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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Zulu-tek, Inc. (ZULU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D PARKER who wrote (202)	1/16/1998 11:20:00 PM
From: OpenSea	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18444

From News.com The New York Times on the Web has been giving its users a little surprise: windows that pop up on their computer screens and display ads. Other networks, such as GeoCities, recently have started using the controversial advertising form, called "pop-ups." But the fact that the Times is now using the ads--and has been for a few months--with almost no negative feedback perhaps is an indication that the once-scorned form of advertising is now quietly gaining acceptance, or at least tolerance, among Netizens. Companies on the Internet are always in search of better ways to advertise. They are constantly finding themselves caught in the bind of trying to deliver their messages effectively while not offending Netizens, who tend to be a prickly bunch. For instance, mainstream companies would just love to flood email boxes with advertisements. There is no better direct way to reach customers than by sending them personalized ads. However, while many disreputable companies use unsolicited email, mainstream companies that have dabbled in it have quickly found themselves labeled as spammers and have faced an onslaught of protest. The New York Times does, in fact, send out email, but only to those who go through the registration process. Subscribers are presented with two prominently displayed checked boxes when they register. One says, "Yes, send me email regarding new site features." The other says, "Yes, send me email with information from our advertisers." Unless the subscriber unchecks the boxes, he or she will receive the email. Last night, for instance, a Times advertiser sent out a message to subscribers offering them free investment software. So far, the Times has received very few complaints, said Chris Neimeth, vice president and director of sales and marketing for the New York Times Electric Media Company, the wholly owned subsidiary of the New York Times Company that runs the Times's online edition. And it has received virtually no complaints about its pop-up ads, Neimeth said. Neimeth said that just a few months into the trial, users seem to be accepting the ads. That may be because of the way the Times administers the program, he added. While GeoCities opens a new browser that then stays on the computer screen, the ad the Times delivers remains for five seconds and then disappears. If the user clicks on the screen he was reading, the ad disappears immediately, Neimeth said. The Times also uses cookies to make sure that a subscriber will only see an ad once in a day. And it limits the places where an ad will be seen. For instance, an ad will never pop up on the front page or in any front page story, he said. Neimeth said the Times is very watchful of that careful balance between ad delivery and alienation. "Pop-ups are delivered in a manner that's sensitive to our consumers," he said. "We want to make sure we're developing as positive an experience as possible. We're trying to figure out ways to make this work and we're very sensitive to our consumers. We don't want to deliver a negative experience." At the same time, he added that it's important to continually experiment to find the optimal way of delivering ads. "We feel this is a very new industry and it's important to experiment and see how you can deliver value to users," he said. Along with email to subscribers and the pop-ups, the Times also has experimented with what it calls microsites: small, company-sponsored sites that specialize in particular areas such as leisure activities or business travelers. "We're trying to figure out different ways to deliver information to our users in a manner that they want," he said. "We have to be flexible in trying different things."

To: D PARKER who wrote (202)	1/19/1998 2:54:00 PM
From: D PARKER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18444

