traffic or simply to become part of something larger than a single site.

Most people find out about Webrings when they happen upon a member site, see the ring nav bar, and follow the links. It's also possible to treat the Webring's "Ringworld" (a searchable directory of all rings organized by subject) as one would any other directory, like Yahoo - as a starting point for Internet research. There are two big differences, however, between the Webring and traditional search tools. First, the results of a "search" of Webring space tends to return more relevant results than a search with traditional tools. For example, an Alta Vista search on "Star Trek" will return an insurmountably huge response, with many references that are only marginally related to the TV series, if at all. However, the same search on Ringworld will return the names of the various Star Trek rings, each of which contains only sites with direct relevance to Star Trek. Because the owner of every member site must request membership in a particular ring, then modify the HTML code of their own site to accomodate the ring nav bar code, it is rare to come across a site in a ring that does not contain content directly related to the ring topic. Second, the method of navigating between search "Results" is much different. Rather than have to re-trace your steps back to the search engine results page when you want to visit the next site, you merely return to the site's home page and click on the "next" button in the nav bar.

The latest available stats point to more than 534,370 sites registered in over 46,330 rings. Currently, Webring.org's large number of rings include sites in the following large categories: Arts and Humanities, Business and Economy, Computers, Internet, Health, Recreation and Sports, Entertainment, Society and Culture, and Miscellaneous. Each of these categories is divided into relevant subcategories, which in turn contain numerous individual rings. Rings can contain any number of sites; on average, however, you can expect most successful rings to contain between 20 and 200 sites. What really counts is that there are enough sites in a given ring to make surfing the ring worthwhile from a user's perspective.

The Webring system was invented by Sage Weil in the summer of 1995, when he was just 17. Expanding upon an existing system that used fixed links on member pages to direct navigation in a loop, Weil decided to improve on the concept by linking pages in the ring via a centralized CGI script. This improvement allowed site owners to link to a Webring address that would in turn look up the current URL for the next site in the ring. This not only eliminated the need for site owners to constantly update anchor tags as the ring grew, but greatly reduced "Dead ends", which resulted when sites moved or disappeared.

In 1997, Weil sold Webring to Starseed, a Web-tech developer in Ashland, Oregon. Starseed president Charley Lanusse is adamant that Webring remain a self-building, grassroots endeavor, free of censorship or editorial restrictions, and that Webring members not be forced to display advertisements or otherwise alter their pages. However, he also says that advertising is his biggest priority for Webring. Currently, the only banner ads on Webring's site are on the ring directory pages. Commercial sites make up about 10% of Webring's members right now, but Lanusse plans to fill their ranks.

Webrings are sometimes busts for tracking down a lot of useful information, since many of the sites on rings are eccentric and personal. There are many rings devoted to entertainers, movies, music and TV. While small businesses, particularly non-technical businesses and retailers, have jumped on board in large numbers, the Webring concept has been slow to appear in corporate web marketing plans. Before corporate web designers agree to put rings on their sites, the layout and design of ring blocks will likely become smaller, more compact, maybe even able to fit into the common vertical navigation column. Once big businesses begin implementing rings, cosmetic changes are sure to occur, but the principle will likely remain the same: once you begin surfing a ring, there is no clear beginning or ending, just a circle of related material.

Adoption of the Webring concept by big business may take time, but don't rule rings out. Today's corporate marketers may be skeptical of web rings, but who would have thought banner ads would catch on the way they did? Ad revenues are big business for many companies, and small businesses and personal sites have been quick to sign up with free banner programs like the Internet Link Exchange. Generating traffic is the name of the game, and the "whatever works" mentality drives the market. Rings may be the next massive marketing trend, and it's important to note that they represent something entirely new. Like banner ads on sites, Webrings are a way to advertise. But, unlike banners, they don't involve random promotion for someone else's site. While a member site may be linking to competitor's sites, the competitor's info (a lower price or a new product) doesn't actually appear on the member's page.

If you take to rings, Webring.org has information on how you can join an existing ring. If there's not an existing ring on a subject, you can start one. Your biggest challenge will be getting other sites to join your ring. In the long run, however, seeking out stellar sites on a related subject could mean more traffic (and more revenues) for everyone. Webring.org monitors traffic and stats for ring sites - a nice bonus for small businesses.

The success of Webrings has spawned other systems based on the concept of linking related sites in a continuous loop. Check out Webring's competition: RingSurf, Looplink, Web Tower, and The Rail all offer similar services.

