Suz wrote:
> >> 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.
I think the failure point for LinkExchange comes down to a quality issue.
They allow people to design scads of ugly banners and they act as a means of
distributing them across the net. There is no quality control, as far as I
could tell last time I was at the LinkExchange site. Free begets garbage, in
this case. The success/failure point for LinkExchange will probably boil
down to reputation.
> 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.
Have you tested it yourself? I took a quick look, but went on to other
things.
> 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.
Who were the "members"? Members of WebRing, or general users that somehow
acquired a login?
> 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.
That is certainly how the "portals" are starting to look to me. I can now
get the same syndicated, mass-media approved news from my choice of portals.
Oh, delight! People are more unique. The web allows an individual to explore
new things. There certainly is a catch 22 going with the development of
corporate-run "portal" sites. Portal to what?
On the bright side, though, I do think that better net guides will develop
simultaneously...and maybe they'll have a different idea on how to make
money. Maybe something beyond selling advertising to the buyers with the
deepest pockets. Guides can offer quality...and system with a variety of
guides can offer more to more people.
Kathy? Opinions, since I think you're a Mining Co guide?
Jack
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