Industry related news item: biz.yahoo.com <<What is the difference between ZULU (and its ad services) and CMGI (and its ad services) excpet the $32 price tag????>> [ Business \| US Market \| Industry \| IPO \| S&P \| International \| PRNews \| BizWire \| Finance Home ] Monday January 19, 11:57 am Eastern Time Company Press Release SOURCE: ADSmart Corporation ADSmart and Engage Technologies Announce Alliance to Provide 'Next Generation' Targeting and Analysis for Advertisers and Direct Marketers Partnership Optimizes One-to-One Marketing and Technology Synergies of CMG Affiliate Companies ANDOVER, Mass., Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- ADSmart Network and fellow CMG-Internet Group Company Engage Technologies today announced the formation of a strategic partnership to deliver online advertisers and direct marketers an unparalleled level of targeting and user information. Under the new relationship, Engage Technologies' suite of profiling tools, working in combination with ADSmart's context-sensitive targeting expertise, will provide advertisers with powerful demographic and behavioral data about visitors from some of the Web's leading site destinations. ADSmart currently operates one of the Internet's leading advertising networks, spanning more than 90 sites and reaching 9 million unique viewers each month. Engage Technologies' interactive marketing tools and services deliver real-time access to knowledge about the interests and web usage patterns of site visitors to high-volume Web sites. In combination, this value-added service will enable ADSmart to deliver unprecedented one-to-one marketing opportunities for online advertisers. A key component of the companies' newly combined capabilities, dubbed ''first-time relevance,'' allows participating sites to serve pertinent advertising or commerce content to even a first-time visitor, based on that visitor's larger web experience within the ''Engage-Enabled'' community. Using the Engage Technologies' behavior-based, anonymous profiles, an historic and multi-site view of each user's interests, and experiences is built up over time. This not only allows ADSmart to give advertisers the number of unique viewers for a given campaign, but also a report on the types of content they have traditionally been interested in based on their visits to other web sites providing clickstream data. Because the profiling tools retain anonymous records of a users' Internet traffic patterns, the privacy of individual users is protected. Some of the Web's most trafficked sites are currently ''Engage-Enabled,'' including Lycos and Planet Direct with even more partners to be announced shortly. When combined with the users of sites within the ADSmart Network, advertisers will have the benefit of a marketing database which will quickly rise to 10 million Internet users or more -- one of the largest such databases of its kind. The ADSmart/Engage relationship will also provide rich post-buy analysis and reporting of viewers who visit enabled sites -- as well as the ad campaigns, they respond to -- potentially identifying new markets or validating existing audience characteristics. Identifying the interests of campaign viewers allows advertisers to tailor programs specifically for those audiences increasing the effectiveness and return on investment for advertisers. In the near future, ADSmart will provide audience selection based on the individual profile of a unique viewer, so that advertisers can select exactly the profiles of their desired audience. ''The Engage tools offer a real complement to our existing service offerings, and ADSmart is uniquely positioned to deliver this enhanced targeting since each site in our network is already individually classified into hundreds of separate, market-relevant content categories. With this partnership we are providing the one-to-one brand marketing capability that has long been the promise of the Web, but has yet to be delivered by any of the current technologies available. Most importantly, this is a crucial next step in delivering the type of behavioral data national advertisers have come to expect from the traditional print and broadcast mediums,'' said Neil Versen, vice president of sales and marketing for ADSmart.'' About ADSmart The ADSmart Network (http://www.adsmart.net) is comprised of more than 90 web sites which provides advertisers and agencies with a large marketplace of highly targeted sites and varied audiences, ADSmart's in-house planning team, online planning tools and personalized account services make it easy to plan and buy Internet advertising while significantly increasing the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. ADSmart is the only Internet advertising network that offers its own guaranteed program of service, known as ASAP -- Advertising Services Accountability Program. ADSmart is headquartered in Andover, MA with offices in New York and San Francisco. About Engage Technologies Engage Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CMG Information Services, Inc., provides industry-leading, enterprise-class software solutions that enable companies to individually distinguish, understand and interact with anonymous prospects and customers in one-to-one marketing, sales and service relationships via the Web. More information about the company can be found at http.//www.engagetech.com. About CMG Information Services CMG Information Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI - news; cmgi.com) invests in and integrates advanced Internet, interactive media, and database management technologies. The CMG Internet Group is made up of six majority- owned subsidiary companies including: Engage Technologies, ADSmart, Planet Direct, NaviSite Internet Services, InfoMation, and The Password. CMG also includes CMG Direct and SalesLink as majority-owned subsidiaries in the direct marketing and fulfillment arena. In addition to the CMG Internet Group, the Company's CMG @Ventures investment and development affiliate has significant interests in Lycos, Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS - news), Blaxxun, Vicinity, GeoCities, Parable LLC, Reel.com, PlanetAll, KOZ, Silknet, Chemdex, Speech Machines, and Softway Systems. Both Microsoft and Intel hold minority positions in CMG Information Services. Corporate headquarters is located at 100 Brickstone Square, Andover, MA 01810. Telephone: 978-684-3600, Fax: 978-684-3674. Additional information is available on the Company's web site, cmgi.com. SOURCE: ADSmart Corporation More Quotes and News: CMG Information Services Inc (Nasdaq:CMGI - news) Lycos Inc (Nasdaq:LCOS - news) Related News Categories: ISDEX, advertising, computers, internet Help Copyright c 1998 PRNewswire. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PRNewswire content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of PRNewswire. PRNewswire shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. See our Important Disclaimers and Legal Information. Questions or Comments?