|
|
While the taxman won’t come until mid-April as usual, that hasn’t stopped wired taxpayers from getting a jump on things. Traffic to tax-preparation web sites is soaring, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, as it has become possible to prepare and file taxes and even get refunds electronically. Visits to H&R Block’s web site, HRBlock.com, doubled during the week ending Jan. 27, increasing 98 percent from 203,000 unique visitors to 402,000 unique visitors. All of Intuit’s tax sites, including TurboTax.com, Intuit.com and ShopIntuit.com, posted strong gains in traffic as well. TurboTax.com drew 619,000 unique visitors during the week, a gain of 71 percent. Roughly 357,000 people logged onto ShopIntuit.com, a gain of 52 percent. And Intuit.com saw a 49 percent increase in traffic to 896,000 unique visitors.
Kids' new favorite toy: the web
Anyone in doubt about the future impact of the internet should take a gander at a new survey conducted by kid-targeted gaming site NeoPets, which found that children would pick the web over TV, magazines and radio if they could only have one entertainment medium. Fifty-four percent of kids ages seven and under picked the web while 73 percent of tweens and 65 percent of teens favored it above all others. Tweens and teens reported logging more hours on the internet per week, 8.7 and 12.2, respectively, than time in front of the tube, 6.8 and 7.6 hours. When asked how involved they were in their use of the web on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 standing for most absorbing, kids gave it a 4.4, tweens a 4.5 and teens a 4.3. TV never even hit a 4.0. But television still stands as the preferred ad medium, while the internet, magazines and radio follow in that order. Conducted for Advertising Age magazine, the survey of 12,500 youths was culled from the 11 million registered members of NeoPets.com, which offers kids the ability to create and play with creatures in a virtual world.
Playboy Playmate wins domain-name case
Terri Welles, who was Playboy Playmate of the Year 21 years ago, for now has won the right to cite the trademarked name of “Playboy” on her own web site, Terri Welles Erotica. Playboy doesn’t like the way that Welles cites her Playmate and Playboy credentials overtly all over her web site. Additionally, she has embedded the brand names into so-called metatags in the HTML code of her web site--meaning that search engines can turn up TerriWelles.com whenever web surfers look for Playboy- and Playmate-related material online. The men’s entertainment conglomerate sued her for violating its trademark back in February 1998. A California federal district court decided that references to Playboy are perfectly appropriate and constitute fair use of the famous brand name. Playboy appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled last week in favor of Welles, since she was simply citing her adult-industry credentials rather than suggesting a continuing sponsorship or affiliation.
Dial-up connections are getting slower
There’s now another incentive for paying extra for a high-speed internet connection: Conventional dial-up internet access is getting slower, according to internet measurement company Keynote Systems. After observing download speeds since October 1999, Keynote determined that it is now taking longer for popular web sites such as Yahoo.com, Excite.com and Travelocity.com to load via dial-up connections. Back in October 1999, the average length of time it took for a consumer-oriented web site to load using a 56 kbps modem was 14.3 seconds. But a year later, in 2000, the average time was 16.8 seconds. By early January 2002, the average download time had slowed to 21.2 seconds. Keynote officials say that overall, the internet has gotten slicker and quicker thanks to improved infrastructure. But when people come online for the first time, they tend to use dial-up connections rather than faster cable or DSL. But companies have not kept up in improving dial-up infrastructure, and many web sites have added more bandwidth-hogging, broadband-friendly features.
Russian monks busted for spamming
Not even men of the cloth are above sending out unsolicited commercial email, it appears. A Russian monastery’s web site was shuttered because its proprietors, the friars of the St. Trinity and St. Nicholas monastery in Shmakovka, were allegedly trolling for donations by sending out spam messages to thousands of email addresses. The monks apparently hired a spamming company to send out their entreaties for money. They claim that they were unaware that spamming is regarded as unethical and annoying--at best. After the company that hosts the web site started getting complaints, it pulled the site down and posted a message saying, “Closed for spam.” The web site, www.monast.ru, is back online now, featuring a contrite message in English: “We took advantage of this service, not being aware of the fact that this turned out to be ‘spam’, and that the dispatch of messages about the monastery can cause negative reaction in some people. We deeply apologise to everyone to whom our letter has brought inconvenience.”
February 5, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
Printer-Friendly Version
|
Send
to a Friend
Cover Page |
Contact
Us
