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Technology Stocks : Internet Guru Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric Dickson who wrote (630)	3/16/1999 7:16:00 PM
From: steve harmon - analyst	Read Replies (14) \| Respond to of 4337

mine ipo - pros: clean interfacce and some editing value cons: are the guides experts or just default experts? pros: scott kurnit has some experience in the internet cons: he ran prodigy (the old one) pros: #27 web site in users according to media metrix cons: it's not top 25, yet pros: it'll probably pop on ipo and maybe a takeover candidate someday provided the music doesn't stop on consolidation for these types of sites/services cons: people guides are good but can they keep up with web growth in sites?

To: Eric Dickson who wrote (630)	3/22/1999 4:24:00 AM
From: steve harmon - analyst	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4337

mining co - my analysis of the thin on details initial formal filings shows miningoco.com -- founded June, 1996 by former Prodigy executive Scott Kurnit with a boatload of Prodigy refugees -- adds its own twist on helping people find useful stuff on the Web by having real people sift through the flotsam and jetsam of Websites and offer links to some of those its "experts" like the most. miningoco.com has about 600 "GuideSites" in its network with hundreds of independent contractor human guides covering thousands of topics. Guides live in the U.S. and globally, each paid according to traffic and usage. Pros: miningco.com aims to cut through the clutter of Websites and let real people sift out the wheat from chaff. The personal touch can make a difference in some topics. Cons: how many people does it take to find the best of the Web and is someone's subjective opinion always the best approach? Why not a combination of expert AND user voting to rank sites higher of lower? Or software that tracks user "viewing" and posts the top based on what people are visiting, similar to how Media Metrix counts the top Websites in users. miningco.com holds value in its unique approach, however, and we could see this easily fitting with another Web company that wants to add guides to its commerce or proprietary content. Either that or miningco.com must get aggressive in its acquisitions to round it out as a portal potential.