DD,
I think all Curtis Mathes investors will agree with you that a product does not a company make...
Speaking of the products themselves, we haven't talked about them a whole lot compared to the other discussions that have taken place here. I'll at least add my experience (as a user) with the "While You Wait" technology.
First of all, it was hard to find. I tried a number of the sites that are supposedly using WYW and finally found an example on the WorldVilliage site. I went to one of their download areas (e.g., worldvillage.com and selected a title to download. Here's what happens:
-- Instead of simply downloading the file, the system brings up an additional browser window using the URL www.whileyouwait.com/ and then some CGI-specific stuff defining the ad to be displayed. (The first time I tried this, I stared at a message reading, "You may experience a slight delay while we locate your file..." for a couple minutes while nothing happened. This didn't sit well with me. The next couple tries moved faster, though.)
-- While this page is loading, the dialog box for saving the requested file appears. You click on Save File. This begins the actual download.
-- Meanwhile, the WYW page is still loading. Each time I tried this procedure, the file I requested had completely downloaded before the WYW page had completely loaded! (This page load was extremely slow every time I tried... and I have a T1 connection.) Also, if your browser window is maximized when this new window is launched, it's not immediately apparent that you're no longer in the WorldVilliage site -- that your actually on a page of nothing but advertising. And, since all of the ads I saw actually used the name WorldVilliage in them, it was even less evident that you weren't still in the site.
-- When the WYW page finally loads, it contains two advertisements: a banner ad at the top and a "whole page" ad that basically takes up the rest of browser window.
-- You then have to close that browser window (or click a link that says something like "Return to WorldVilliage") to get back to where you started before trying to download the software.
Again, I had a hard time finding an implementation of this technology. Has anyone else seen this in action? Where?
Overall assessment: interesting concept, but it needs somehow to be waaaaay faster and much less obtrusive. Even on long downloads that take several minutes (or more), users can simply switch over to other applications while the file is downloading. Why would anyone want to wait for another browser window to load? Especially if they know right up front that it's just an ad?
My impulse was simply to close the WYW browser window as soon as it opened.
I'd be very interested in hearing other people's opinions about the While You Wait product.
Thanks,
MXB |
