|
|
Yet another symptom of the anthrax scare, perhaps? People are logging on to greeting-card web sites in record numbers, according to Jupiter Media Metrix, and sending their pre-fab sentiments electronically rather than by post. For the week ending Oct. 21, traffic to Egreetings.com soared 130 percent, to 895,000 unique visitors. Hallmark.com saw a 99 percent increase in visitors, to 1.1 million, and Flowgo.com’s traffic increased 24 percent, to 7.6 million. Additionally, BlueMountainArts.com received 19 percent more traffic, or 3.5 million visitors, and AmericanGreetings.com got 11 percent more traffic than usual, or 2.8 million visitors. That week also saw an increasing interest in Halloween- and spirituality-themed web sites. Marsbrightideas.com, the web site of the candy-maker Mars, received 415,000 visitors. And traffic to Beliefnet hit 319,000.
Web surfers are driving to automotive sites
Automakers’ web sites are suddenly hot properties, according to the latest data from Nielsen//NetRatings. That’s because the companies have been offering sales and zero-percent financing rates to stimulate purchases amid a rocky economy. Daimler Chrysler’s web site was the fastest growing, with traffic shooting up 118 percent during the week ending Oct. 21. Traffic to General Motors’ web site increased by 67 percent, to 678,000 unique visitors, and Ford’s traffic increased 38 percent, to 399,000. Non-U.S. automakers were in on the action as well: Toyota’s web site saw 24 percent more traffic in the period, amounting to roughly 294,000 unique visitors. Once on the automakers’ web sites, consumers did things like researching models, working out financing and getting price quotes.
Historic Rosa Parks bus is sold online
Rosa Parks refused to cede her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., bus in 1955, touching off a bus boycott and igniting the civil rights movement. At age 88, Rosa Parks is still alive, and the bus is still around. But it has a new owner, internet-style. In the grand tradition of online auctions of celebrities’ childhood homes and significant historical artifacts, the coach has been sold over the internet for $492,000. The company that ran the auction, MastroNet, has not disclosed who bought it but says that the new owners respect the status of the bus as a historical icon and will preserve it. The bus previously was owned by the Summerford family of Montgomery, who used it for storage. The family bought the bus three decades ago when the city’s bus system sold off retired assets.
Jacko releases his new album online
In what looks like yet another attempt to win over more young fans, Michael Jackson made his new album available off his web site for one day. Starting at around noon EDT Friday, the album “Invincible” was accessible for listening online at MichaelJackson.com. The 43-year-old singer chatted live with fans that evening. Jackson, whose “Thriller” album remains one of the biggest-selling records of all time, has not had a hit in years, largely because of his rather unusual personal life and extensive plastic surgery. Because he lacks any recent hits, he faces the task of introducing himself to a new generation of consumers. “Invincible,” his first full album in a decade, follows a revival campaign, one of the highlights of which had the reclusive pop star singing with the popular boy band *NSync. The new album hits stores today.
Boo! Internet graveyard is now open to the public.
Millions of books, musical recordings and 35mm prints of movies have been lost forever over time, but Brewster Kahle is making sure that doesn't happen to the web. The San Francisco computer entrepreneur has created the Internet Archive, otherwise known as the Wayback Machine, which contains more than 10-billion web sites from as far back as 1996. The annals, at web.archive.org, act as a virtual graveyard, as they include millions of dead dot.coms, scaled-back portals and forsaken journals or personal sites. Kahle sees the collection as an indispensable history of the modern world and says he is not deterred by possible copyright conflicts. For example, Kahle has archived past stories of the now-defunct Industry Standard. Funding for the archive comes from Compaq, the National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution, along with Kahle’s own money.
October 29, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
Send to a
Friend| Printer-Friendly Version
Cover Page | Contact
Us