October 1998

ClickZ Today

If you want to stay in touch with the latest developments in the dynamic world of Internet marketing, check out ClickZ Today. Founded by publisher Andrew Bourland in May of 1997, ClickZ Today is an Internet publication with industry-wide influence on Internet marketing and advertising professionals. The site offers cutting-edge editorial on the issues facing Internet publishers and ad agencies.

As you would expect from an Internet publication focused on Internet marketing, the site is updated daily with new features and information. ClickZ Today has consistently obtained high-quality contributions from industry leaders and practitioners. There's a daily column written by an industry expert, plus weekly interviews with online marketing leaders. Past articles, columns and reviews are arranged by category and are easily accessible via the navagation bar. You'll find information on conferences and events and a collection of discussion lists devoted to online marketing. If you're looking for professional assistance in Web site development, launch or promotion, you'll appreciate the comprehensive index of marketing service firms.

Since its launch, ClickZ Today has published over 250 columns written by online marketing and advertising specialists. The site receives close to 4,000 visits daily, while nearly 9,000 people receive the daily publication via e-mail. ClickZ Today's success has resulted in the inevitable expansion to the "ClickZ Network", now including the "ClickZines" Microscope, Who's Marketing Online and ZCommerce. There's also SearchZ, the first dedicated search engine covering online advertising, marketing and commerce.

Given the subject area, it's no surprise that the site has its share of ads. In fact, the first thing you might notice about the site is that the day's article on the home page is flanked by two strips of ads running vertically down the page. So who advertises on ClickZ Today? Firms that provide products or services to online marketers and want to reach decisionmakers with buying power. There are several ways to get your message in front of these professionals, including banners, badges and buttons. Advertisers on the SearchZ search site can link the appearance of their ads to search categories, keywords and/or keyphrases.

ClickZ Today has established a central role in the Internet marketing industry through quality editorials and extensive in-depth analysis. In becoming essential daily reading for industry insiders, ClickZ Today has turned into a financial success. Like the title bar on the home page says, ClickZ Today is truly "The Daily Stop for Online Marketers."

ClickZ Today was awarded the 1997 Tenagra Award for Internet Marketing Excellence.

September 1998

CNN Interactive

A key reason for the phenomenal growth of the Internet is its ability to deliver up-to-the-minute information on demand. As a result, the Internet has become a major tool in the dissemination of news. It is no surprise that many of the established news services (print, television and radio) have produced online versions, to cash in on the uniquely human desire to keep informed. CNN Interactive is the online arm of CNN's 24-hour television news network, and is the most popular online news service available today. Cable News Network, a Time Warner company, has long been the leader in up-to-the-minute, late breaking news on television, with both the main CNN channel and CNN Headline News. CNN has many imitators, but no equal; with a worldwide newsgathering organization of more than 3,500 news specialists in 36 bureaus and more than 600 broadcast affiliates, CNN has the resources to lead the field in news reporting worldwide.

With this kind of news gathering infrastructure, it was only logical that CNN enter the world of online news. Launched in August, 1995, CNN Interactive (CNNin for short) provides everything you would expect from a cutting-edge online news service, including coverage of: U.S., World and Local News; Travel; Science & Technology; Books; Showbiz; Style; Weather; and Health. The site also features a Daily News Quiz and special in-depth Features. As you would expect from a television-based organization, there is plenty of video and audio available for download, using either RealNetworks' RealVideo or Windows Media streaming video players. The site is visually appealing and well organized, with a navigation frame and site search tool making it easy to find the specific news item you're looking for. CNN Custom News allows users to create their own CNN Web Site, including an individual home page geared to personal interests in news, stock information, weather and sports data.

CNNin is actually but one of a family of CNN Web sites, including CNNfn, a leading source for breaking business & financial news; CNNSI.com, a sports web site from CNN and Sports Illustrated; CNN/TIME AllPolitics, a political web site from CNN and TIME magazine; CNNenEspañol.com, a Spanish language news web site; CNNemPortugues.com, which presents breaking news, information and event coverage in Portuguese; and Svenska CNN, consisting of daily news summaries and headlines in Swedish.

