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EarthLink, the country’s second-largest internet service provider, has joined the crowd and announced its first-ever rate hike. Instead of $19.95, the service now will cost $21.95 a month, which is the same price that Microsoft’s MSN charges. The leading ISP, America Online, charges $23.90, although it had charged $21.95 for years. To make the fee hike more appealing, EarthLink has thrown in some extras. EarthLink members now will have a total of eight email boxes per account, which can be used for friends and family or to set up different addresses for work, hobby and home use. Additionally, EarthLink members will have more web site storage space. The ISP is also offering users the option to prepay for a full year of internet access at the old rate of $19.95 a month. The rate hike takes effect on Monday for new customers and on Aug. 1 for existing customers. With 4.8 million subscribers, EarthLink lags far behind AOL, which has 30 million users.
Singapore dabbles in wired taxis
Soon, visitors to Singapore will be able to surf the web and email Mom as they cruise the streets in the back seat of a taxi. The country’s second largest taxi company, CityCab, will introduce wired cabs by the end of the year. The plan, dubbed Project Escalade, is to have wired all 5,000 cars in CityCab’s fleet by 2003. Internet-enabled taxis may seem like a natural in a place where some cabs come equipped with karaoke machines, but Project Escalade is not without detractors. Cynics accuse CityCab of focusing on an unnecessary luxury rather than solving its problems, such as long lines and a patchy reservations system. CityCab attempts to defuse the naysayers by saying that wiring its cabs will make it easier to manage its fleet, book cabs for customers and alert drivers about traffic conditions and ideal routes. Another concern is that Singapore’s small size makes for short cab rides, which limits the usefulness of in-car internet access.
Beta version of merged CNBC on MSN Money
MSN MoneyCentral and CNBC.com have launched the beta version of their combined web site: CNBC on MSN Money. Essentially, what the new site does is combine CNBC content with Microsoft’s financial tools. The site features services such as online bill paying and investment and bank-account tracking. It also offers a stock-rating system called StockScouter and a retirement planner for evaluating and making the most of IRAs, 401(k)s and the like. The plan to combine the two sites has been in the cards since April, when NBC announced that it would be shuttering its NBCi portal. NBC already had a partnership with Microsoft in MSNBC, making the MoneyCentral-CNBC.com hookup a logical fit. The site, which was originally supposed to be called CNBC MoneyCentral, falls under the MSN umbrella, just like Slate and Hotmail. CNBC on MSN Money will be promoted on CNBC’s cable channel and across MSN.
Yahoo will charge for fantasy baseball leagues
The harsh reality of slow online ad sales has inspired Yahoo to start charging for some of its fantasy services. In yet another effort to supplement its non-advertising revenue, Yahoo will offer some fee-based extras for users of its fantasy baseball league site. For $4.95, participants can access an online real-time baseball statistics ticker or follow their fantasy leagues via web-enabled phones. The $4.95 fee covers the remainder of this year’s baseball season. The rest of Yahoo’s fantasy sports services will remain free of charges. The new premium service is typical of Yahoo’s recent paid-content offerings in that the company isn’t suddenly asking its users to pay for services that were formerly free. Online fantasy baseball participants assemble dream teams of their favorite Major League players. Then, based on how those players perform in real games, members of fantasy leagues compete with one another.
Dylan's childhood duplex fetches $95K on eBay
Is this yet another sign that the times, they are a-changin’? A duplex in Duluth, Minn., where singer-songwriter Bob Dylan lived when he was a little boy, has fetched $94,600 in a sale on auction site eBay. Dylan and his family moved from Duluth and the duplex to Hibbing, Minn., when he was six years old. The auction commenced on May 24 and bidding ended on Saturday. The opening bid was $85,000, a sum that the duplex likely would not have attracted were it not for its association with the activist and singer of “Blowin’ In the Wind.” In fact, Duluth-area Dylan aficionados had projected that the property would net an amount under $70,000. A buyer calling himself or herself “Srueff” put in the high bid. Since 1996, the duplex’s owner, Kathleen Burns of Solomon's Island, Md., had been renting it out.
Online Publishers Association formed
In a time of withering online advertising revenue, there is strength in numbers. Or so is the thinking behind the new Online Publishers Association, which will seek to represent its interests to the press, the government, the public and, of course, the advertising community. The group will promote the effectiveness of online advertising, working with the Internet Advertising Bureau, and will also focus on developing pay-for-content. The guidelines for membership are still being formulated, while costs of membership have not been made public. The twelve founding members include CBS MarketWatch, CNET Networks, Condé Net, ESPN.com, The Industry Standard, KnightRidder.com/Real Cities, MSNBC.com, New York Times Digital, Salon Media Group Inc., USAToday.com, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, and The Wall Street Journal Online.
June 27, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
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