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In an attempt to catch up with other metropolitan areas in terms of online access, Houston is giving its 1.8 million citizens free email accounts and access to basic software. The program, called SimHouston, will provide residents with personal accounts from which users can create spreadsheets or electronic presentations, update calendars, and eventually take part in videoconferences. The city regards the features as essential infrastructure, as roads and bridges were in the past. Some have criticized the move as redundant, citing the abundance of free email access through sites like Yahoo. City officials remain undeterred, as they are currently laying plans to promote the new service and overall free internet access at libraries. Unlike in many other large cities, Houston still has idle computers at libraries across the city. Houston also ranked 25th, at 53 percent, in a March 2001 Nielsen//NetRatings survey of internet household penetration among metropolitan areas.
EBay tees up for Tiger Woods auction
As part of a charity auction, online auction site eBay will be featuring the chance to play a round of golf with Tiger Woods. The Tiger Woods Foundation says it plans to auction off a number of Woods events and memorabilia for charity, with the most desirable item being a foursome with Woods himself at the Isleworth Country Club in Windemere, Fla. Other lots that will go up for auction include two Pro-Am packages for the 2001 Williams World Challenge, two packages to the 2002 Tiger Jam benefit concert, and lunch with Tiger Woods’s father. The exact date for the auction has yet to be announced, although it will take place later this year. The foundation typically donates to youth programs all over the country. EBay often helps run charity auctions and has helped various causes raise $6 million in the past six years.
Survey: Web's a great boon for high school kids
High-school-age students rely heavily on the internet for school-related research, according to a recent poll conducted by the Associated Press. About half of the respondents reported that the internet holds just about all the material they need for school projects. But the poll found that teens are split as to whether the web is important to them. Half said the ability to use the internet is very important, but the rest said it’s only somewhat important or unimportant. The survey uncovered a disconnect between adults’ and teens’ opinions of the necessity for strong internet skills: the older the respondents, the less likely they are to consider internet skills essential. The study also found that adults and educators are concerned that the internet fosters plagiarism and lazy, inadequate research.
Penguin Books is launching online library
Book publisher Penguin is launching an online store for e-books off its Penguin.co.uk web site. The service will offer hundreds of titles, ranging from Jane Austen’s novels to Bill Gates’s business books. Penguin’s e-books will bear the imprint of ePenguin, and will cost 20 percent less than their hard copy counterparts. Additionally, the publisher will offer some new titles in electronic versions before they even go to print, the first of which is “One Hit Wonder,” a novel by Lisa Jewell. The Penguin e-books will be readable on laptops and handheld computers. Penguin is dipping its toes into a sector that has yet to catch on with consumers. For example, best-selling horror author Stephen King jettisoned his e-book project, “The Plant,” after just six installments because not enough people were downloading, and of those, not enough were paying.
IAB: Sue Gator.com
The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s lawyers are going to advise that its members sue Gator.com, the makers of a downloadable comparison-shopping tool that interferes with existing online advertising. When shoppers who use Gator.com get ready to make purchases, Gator serves pop-up ads from rival e-tailers. Gator also plans to introduce a service that superimposes rivals’ banner ads over the banner ads that online publishers are running, and this possibility has publishers and advertisers livid, given that about eight million people use Gator. Attorneys for the IAB argue that Gator’s ad-hijacking tactics are tantamount to stealing, because the company is poaching ad space that has been paid for by another party. IAB attorneys say that there are several possible legal courses, including taking the complaint to the Federal Trade Commission.
August 22, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
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