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 : InfoSpace (INSP): Where GNET went! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: EenieMeenie who wrote (926)	1/20/1999 2:29:00 AM
From: ruscoop	Respond to of 28311

MediaOne's broadband service has worked fine for me so far. Here's some more high-speed, broadband Internet carrier news: CNet, NBC To Offer High-Speed Internet Portal By Dick Satran SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - General Electric Co.'s NBC television network and its Internet venture partner CNet Inc. Tuesday joined the hunt to capture the next generation of Web surfers by putting together a new service aimed specifically at high-speed users. Snap, an Internet search engine and portal owned by NBC and CNet, will be used as the vehicle to offer, ''the first Internet portal service for higher-speed users.'' The increasing speed of the Internet allows for more video, music and other applications that require faster connections. The new Snap portal claims to be the first built to handle the growing amount of multimedia content on the Internet. Cable modem and telephone companies are racing to be the first on the block to offer the high-speed services to consumers. Both ways of connecting to the Internet are far faster than the widely used 56-kilobit-per-second modems now standard on personal computers. The new technologies will be able to handle voice and video, instead of just text with graphics, and the new Snap venture is positioning itself to win the emerging ''broadband'' audience. ''Broadband is the Holy Grail,'' said CNet Chief Executive Halsey Minor in an interview. ''Broadband is going to boost the growth of the Internet because it's more compelling for consumers.'' Minor said it will be a boon to e-commerce because, ''it becomes faster and easier to buy and sell things over the Internet.'' He cited particularly strong demand for music downloads, made much more feasible by high-speed connections. CNet's deal follows a wave of industry moves that will push high-speed access to the mass market, offering home users services now becoming prevalent in offices. America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news) and Bell Atlantic Corp. (NYSE:BEL - news) last week said they were creating a venture that offers AOL's 13 million plus subscribers high-speed service. And in more dramatic fashion, AtHome Corp. took aim at the same space Tuesday with a $6.7 billion deal to buy Excite Inc. (Nasdaq:XCIT - news), combining its high-speed cable modem business with the heavily used Internet portal. The AtHome and Excite will be aligned with telecom group AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T - news) following its merger with Tele-Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:LBTYA - news) Aiming at the fast-growing market for high-speed surfers, CNet and NBC said their new service will be launched in the first quarter of 1999, and will be called Snap ''Cyclone.'' ''It's a logical evolution of their existing business model to get ready for the next generation of high-speed access,'' said Ron Rappoport of Zona Research. Following Snap's strategy of working with telephone providers, Snap ''Cyclone'' will be carried on high-speed services, including those of major local telephone carriers such as GTE and SBC Communications, as well as some cable-modem service providers. The Snap Cyclone service will greet those who subscribe to the high-speed Internet service providers. Content on Snap Cyclone will include APB Online, which allows users to track police activity in several major cities, including live audio and video feeds of police chases and emergency phone calls, program clips from the CNBC business news channel and music videos from the Rolling Stone Network. CNet stock soared to close $26.75 to $99.75 in afternoon trading after the announcement. GE was up just a fraction, gaining 50 cents to $101.3125.

To: EenieMeenie who wrote (926)	1/20/1999 11:05:00 AM
From: BillCh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28311

>Faster internet speeds, more page views/minute means >lower advertising costs per view Wha? Faster internet speeds mean the pages will now load as they were designed to, which means they'll be more effective and give more advertising value per view. Portal sites calculate the connection speed and deliver the optimal ad banner for that connection, so low-speed viewers aren't lost while high-speed viewers are sent a bigger lure. That's a textbook story of value-optimisation going on there that you could take in to MBA school if you like. I see advertising revenues going up, production values going up, and portal operating costs going up. Portals may always be a few quarters from profitability if this happens! Bill