With an unduplicated monthly audience of more than 10.5 million users, CNNin has the largest reach of any news site on the Web. The CNN brand name has the proven ability to draw viewers to CNN Interactive: traffic on the site has grown to nearly 100 million page views per week, with a significant increase in the number of views when major news events occur. CNNin offers marketers several customized online advertising opportunities. Banner ads run across the top of most pages on the site, and are rotated by Net Gravity, a dynamic advertising delivery system that rotates banners throughout the entire site. Rather than hard-wiring ads to a position on a particular page, rotation ensures that all advertisers receive premium placement. In addition to banner ads, CNNin offers sponsorships of specific content areas, special features and event coverage. In this way, for example, a pharmaceutical company which markets allergy relief products can sponsor the CNN Interactive Allergy Report. CNNin also offers advertisers the opportunity to created integrated media packages on TV and the Internet.

CNNin is an advertiser's dream, for several reasons. The CNN brand name provides a highly credible environment for an advertising message, since the high quality and standards that consumers have come to trust in CNN is translated to the advertiser's product message. The CNN brand attracts a highly attractive demographic: affluent, educated business professionals with tremendous buying power. Furthermore, the CNN News Group cross-promotes its networks and web sites on-air, online and in all print advertising for the networks. The nature of the ever-changing content on CNNin means that viewers return to the site frequently to stay on top of breaking news - in fact, CNNin is updated 80-90 times per day. Finally, advertisers are provided with weekly reports that track the delivery of ads, including daily gross impressions or page views of the banner ad as well as the number of users that click on the banner and transfer to the sponsor's Web site.

A short trip to 100hot.com, which lists the Web's most popular sites based on traffic, will confirm that CNN Interactive retains not only first place in the News category, but consistently ranks in the top ten Web sites in the world. The American Journalism Review ranked CNN Interactive "Top News Site of the Year" for both 1995 and 1996. In January, 1996, Internet World said "CNN has steadily built the best all-around news site on the Net. CNN Interactive is a model of how do news online right." CNNin was was ranked the #1 online source for news in an online poll conducted by PC Magazine in April, 1997.

June 1998

LinkExchange

There are a plethora of banner exchange companies on the Web today (check out Yahoo for the latest list). But the first, and still the biggest, is LinkExchange. With over 250,000 members, and displaying five to ten million ads every day, LinkExchange is the Web's largest advertising network.

The idea behind banner exchange is simple: in return for showing other firm's advertising banners on your site, LinkExchange will show your banner ad on other sites in the network. For every two banners you display, you get one impression on another site. LinkExchange then sells the excess inventory created by the 2-to-1 ratio to generate its revenue. The service allows small businesses with equally small advertising budgets to begin online advertising without cost. This idea - to provide valuable service without charging a fee - is an important aspect of Internet culture. "This is a business model that emerged as part of the Web. It was organic growth." - Skye Ketonen, director of marketing communications at LinkExchange. In addition, LinkExchange has successfully disseminated its brand identity by placing the LinkExchange icon on each ad banner.

The participating sites are broken up into thousands of categories and subcategories so advertisers can target their banners and produce optimal traffic. In order to maintain its market share, LinkExchange is consistently upgrading the service with new features. The new LinkExchange Express service is designed to let small businesses buy online ads for as little as $50 a month, whether or not they have ad space of their own to barter. LinkExchange Deluxe features a larger banner size, plus links on the banner to the LinkExchange Web site and SurfPoint, an online directory. Another link on the Deluxe banner allows the viewer to bookmark the advertiser's site with a single click. LinkExchange FastSubmit is a free tool that will register your site with seven major search engines.

LinkExchange was awarded the 1996 Tenagra Award for Internet Marketing Excellence, for its use of successful strategies for Internet advertising, an award shared with Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/).

May 1998

Mayo Health O@sis

There's certainly no lack of health and medical information on the Web, much of it devoted to alternative medicine. But if what you're looking for is the conventional, orthodox Western medical approach, the Mayo Health O@sis is "Head and Shoulders" above the competition. The result of the combined efforts of the renowned Mayo Clinic and IVI Publishing, a publisher of health information, the Health O@sis is everything you could ask for in a Web site: comprehensive, well-designed and user-friendly.

The site is organized into several logical sections, making navigation easy. Information on the most popular health and wellness topics are found in the Resource Centre, with sections on diet & nutrition, pregnancy & child health, cancer, heart disease, medicine and women's health. There are quizzes on topics ranging from blood disorders to sex, and interactive health assessments for maladies like alcoholism and diabetes. The Newsstand contains the most current breakthroughs and stories, while "Ask Mayo" allows interaction with Mayo Clinic physicians, nurses and dietitians. You can subscribe to "Housecall," a free weekly e-mail health newsletter. There's a site map, to aid in navigating the wealth of information, and a search engine that can take you right to what you're looking for. There's even a medical glossary that offers audio files that provide the correct pronunciations of medical terms!

