Australian Cybermalls News

Australian Cybermalls News - our daily news page - will be taking a brief holiday from today until Friday, 2nd January 1998. This year marked another extraordinary twelve months of expansion and change for the Internet. 1998 is very likely to continue the process, and we'll continue to document it as it happens when we return. Emails will still be checked and responded to daily during the break - but some tenants may be having a short break during the next two weeks and have their own arrangements. We'd like to wish all our readers the very best for the festive season and the coming New Year, and thank you for your support and encouragement over the last 12 months. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Microsoft lost the second round its battle with the US Justice Department's anti-trust suit last week when Judge Thomas Jackson rejected the software giant's argument that removing Internet Explorer from Windows95 machines would cripple the operating system. Judge Jackson pointed out that he and a technician had deleted the browser from a Windows95 PC without any difficulty in 90 seconds - simply by following Microsoft's own instructions on how to remove the software. The Judge has now called a follow-up hearing for January 13th so that Microsoft can either demonstrate why his action was - as they have insisted up this point - "virtually impossible", or explain why they've been insisting that removing the browser would cause complications. Meanwhile, Netscape have begun to offer disgruntled Explorer users a free trial of their Communicator browser, along with instructions on how to remove the detested Explorer from their machines.

Nearly two thirds of US companies will be conducting electronic commerce within a year and 68% of all companies believe that e-commerce demands a reevaluation of traditional business models, according to a survey by CMP Research. The number of large and medium-sized companies engaging in electronic commerce will increase by up to 50 percent in the next year, CMP reports, saying that an estimated 40% of US companies currently conduct business on the Internet and that a further 23% intend to make a start in the next year. Of those currently conducting e-commerce and those intending to go online, 64 percent expect that their costs will be paid off within a year.

Internet commerce grew by 50% during 1997, according to The Fall 1997 CommerceNet/Nielsen Media Research Internet Demographics Survey. CommerceNet estimate that the number of people who've made a purchase on the Internet has now reached 10 million, and attribute the rise to the industry's technical and marketing initiatives over the last year to build consumer confidence and the growing perception amongst users that Internet commerce is much more secure than they'd been led to believe. CommerceNet also estimate that of the 58 million adults now estimated to be using the Internet in the U.S. and Canada (26% of the population), 30 million were online during the previous 24 hours.

Microsoft arch-rival Novell have announced that they will release a new Java development environment soon called Open Solutions Architecture (OSA) in partnership with IBM, Sun Microsystems, Oracle and Netscape - and have posted an early access version of the OSA kit on their site. The new open standard will weld Java-driven Internet servers and Novell networks together, posing a major threat to Microsoft's plans to migrate the world to Windows NT and the company's own proprietary technologies. Microsoft have labelled the group "The Gang Of Five" and Bill Gates has alluded to a "conspiracy" by "anti-Microsoft forces" in recent public speeches.

According to the latest Australian Internet User Report by www.consult, Internet access and email are now the major applications on home PCs in Australia, outstripping the traditional uses of word-processing, spreadsheeting and games. The information, drawn from 120,000 online survey responses collected in October and November this year, indicate that the Internet is now starting to make a significant impact on consumer behaviour. According to www.consult, more than 300,000 Australians have now tried online shopping - and more than half have purchased more than once. Further, more than 55% of Australian Internet users watch less TV, 33% watch less videos, 30% sleep less and 10% exercise less.

Microsoft lost the first round in its drawn-out fight with the US Justice Department (JD) on Friday when US District Court Judge Thomas Jackson handed down a preliminary ruling with favoured the JD and temporarily bans Microsoft from forcing PC makers to bundle the Internet Explorer browser with new PCs. The JD had alleged that Microsoft has used its near-monopoly position with Windows95 to compel PC manufacturers to include a copy of Internet Explorer with every Windows95 PC. The decision poses problems for Microsoft's scheduled roll-out of Windows98 in June next year. The planned major new feature of the product was to be a merger of the operating system and browser and without this, analysts say, few users will bother to upgrade - potentially costing the company billions in lost sales and profits.

Barnes & Noble, now the world's largest online bookstore chain, has opened a franchise outlet at Australian Cybermalls. The new site will offer visitors a selection from over 1,000,000 book titles at 20%, 30% and 40% or more below regular retail price, with secure online ordering and fast world-wide delivery. The new franchise also allows us to add B&N Books In The News to our site - a weekly run-down of the New York Times best-seller list, featured books in People and the Atlantic Monthly's book list. A number of specialty bookstore boutiques will also be opening at Australian Cybermalls in the near future to provide extra resources for our visitors.

A recent study by Cyber Dialogue (CD) indicates that the Internet is gradually eroding TV audiences. According to Tom Miller of CD, who classified Internet users into "enthusiasts" and "newbies", 52% of enthusiasts reported that they watched less TV whilst 14% of "newbies" reported the same thing. And amongst professionals of all ages and leisure Internet users of all ages, between 35-38% reported watching less TV as a result of their online activities. Miller also found that 30% of enthusiasts and between 11-20% of other groups reported reading less as a result of the Internet. However, CD's overall findings show that while 35% of Internet users reported watching less TV, only 16% reported reading less newspapers and magazines. Pointcast, meanwhile, recently commissioned a study by research firm Intelliquest to see what effects PointCast's "push" media had on users. The results indicated that TV was less effected by Internet usage than newspaper/magazine consumption. The results of the study showed that 46 percent spend less time reading newspapers, 23% spend less time reading magazines while only 21% said their television viewing had declined. Intelliquest said that it would seem from their study that it's business users are quickest to adopt the Internet as a new media and are the first to cut out consumption of traditional media.

