Right now the WWW is a Wild, Wild West of unrelated web sites, some good, some not so good and Web surfing is a sometimes enjoyable, often frustrating and unproductive experience. I see Paul Allen as Will Smith, lassoing these unruly web sites into an orderly package.
It seems inevitable that just as mom and pop hardware stores were overtaken by Home Depot and family doctors have been replaced with HMO's the Internet will be aggregated into Networks. Speaking both as an investor as well as a consumer this is good for the Net.
Yes, advertising will be targeted to consumers but so will content. Companies like Net Perceptions (NETP, 22 1/4) (which is a part of Paul Allen's "Wired World") provide the software that allows the customization of a surfer's Web experience. When I go to Amazon.com to buy a book I get a list of suggestions for books I might be interested in buying. This is good for Amazon, but its also good for me, pointing me to books I might not otherwise have thought of buying. When I go to the personalized Go2Net (GNET, 89 1/4) home page I get only information I might be interested in.
Sure, Mr. Allen's world shares some of the characteristics of TV, but instead of having 50 channels it will have thousands or millions, one for each individual viewer. |
