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Work.com, a portal for small to medium businesses, will be shut down at the end of this month. The year-old site was a joint venture between Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. and portal/broadband company Excite@Home. Dow Jones and Excite@Home combined two of their web sites, namely dowjones.com and Excite’s small business services, to create Work.com. Dow Jones and Excite held great expectations for the site, which was launched shortly before investors soured on money-losing dot.coms. The two companies had planned to spin Work.com off last year and sell a minority stake in a public stock offering. Excite@Home and Dow Jones say that Work.com did not attract a significant user base as rapidly as hoped, and the company was not turning a profit. The majority of Work.com’s staff will lose their jobs as a result of the closure.
Monster.com sues upstart
rival over ex-workers
Online job and career company Monster.com has some ex-personnel issues: It
has filed several lawsuits against Wowemployers.com, a rival service
recently launched by one-time Monster president Bill Warren. Monster has
also filed suit against 18 additional former employees who have gone to
work for Wowemployers. Monster accuses Warren of taking Monster's trade
secrets, not to mention the employees. Warren dismisses Monster's suit as
the act of a company that fears competition, and Wowemployees and Warren
plan to countersue. Warren also insists that Wowemployees is different
from Monster in that it consolidates many of the steps in the hiring
process, from recruiting to screening. For example, companies that use
Wowemployees' software can post job openings on multiple job boards and
filter out all but the most promising applicants. Wowemployees also plans
to supply internet-based tools for recruiters and hiring managers.
Napster gets list
of 135,000 songs it must drop
The Recording Industry Association of America has emailed music-swapping
service Napster a list of 135,000 songs to exclude immediately from its
service. Napster received the list via email late on Friday. Under the
terms of last Monday’s court injunction, Napster has until Wednesday to
block trading of the songs. Over the past week, Napster has implemented
filters for between 500 and 1,000 copyrighted songs, but the filter has
acted more like a sieve--Napster users have found ways to download the
songs anyway. But industry observers believe that the blocking of 135,000
songs will not only be effective, it will also diminish consumer interest
in Napster. Napster says that songs not on the list can still be traded.
The five major record labels first sued Napster in December 1999. Since
then courts have declared that the service does facilitate the piracy of
copyrighted music and that Napster must do everything it can to prevent unauthorized
song distribution. Napster will also likely be held liable for royalties.
Microsoft and eBay
strike up a
partnership
Software giant Microsoft and auction site eBay are entering a partnership
in which they will use each other’s online services and internet
technologies. As part of the deal, the companies are supporting one
another’s business strategies: Microsoft’s ".NET"
initiative, which is a wide-ranging plan to focus on the internet, and
eBay’s "eBay API," eBay’s tools for software programmers to
create applications that integrate with eBay’s web operations. EBay also
aims to offer its services in places other than its web site. Under
the partnership, eBay will use Microsoft internet tools such as Windows
2000 Server and Microsoft Passport. EBay auction listings will appear
across Microsoft web properties such as CarPoint, bCentral, MSN and WebTV.
Microsoft and eBay will work together to bring eBay auction services to
non-PC internet-access devices. The financial terms of the deal were not
disclosed.
Kentucky blunder puts personal
information online
Anyone in search of stray Social Security numbers could have picked them
up off two Kentucky government web sites earlier this month and in late
February. And it wouldn’t have taken a hacker to obtain the sensitive
data either. Two sites, one belonging to the Governor's Office for
Technology and the other to the state attorney general, left the names,
addresses and Social Security numbers of thousands of state-licensed
professionals and state workers in easily accessible folders. Anyone who
wanted the information would merely have had to use file-transfer protocol, or
ftp, software. The information has been taken off-line, and no abuses have
been reported yet. The security lapse was so severe that Kentucky's state
auditor has issued an "identity theft warning" to all Kentucky
citizens, particularly state workers. The auditor has also urged all state
agencies to examine the security of their networks.
Penthouse will peddle
content online
Adult magazine Penthouse will begin selling downloadable content online
using secure technology from a company called Lockstream. The first items
to be made available will be Penthouse Forum letters and images. Some of
Penthouse’s additional offerings include pictorial spreads from bygone
years. The magazine says that these pictorials haven’t been available
since their original publication dates. Penthouse’s video library will
also be available off the web site, as will digitized versions of its
magazines. Penthouse’s foray into web sales comes at what some observers
consider an inauspicious time for adult internet content. Hundreds of
thousands of all but interchangeable web sites catering to carnal
interests have cropped up within the past couple of years. Penthouse
apparently hopes to cut through the clutter with its well-established
off-line brand name.
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