Keynote Internet Performance Bulletin: Online Stock-Market Trading
Frenzy Produced Minimal Impact on General Internet Users
03:00 a.m. Sep 03, 1998 Eastern
Based on Over 1.2 Million Performance Measurements by Keynote Systems
SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 3, 1998--
The online stock-market trading frenzy of the past few days produced a minimal
impact on overall Internet performance according to 1.2 million performance
measurements collected by Keynote Systems, the recognized authority on Internet
performance.
Overall Internet performance on Monday and Tuesday was actually 4 to 9 percent
faster than during the same hours the previous week, indicating that increased online
stock-trading activities and information requests on those days generated a negligible
effect on the performance experienced by general Internet users.
Average download times of the home pages of the Keynote Business 40 web sites as
measured in 26 large U.S. metropolitan areas averaged 8.12 seconds, 7.86 seconds
and 7.11 seconds during stock-market trading hours on Monday through Wednesday
of the current week.
Sixteen detailed performance graphs showing overall average Internet performance
for the previous eight business days compared to the measured performance of the
Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCH) and E-Trade (NASDAQ:EGRP) public web sites are
available on Keynote's web site at keynote.com.
The daily Internet performance averages for each of the past eight business days
during stock-trading hours were:
Monday, Aug. 24 -- 8.92 seconds
Tuesday, Aug. 25 -- 8.19 seconds
Wednesday, Aug. 26 -- 6.90 seconds
Thursday, Aug. 27 -- 6.52 seconds
Friday, Aug. 28 -- 6.13 seconds
Monday, Aug. 31 (selling frenzy) -- 8.12 seconds
Tuesday, Sept. 1 (buying frenzy) -- 7.86 seconds
Wednesday, Sept. 2 -- 7.11 seconds
"Last October, large numbers of users could not get through to leading
financial-services web sites to obtain stock-market information or execute trades,"
said Umang Gupta, chairman and CEO of Keynote Systems in an interview on the
ZD-TV television network. "This time, the performance of sites such as Charles
Schwab, E-Trade, DLJdirect (NYSE:DLJ) and Fidelity was well within reason and
their availability exceeded 98 percent." How Keynote Measures Internet
Performance
To measure quality of service on the Internet, Keynote Systems uses its Keynote
Perspective(tm) service to measure how long it takes to access and download web
pages via industry-standard HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), the same protocol
used by the Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Netscape (NASDAQ:NSCP) web
browsers.
The measurements are performed every 15 minutes around the clock from each of
Keynote's 52 automated measurement locations around the world that are connected
to the Internet via T-1 communication lines. This produces over 34,000 discrete
measurements of download speeds each week for each of the more than 1,000 web
sites whose quality of service Keynote measures for its customers.
Performance results and failure rates for specific measured web sites, for a popular
Site-of-the-Week and for the web sites comprising the Keynote Business 40 Internet
Performance Index are available in real time via Keynote's Web Edition software
through a Java-enabled web browser and also via Keynote's Professional Edition
analysis software for Windows 95 and NT that is available for free download from
the company's web site at keynote.com.
The company also offers a free one-week comparative performance appraisal
against the Site-of-the-Week and the Keynote Business 40 web sites, with its
Keynote Perspective service, to any company that develops or operates a business
web site with a registered domain name and submits an application online at
keynote.com.
The Keynote Business 40 Internet Performance Index is an industry-standard metric
of the overall health and performance of the Internet that is published weekly in
InfoWorld, The Industry Standard and other leading business and trade publications.
The Index comprises 40 important web sites in six categories of publishing, search
engines and directories, business services, financial services, high technology and
communications.
The Index provides Keynote customers historical and real-time performance
measurements for the web sites of CNNfn (NYSE:TWX), the New York Times
(NYSE:NYT), Ziff-Davis (NYSE:ZD), Excite (NASDAQ:XCIT), InfoSeek
(NASDAQ:SEEK), Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO), Federal Express (NYSE:FDX),
3Com (NASDAQ:COMS), Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO), Dell
(NASDAQ:DELL), Gateway (NYSE:GTW), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP), IBM
(NYSE:IBM), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Novell (NASDAQ:NOVL), Oracle
(NASDAQ:ORCL), Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW), WorldCom/UUNET
(NASDAQ:WCOM) and 22 other companies. About Keynote Systems
Keynote Systems is the world's leading supplier of Internet performance data and
diagnostic services to companies with e-commerce web sites. The company markets
Keynote Perspective, a global real-time service that measures, assures and improves
the Quality of Service of e-commerce web sites around the world. The foundation of
the service is an extensive network of customizable software measurement agents
connected to the major Internet backbones in dozens of metropolitan areas worldwide
plus a sophisticated operations center for collecting and disseminating Internet
performance data.
Keynote customers include some of the world's busiest and most successful
e-commerce web sites and web-hosting companies -- including Amazon.com
(NASDAQ:AMZN), American Express (NYSE:AXP), Compaq Computer
(NYSE:CPQ), Concentric Network (NASDAQ:CNCX), DIGEX (NASDAQ:ICIX),
DoubleClick (NASDAQ:DCLK), Exodus Communications (NASDAQ:EXDS),
GeoCities (NASDAQ:GCTY), N2K Inc. (NASDAQ:NTKI), National
Semiconductor (NYSE:NSM), and The SABRE Group (NYSE:TSG) -- which use
the service to ensure competitiveness and improve customer satisfaction.
For further information about Keynote Perspective, or to schedule a free one-week
comparative performance appraisal of a web site, visit Keynote's web site at
keynote.com or contact the company at Keynote Systems,
Inc., Two West Fifth Avenue, San Mateo, California 94402, telephone 650/524-3000,
fax 650/524-3099, email info@keynote.com
Copyright 1998, Business Wire
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