Window on the Web
by Daniel Friel
I n our previous report we featured web meta search engines (see www.nabe.com/wow/wow0298.htm). Recent research also points to the usefulness of meta search engines. Steve Lawrence and C. Lee Giles of the NEC Research Institute estimate that the World Wide Web contains at least 320 million pages, and any one Internet search engine covers just a small portion of the Web. The solution is to use meta search engines. They recommend metacrawler (www.metacrawler.com), which I have also found to be a good starting point (see www.msnbc.com/news/155513.asp for the full MSNBC story).
FRIEL’S FAVORITES
A new report on electronic commerce is available at www.ecommerce.gov. The report presents a comprehensive overview of the state of e-commerce. Some sample statistics from the report include:
1. Fewer than 40 million people around the world were connected to the Internet during 1996. By the end of 1997, more than 100 million people were using the Internet.
2. As of December 1996, about 627,000 Internet domain names had been registered. By the end of 1997, the number of domain names more than doubled to reach 1.5 million.
3. Traffic on the Internet has been doubling every 100 days.
4. Cisco Systems closed 1996 having booked just over $100 million in sales on the Internet. By the end of 1997, its Internet sales were running at a $3.2 billion annual rate.
5. In 1996, Amazon.com, the first Internet bookstore, recorded sales of less than $16 million. In 1997, it sold $148 million worth of books to Internet customers. One of the nation’s largest book retailers, Barnes and Noble, launched its own online bookstore in 1997 to compete with Amazon for this rapidly growing online market.
6. In January 1997, Dell Computers was selling less than $1 million of computers per day on the Internet. The company reported reaching daily sales of $6 million several times during the December 1997 holiday period.
7. Auto-by-Tel, a Web-based automotive marketplace, processed a total of 345,000 purchase requests for autos through its Web site in 1996, for $1.8 billion in auto sales. As of the end of November 1997, the Web site was generating $500 million a month in auto sales ($6 billion annualized) and processed over 100,000 purchase requests each month.
The report also includes a graphic that I find startling: Information technology accounts for roughly half of all business equipment spending, up from less than 5 percent in the 1960s.
FRIEL’S FLOPS
America Online’s move to $21.95 pricing for unlimited monthly service. Although there are no signs that this move has hurt AOL’s customer base, numerous competitors are advertising lower rates. In the information technology world, it is rare to see price hikes. Moreover, the ISPs shop bot (see favorites below) allows you to search for the lowest cost Internet service provider (ISP) in your home area code.
SUPERIOR SOFTWARE: SHOP BOTS
What is a shop bot? A shop bot is really an extension of the metasearch engines covered in the April issue of WoW. A shop bot is an intelligent agent that searches out information on products you designate. Useful background information can be found at www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/articles/newecon.htm. Agent Sourcebook is an excellent book on the subject of agents (see www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471153273/nationalassoci09/ for a review of the book and www.opensesame.com/agents for an online resource). A listing of popular shop bot sites appears below. Short descriptions of major sites I have tried are listed below (I am sure the list is not comprehensive and look forward to hearing from Business Economics readers about other shop bots):
BargainFinder (http://bf.cstar.ac.com/bf/ )
Anderson consulting’s shop bot for CDs. Their newest intelligent agent is LifestyleFinder, a customer profiling engine (try it, you may like it, it just might be the future of marketing on the Web).
Excite/Jango (www.jango.com)
Excite’s shop bot shopping site. Shop for computers, movies, games & toys, gourmet & toys, flowers & gifts, home & garden, sports & leisure, and electronics. The shop bot quickly searches out products and sorts by price and other attributes.
Acses (www.acses.com)
A shop bot for books. This site searches more than twenty on-line bookstores and provides a comparison price list (sorted by lowest price). The site also displays shipper and expected delivery times.
Priceline (www.priceline.com)
An interesting spin on a traditional shop bot. You key in the price you are willing to buy for and sellers notify you if they are willing to sell at that price.
NationsBank Insurance (www.NationsBank.com/insurance)
This site (a little shameless self-promotion) provides term life insurance premium quotes.
Yahoo Insurance (www.yahoo.insurance.com)
Another insurance quote provider. Beware, the application process is somewhat painful, and they have not lined up many providers in certain parts of the country.
Robert’s Online Commissions Pricer (intrepid.com/~robertl/commissions-pricer1.html)
This site provides commission rates for stock trades. The fastest way to calculate the lowest commission rate.
Carpoint (www.Carpoint.com)
Autosbytel (www.autosbytel.com)
Edmund’s (www.edmunds.com)
Carfinance (www.Carfinance.com)
These sites all relate to the car-buying decision. They are also hybrid shop bots. These sites do not give you instant quotes or instant trades. Nonetheless, you want to go here before buying a car.
Isps.com(isps.com)
Finds the lowest cost Internet service provider (ISP) in your area code.
NOTE:
Feedback is the foundation of this column. You can contact the author via e-mail at daniel.friel@nationsbank.com or through the NABE talk section of the NABE Web site.