More than a year after pioneering the concept of e-cash in Australia, Advance Bank has launched ShopLink, an Australian Internet shopping mall that accepts e-cash. The new site makes use of DigiCash's digital cash technology to facilitate exchanges between buyers and sellers. Advance have induced several electronic retailers - like Lowes Menswear, Australian Geographic and Granny May's - to take part in the project, where consumers use an electronic wallet to make purchases rather than credit cards. E-cash is reputedly more attractive to consumers for low-value purchases than credit cards, Advance says, and has the added attraction of virtual anonymity (ie merchants receive ecash rather than a customer's credit card number). However, the e-cash concept has so far failed to generate significant interest in Australia and the increasingly widespread adoption of SSL secure online ordering systems has proven more acceptable for international purchases.

Australian Cybermalls was hit by a service outage yesterday which took our site off air for 16 hours. One of the cables supplying bandwidth to our server was rendered inoperable at approximately 12:30pm USEST and the fault wasn't remedied until 7pm USEST. We apologise to any of our visitors who was inconvenienced by this rare error. The last service outage we had was a few hours in June this year when our bandwidth was upgraded from T1 to T3 capacity.

Cybershop, the world's largest online homewares and gift store, has opened a franchise outlet at Australian Cybermalls. Cybershop carries more than 40,000 lines in the gourmet, electrical, giftware and homeware categories embracing more than 400 different brands (most of them household names). It also offers regular Internet shopper discounts, free email newsletters and fast world-wide delivery. Cybershop joins our Digital River software franchise and CD Universe, our music store franchise, bringing our visitors close to 180,000 quality, individual products and services available for secure online purchasing at Australian Cybermalls this Christmas.

Juno Online Services, the second largest email provider in the US, has filed a $5 million lawsuit against alleged spammers. The company alleges the spammers used a Juno address as the return address on their unsolicited email attacks. According to Charles Ardai, founder and president of the company, some of the spam was created using a piece of software available on the black market which can forge the return address on email to make it seem like it came from Juno. He also commented that spammers seem to pick Juno and AOL as good targets for bogus return addresses because with so many personal accounts emanating from these domains, they are unlikely to be the subject of filters.

The Internet is gradually switching the balance of power n the automotive industry from dealers to consumers, according to Toyota senior vice-president John Conomos. Speaking yesterday, Conomos said that it was "only a matter of time" before Australian Internet users would be able to find out exactly what car dealers are paying for their stock. Stock invoice prices are already a feature of many US automotive sites and this has rocked the industry, Conomos said, with buyers approaching dealers armed with pricing data that threatens traditional negotiated deals. "I'm not happy about this - but I don't think there's any way to escape it," he said. "And we have no idea what the ultimate impact of the Internet will be." However, Conomos believes there will always be a place for car dealers because of consumers' needs to touch, feel and drive cars prior to purchase.

Microsoft have released a major revision to Internet Explorer after the product's initial release drew an avalanche of criticism from users for its slow speed, unreliability and potential to bring down entire computer systems. Microsoft claim that the new IE 4.1 has addressed the majority of points that have drawn the most ire from early adopters of the product. However, commentators who've watched the company make similar claims about prior releases of the browser remain extremely skeptical and are generally advising users to "wait and see". Netscape, meanwhile, unveiled a 4.04 version of their Communicator browser two weeks ago to very favourable reviews. The new Communicator remedies the small memory allocation problems which occasionally caused the previous 4.03 product to lock up or fail to reboot.

Telstra Multimedia, the company's catch-all subsidiary for the Foxtel pay-TV joint venture, Telstra SureLink merchant services and the WirePlay gaming network, has folded after losing millions of dollars in a string of unsuccessful broadband and Internet ventures in a little more than two years. All the company's former functions will be folded back into Telstra's Network Technology division, the company has announced, with the exception of Internet services which will fall under the ownership of the retail products and marketing group. Former staff will be redeployed within Telstra itself. Telstra Multimedia was established in October 1995 as a "catch-all" group for the carrier's ambitious broadband cable roll-out and online services but ran into difficulties when Telstra decided to abruptly cancel the pay-TV cable roll-out in July after covering 2.5 million households - 38% less than originally planned. The division's SureLink merchant service failed to draw any interest from merchants who criticised its high pricing structure, and the WirePlay gaming network foundered after it began introducing proprietary features which meant users had to participate on a private Telstra network rather than over the Net itself.

The number of Australian Internet sites stagnated during November, with the number of new sites roughly matching the number of sites retired from active service. According to our monthly Australian Internet Growth Index, which has been measuring the approximate number of Australian sites on the Internet since January 1996, Sydney and Brisbane both recorded slight growth during the month - but this was offset by small net declines in all other capitals. The December 1st figures (with November 1st figures in brackets) are as follows:

Australian Internet Growth Index November 1997
(Figures Show Estimated Sites)

Brisbane - 3,499 (3,494)
Sydney - 11,292 (11,148)
Melbourne - 8,292 (8,351)
Adelaide - 3,275 (3,317)

Perth - 3,397 (3,431)
Hobart - 1,212 (1,232)
Canberra - 2,819 (2,894)
Darwin - 2,699 (2,715)

During November Australian Cybermalls' logs had an error for several days which prevented us obtaining detailed daily traffic statistics. However we estimate that at least 55,000 people visited us during the month, slightly down on October's figures. This dip was due partly to the US Thanksgiving holidays and partly due to the reconstruction work currently being undertaken on our site.