>> http://www.charlotte.com/0727portal.htm
>>
>> the ``portal,'' a
>> scheme whereby a handful of mostly money-losing enterprises
>> band together to form a mega-Web site that combines
>> searching, content, e-mail, chat and other services.
This was the part that intrigued me the most, since I had that go-nowhere
experience as an employee of the company that owns WebRing, which was
recently described by another WC list member as being of dubious value.
WebRing's owners have been severely operating in the red for over a year
and a half, yet they continue to market themselves to potential investors
as "the next Yahoo."
Recently they signed a licensing agreement with Merchant Planet. Passing no
judgement on Merchant Planet, I'll just mention that it was recently bought
up by the same company that runs LinkExchange, another promotion route
recently described by fellow list members as being of little value.
WebRings' owners were, at the time I worked there, also talking with the
NetMechanic folks about a licensing agreement. And just the other day, I
received an email from someone angrily demanding that I take NetMechanic
off of my MegaList because the results he got with it were basically a load
of crap.
At the time I left WebRing, they were talking portal, even though they
weren't using that particular buzz word. "Member's Lobby" was the catch
phrase of the moment. This article about portals sure makes me wonder if,
at least at the WebRing level, a portal is no more than a gathering place
for Web services of little value. Brings to mind images of garbage piled
upon garbage.
Suz
Suzanne Stephens, Stephens Design; Ashland, Oregon
541-552-1192 http://www.KickassDesign.com/
CyberCircus Grand Prize Winners http://www.thecybercircus.com/
Web Page Design for Designers Design Resources: http://www.wpdfd.com/wpdres.htm
Clip Art: http://www.freeimages.com/artists/
____________________________________________________________________
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Join The Web Consultants Association : Register on our web site Now
Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants
If you lose the instructions All subscription/unsubscribing can be done
directly from our website for all our lists.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
