You are too darned sanguine about AOL and especially its stock price.
How about a blast aimed at AOL's heart? From current Seidman's Online Insider:
netguidemag.com
AOL-STYLE CHAT FOR FREE? That's how they're billing it at HotWired. "The Java-based chat application running at < talk.com > is indeed pretty slick. While it is AOL-like, it isn't quite as feature-rich as America Online. Not to mention the fact that as of this writing there are probably 20,000-plus chatting on AOL, and only 107 at Talk.Com. But you have to start somewhere, and one thing I like about Talk.Com is the reliance on advertising banners above the chat to support the service."
"AOL's chat may be better, but if AOL winds up announcing a flat-fee
service (and with my luck, AOL will announce this about five minutes
after my deadline on Thursday), advertising will have to play a much
bigger role in subsidizing AOL than it does today."
Here's a sample of celebrities available this week for "free" chat:
This Week's Guests in Talk.com:
Dr. Barry Sears, best-selling author of "The Zone: A Dietary Road Map"
(HarperCollins, 1995), will be taking questions in Talk.com on Monday
morning.
Later on Monday, join former Washington economist and Reform Party vice presidential candidate Pat Choate in WiredSide Chat for a live
discussion about politics, his party, and the man who would be
president, Ross Perot.
On Tuesday, "Stuttering" John Melendez from the Howard Stern show will
baptize the bandwidth with his spittle in Talk.com.
In Head Space: SF/fantasy author Sean Stewart's seasons of hardship
living among "survivors" during bitter winters in Canada and blazing
summers in Texas may explain why such people also inhabit his epic
fantasies - as in his latest, "Clouds End" (Ace Books, 1996). Join
Stewart in Talk.com on Tuesday.
Leila Kenzle of "Mad About You" will answer questions about the hit
sitcom in Talk.com on Wednesday evening.
In Thursday's PacketChat, Web culture columnist Andrew Leonard discusses the personal information forms we fill out on Web sites, and how they may be doing more to degrade our privacy than the CDA ever could.
Lisa Kanning of "Entertainment Tonight" forecasts the blockbusters of
this holiday season in Talk.com on Thursday.
Later on Thursday, in Electronic Frontiers, Net historian and prominent technojournalist Katie Hafner joins host Jon Lebkowsky to focus on cyberpunks, cypherpunks, virtual communities, and the ongoing evolution of the Net.
Find out what actress Teri Garr has been up to, Friday in Talk.com.
Check the Talk.com schedule for detailed descriptions of these and other events.
talk.com
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BTW Seidman also reviews "new" MSN, available November 1. In a nutshell:
"The new MSN, with its Program Viewer and integrated content
presentation with lots of ActiveX, is a Web-based service that kicks even AOL's butt when it comes to content presentation."
Regards |
