Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : AUTOHOME, Inc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ahhaha who wrote (14078)	8/11/1999 3:38:00 PM
From: Ron Dior	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

Ahhaha your EXACT words back then were as follows: <<"According to every trade data there were no MANY large blocks. Many thousands of 100 to 800 shares. Several hundreds of 1000. Several tens 5000 and under. Didn't see anything larger. A large block according to Barron's is 10k or more. I didn't get one of those all day." >> You used the words "NO" and the phrase "I didn't get ONE of those all day". This post was made that evening after the market had closed. This is your most recent post to me on this thread, notice how your story changed: <<You didn't wiggle out in May and you can't now either. There were FEW blocks traded. I have the every trade data.>> Now there were a "FEW" blocks traded that day! To use your own reasoning against you <<What you stated was misleading and then you tried to cover it up.>> This was the entire reason I posted those trades in the first place, due to the phrases "NO" and "not even ONE" used by yourself. Ron Dior

To: ahhaha who wrote (14078)	8/11/1999 10:31:00 PM
From: ahhaha	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29970

Personal computer competition shifts to support BY STEVEN VONDER HAAR INTER@CTIVEWEEK 8/2/99 Technical computer support is about to go interactive in a big way. Sure, today's Web is already littered with hundreds of sites that offer dry, static reading material detailing product specifications and troubleshooting tips for sick PCs. But an entirely new market for providing automated customer support services is about to hit the Web. Get ready. The era of the "support portal" is just around the corner. The rush to provide interactive, automated support services begins this week when Excite@Home announces plans to offer automated support Systems via the Web later this year using technology developed by emerging start-up Tioga Systems. And within a week, Tioga rival Motive Communications is expected to announce its own deal to supply automated, online customer support services for an undisclosed major computer manufacturer - widely expected to be Dell Computer. "The killer app for the Internet is customer support," Tioga Chairman Mark Pincus says. "This is a space that is starting to explode."A variety of factors are coming together to set the stage for this revolution in online customer support. Computer makers, faced with eroding PC prices and a need to cut the cost of handling incoming customer phone calls, are ready to embrace the idea of providing services via automated online systems. At the same time, Internet technologies that make real-time exchange possible are enabling remote systems to diagnose the trouble with a consumer PC and automatically download a remedy that fixes the problem. "Just think of support portals as the next wave of e-commerce," says Mike Maples jr., vice president of marketing at Motive (www.motive.com). "But e-business now means more than just e-buying. For hardware makers, the next thing they talk about after selling computers on the Web is supporting those machines via the Web." Companies like Tioga and Motive are developing Web-based software applications that can evaluate settings on a computer remotely and then automatically provide fixes that get computer users up and running again. Sometimes, the repairs are as simple as resetting a computer configuration to factory defaults. Other times, the automated applications resolve conflicts created by incompatible software running on a machine. By making computer repairs as easy to execute as clicking on a Web link, manufacturers and access providers seek to trim the number of calls rolling into their technical support centers while building a brand image that may encourage repeat purchases. "If a company like Dell invests in building a killer support portal," Maples says, "it just may help them to steal market share from second-tier manufacturers that can't afford that kind of investment." Indeed, automating customer support online may even serve to transform the expense of technical support into a revenue-generating opportunity, says Bill Blummer, director of content at Excite@Home's Customer Care unit. With customers coming to a centralized spot to access support offerings, the company can promote selected e-commerce offerings and advertising to a targeted audience, Blummer says. At the very least, integrating commerce offers into support portals can help manufacturers offset the costs of providing customer service, transforming a one-time cost center into one that has a neutral impact on a company's financial performance, says Pincus of Tioga (www.tioga.com). "Every one of these companies are going to have to build new approaches to providing support, Pincus says. In the copycat world of PCs, support portals could spread like wildfire in just a few months, says Harvey Allison, partner in the Attractor Investment Management venture capital firm that has invested in Tioga and Motive. "As soon as a computer company gets out that it is championing a support portal, competing manufacturers I want to have an answer to that up and running in 100 days," Allison says. That's just the kind of market craved by Tioga's Pincus, a co-founder of the pioneering Freeloader push technology service in 1996. Pincus has positioned his new company to supply tools to other companies rather than assume the direct burden of building and maintaining customer relationships. "This time we are not a protagonist in the market," Pincus says. "We just want to sell the pickaxes and shovels to everybody that wants to fight for customers."