As you would expect, the Health O@sis has garnered its share of awards and recognition from the Web community. These include the Yahoo! Internet Life 5-Star Award, NetGuide Five Stars, Excite Four Stars, and was the 'Best liked' health information web site in the USA Today survey of Web surfers. Reviewers consistently complimented the O@sis on its down-to-earth, approachable style, its breadth and depth of information, and its clean, colourful presentation.

Be warned: A visit to this site can be a time-consuming endeavor. The site is so attractive, so comprehensive and up-to-date, you could spend an entire day just browsing and learning. Prepare yourself accordingly: cancel all your appointments, find a comfortable chair and get a large container of your favorite beverage. Once you're there, you may not want to leave!

April 1998

Sobeys On-Line

Sobeys makes excellent use of the Web in promoting and marketing its chain of over 120 grocery stores in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and Ontario.

The site offers several traffic builders for their stores, the first being a weekly chance to win a $100 gift certificate. An entry ballot is available on line that must be printed and taken to your nearest Sobeys Store.

Other features of the site are links that allow you to actually order from their catering service on-line, get information on Club Sobeys, locate Sobeys store locations, promote their Our Best house brand, highlight monthly specials, and even their own on-line meat department.

At various places throughout the site you will find food preparation tips, recipes, and ideas that incorporate the various products featured. There is even a feedback questionnaire for the site. Completing the survey gets you a pack of product coupons.

It is apparent the Sobeys is not taking their entry into the Web lightly; they cross promote their web site in their media ad campaigns and the URL is printed on their carry-out bags.

Sobeys is truly a Canadian company that is making use of the Internet as an effective marketing tool.

March 1998

HotWired

Since 1994, the good people at Wired Ventures, Inc. have presented the world with a hip and articulate view of the world through various media, the original being the Wired print magazine, a thick, glossy rag full of technical wonder. The online version says "Wired charts the impact of technology on business, culture, life." If you haven't already, pick up a copy. It's an excellent addtition to anyone's coffee table. Wired also offers books through HardWired ("an unparalleled medium for the delivery of high-thought content").

Our featured site this month is HotWired, an online-only, fast-paced look at the worlds of Web design, technology news and opinion. Though "Editorially independent" of Wired magazine, HotWired is written with the same unique essence of graphical flash, unbounded scope of interest and geek snobbery.

The site is divided into six areas, each easily accessible at all times thanks to a clean and efficient menu bar running across the top of most pages on the site. Webmonkey (A How-to Guide for Web Junkies) presents informative articles on cutting-edge Web technology and creative design. Dream Jobs is filled with job postings from tech firms, and resumes from new media job seekers. Synapse contains editorials from a handful of contributors, but Jon Katz in particular. Member Central provides a meeting place for members, including a USENET-like threaded conversation area called Threads, live chat with Talk.com, and member's pages. Web 101 provides basic help to newbies through a comprehensive set of articles and tutorials. Finally, the RGB Gallery "celebrates the convergence of art and technology by showcasing Web-native installations from around the world" (in other words, the Gallery presents a collection of some og the world's best multimedia creative works).

There's a handy search tool to help you locate topics of interest - almost a necessity with a site of such breadth and depth. All of this content comes at a price: at any given time, a portion of the visible screen is devoted to ads. You must become a member in order to chat with online guests and other members on Talk.com, or to join discussions in Threads. Members are also able to customize their experience of HotWired according to their preferences. While HotWired claims never to divulge personal membership information to third parties, the membership system nontheless allows them to provide audited tracking numbers to potential advertisers.

As you might expect, HotWired has garnered the admiration of the online world. Lycos Top 5% rated HotWired the overall winner in their Technology section, scoring 96% for content, 99% for design for an overall score of 97%. HotWired's popularity is confirmed by 100hot.com, which regularly shows HotWired and HotBot in the top 20 most visited sites worldwide.

In the fast-paced, mercurial world of the Internet, no single source ever provides the definitive answer on anything - in fact, one of the beauties of the Net is the ease with which differing views can be expressed and accessed. But if you're looking for the latest in Internet news, tips and trends, HotWired is well worth a visit.