The New Landscape

Where to start...Portals 

Ideally, a portal is the first page you see when you launch your browser. It is the starting and anchor point for your Internet travels common known as your "home" page. Many people leave just keep their default starting page (typically MSN, AOL, or Netscape) and never experiment with other portals. Each portal delivers a unique view of life on the Internet. You can change your starting or home page in most browsers under tools…options.

A portal works by combining the information that you want to see (weather, news, events, etc) onto a single page. This service is a huge convenience because you would otherwise need to find and then visit many sites to get the same broad perspective. Good portals bring together into from many sources so you immediately see what interests you. While some portals can target their general content by allowing personalization, most simply cater to targeted niche markets.

Portals with targeted markets appeal to visitors seeking quick snapshot of specific interesting information. These markets include geographic regions, ISP customers, and special interests like financial markets, sports, and vertical industries. Contrary to expectations, portals serving different markets do not compete because users are savvy enough to match portals to their specific needs. However, users typically do not crossover between competing portals.

Examples: Corporate Intranets, MSN, Netscape, Home, AOL, PlasticsNet, myYahoo 

Where to go…Search Engines 

If you look at the Internet as a vast library, then search engines are the card catalogues. Their primary job is to collect information about various web sites, create an index, and then allow visitors to search their index. This may sound straight forward, but there are many variations on search engines.

Typically, search engines are classified by a combination of how they collect their data and how they present it. Search engines collect data either by registration or link tracing. Registration relies on site owners to submit information about their site to the search engine to be included in the index. Link-tracing engines collect information about web sites by visiting sites and then following interconnecting links. Registration generally creates a richer but less complete index because link tracing usually finds every minor mention of a topic.

Conducting a successful search on the Internet requires both patience and practice because no matter how the data is collected, indexes are built on a wide variety of information so do not expect your desired information to be the first item returned. You may need to scroll through several pages of results to find what you are looking for. In many cases, I will try several different indexes when searching for information.

Data presentation is a key factor for many users and is varies greatly by site. For example, novice users may benefit from natural language searching while experts prefer more sophisticated logic based interfaces. Many sites improve presentation by limiting their content to specific topics. For example, www.wwwomen.com is a search engine specifically targeted on woman owned businesses.

Examples: Yahoo, WebCrawler, Excite, Lycos, Go, AskJeeves, Realnames, AltaVista, Dogpile

Looking for bargains…Auctions/Reverse Auctions/Pools 

While traditional businesses struggle to deliver traditional goods to on-line consumers, a new breed of merchants has evolved to take advantage of the Internet. These sites combine the global reach of the Internet with its one-to-one interaction. There result of this combination is a novel way to link buyers to sellers.

There are three dominant models for non-traditional Internet marketplaces. Auctions allow sellers to list items for sale to the highest bidder. Reverse Auctions allow buyers to post their desired price and sellers choose which offers to accept. Pools aggregate individual buyers into groups to take advantage of bulk buying and volume discounts. All three models are helping redefine how vendors set market prices for their goods.

Note to savvy shoppers: I have seen cases where buyers caught in a bidding zeal pay above retail for auctioned goods. In addition, watch your bidding carefully because auctions are most active in the last 12 hours and typically slow over the weekend.

Examples: eBay, PriceLine, VolumeBuy 

Shopping for goods…Exchanges/Storefronts/Malls 

The bread and butter of the Internet may be information, but many web sites today also sell actual goods. Typically, on-line stores are little more than electronic catalogues that accept credit cards. Some notable exceptions combine consumer feedback with production information to actually enhance the shopping experience. For example, Amazon influences buyers by publishing customer comments about products and they will recommend additional products based on your buying patterns. Many on-line consumers enjoy this type of personalization.

Many vendors opt out of creating an electronic storefront by joining a virtual mall or an exchange. Malls and exchanges are basically shared storefronts in which sellers leverage an existing on-line store in return for a portion of each transaction or a monthly fee.

Examples: Amazon, B2Bexchange, XChange, VirtualMall 

Buying services…Travel/Training/Research 

The service industry is another market place being transformed by the Internet. Even as vendors try to sell directly to consumers, service web sites are finding that middlemen can still add value. These sites allow you to instantly comparison shop from competing vendors or book entire trips your self. Buyers also get some assurance that the broker has qualified the vendor. This process also helps the vendors because can hid their lack of Internet savvy behind a good service broker.

Another important service category is in the business of selling information. This type of service site uses the Internet to actually deliver the product. These vendors generate revenue by charging for the information (e.g.: Training), selling advertising, or both. In some cases, information brokers are selling data in such small units that they charge customers just pennies per transaction.

Examples: Travelocity, TurboTrip, Trip, Executrain, Britannica

Manage technology…Infrastructure 

A substantial amount of information on the Internet is dedicated to the technology behind the Internet. Infrastructure sites range from hardware and software vendors to service providers actually hosting web sites. If you want to explore this side of the Internet, you are probably reading the wrong magazine.

Examples: Microsoft, Sun, Citrix, NetworkSolutions, CERT, Netscape, IBM 

Finding other people…Community/Forums/Chats 

Initially, the Internet was more about community than commerce and there is a wealth of ways for people to exchange ideas in line. There are many ways to actually interact with other people over the Internet: you can join an email list, login to interactive chat rooms, and participate guest books or news groups.

It is critical that you not dismiss these activities as recreational: interactive communities are by far the best business and technical resource on the Internet. Communities are different because they reflect individual voices instead of data massaged by countless marketing departments. I have seen many cases where a company's engineers or programmer go on-line to get real-world examples and help solve problems.

Examples: AOL, Usenet, Yahoo forums, IRC, TribalVoice, MSDN, ThinPlanet 

What is happening…News/Information 

In many ways, news sites overlap other types of sites; however, they deserve their own category due to their strong vertical focus and content. The news sites of today are leading the charge in redefining how we consume media and information by merging text, video, and audio components. In addition, on-line news can include references to historical documents and storylines that are impossible to deliver in print or broadcast.

In addition to mainstream news, the Internet enables everyone to have a voice. This means that experts can deliver detailed coverage and zealots can espouse their views. For example, the Y2K computer bug was thoroughly watched by sites that did everything from compile lists of malfunctions to offering life-style alternatives.

Examples: CNN, Weather, MSNBC, NYTtimes, NPR.org 

Take a break…Alternative/Recreation 

While the Internet serves many purposes, it is also the greatest playground ever created. You can find sites serving nearly any taste (from good taste to bad). For example, I have seen a web site dedicated entirely to bad hair cuts (www.mulletgods.com). The recreational uses of the Internet are unlimited so ask a friend for recommendations or just make up web addresses and see what you get.

Examples: UrbanLegends, BlueMountain, AdCritic, Napster, Shockwave, AtomFilm 

Watching Big Brother…Government 

Governmental sites resemble the government itself: ponderous, difficult, and slow to change. Searching government sites can drive you crazy, but there are many hidden gems waiting to be discovered. Even if the government sites lack technology savvy, they are fully committed to using the Internet to distribute information and worth visiting.

I highly recommend visiting and searching these sites because you may personally benefit from the experience. The government has many valuable public pamphlets and brochures that were available only through the mail. Now, the Internet allows you to browse our Nation's vast catalogue. It has never been easier to use this information, if you are willing to take the time to do some digging.

Examples: IRS.gov, Whitehouse.gov. FBI.gov, Senate.gov, SEC.gov, NASA.gov 

Bon voyage 

I hope that this Internet breakdown helps you make sense of the jumble as you travel our "information superhighway." Don't forget to send me a post card!