Friday 31st May
1996
NEW SEARCH ENGINE CHALLENGES ALTA
VISTA
A new search engine called
Hotbot, produced out of a partnership
between Inktomi and Wired magazine, is set to challenge Digital's
Alta Vista for dominance
of the international search engine market. Hotbot, which is still in beta
testing, hopes to index 50 million Web pages within the next few weeks and
claims that it will provide users with improved searching capabilities, including
greater scope for customised searches and recall of search parameters. To
ensure high speeds, Hotbot will use a series of Sun SPARC workstations. Like
other major Net search engines, usage of HotBot will be free.
Thursday 30th May
1996
vCARDS COMING TO NET SOON
More than 40 major IT vendors (including
Apple, IBM, Netscape, Siemens and AT&T) are rallying behind a new virtual
business card standard developed by
Versit, which is
now being submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force. The vCard
2.0 standard being proposed would allow Internet users to exchange "virtual
business cards" by email. These electronic business cards would include a
user's name, address, phone number and email address and allow for additional
data such as sound clips, photographs and other multi-media capabilities.
The aim of the vCard standard is to facilitate the global exchange of information
and eliminate the "billions of unnecessary keystrokes" which are used to
transcribe this sort of data at present.
Wednesday 29th May
1996
SHARE PRICE ROCKETS FOR INTERNET
BANK
Security
First Network Bank - the first federally-insured Internet bank in
the USA - has attracted more than 2,000 customers and over $US6 million in
deposits in its first 6 months of trading. The bank, which operates from
an office in the small town of Pineville, Kentucky has seen its share price
rise from $US20 to $US41 on Wall Street since it was listed last Thursday.
Security First Network Bank only accepts customers with a US address and
social security number, and provides cheque and money market accounts and
certificates of deposit, paying above-average rates as a result of its low
overhead - which it estimates is around 33% of the overhead of traditional
brick-and-mortar banks.
Tuesday 28th May
1996
300 RALLY AGAINST NSW CENSORSHIP
LAW
More than 300 protesters demonstrated
outside the NSW Parliament yesterday to protest against the State
Government's proposal to introduce a new Internet censorship law which has
been widely condemned as "unworkable" and "draconian" by industry experts.
The new law, which is due to be discussed by the Standing Committee of Attorneys
General on July 11th, would make it a criminal offence to send or receive
offensive material over the Internet. According to a leaked draft of the
confidential proposal prepared by the NSW Attorney-General, Internet Service
Providers could also be held accountable for anything held on their server
which is deemed to be "offensive" or "unsuitable for minors".
Monday 27th May
1996
WE RELEASE OUR FIRST NEWSLETTER
Australian Cybermalls have released
our first newsletter. Our 8-page newsletter, which discusses the growth of
the Internet in Australia and likely future trends in Net marketing, was
posted out to everyone on our database last week. Because the newsletter
was produced with Microsoft Publisher it is, unfortunately, too large a file
attachment to email. However if - for some reason - you didn't obtain a copy,
or would like one sent to you, please
email us with your name
and postal address and we'd be delighted to mail you a copy.
Friday 24th May
1996
WE'RE NAMED "BUSINESS OF THE WEEK"
Australian Cybermalls has been nominated
as the New Business Of The Week by Brisbane's City News, published
by the Quest Newspaper Group (a division of News Limited). The nomination
appeared yesterday. Today our managing director Dafyd Martindale was also
interviewed by Spencer Howson's ABC radio programme, which is broadcast
throughout rural Australia, on the difficulties of rural Internet access
and the emerging opportunities that uniformly inexpensive national access
will open up to Australians living and working in remote locations - a policy
the new Howard Federal Government will be attempting to implement during
its first term of office.
Thursday 23rd May
1996
NORFOLK ISLAND DOMAINS CIRCUMVENT
RULES
In an attempt to circumvent the highly
restrictive Australian domain name rules, Sydney ISP
RealNet have secured the domain-name
issuing rights for Norfolk Island. In Australia, unlike the rest of the world,
current rules only allow one domain name per company. As a result, large
corporations with many trademarks and product lines cannot secure separate
domain names for each one, which causes considerable difficulties if they
wish to establish intuitively-named Internet sites for each of their major
products. RealNet, however, now have the right to establish Norfolk Island
domain names under their own rules and promise to be considerably more flexible
than the Australian authorities. The new Norfolk Island domain names will
end in the suffix .nf, rather than the Australian .au
Wednesday 22nd May
1996
10% OF CHINA ON NET WITHIN 4 YEARS
China's Electronics Ministry
has forecast that 10% of Chinese families will own personal computers and
have the capacity to surf the Net by the year 2000, less than 4 years
away.According to the Ministry, 200,000 of the 1.1 million PCs sold in China
in 1995 were purchased by families. This is double the number purchased by
households in 1994. This year PC sales are expected to rise to 1.7 million
with 40% going to households. In Shanghai, China's most densely populated
city, 5% of all families already own computers.
Tuesday 21st May
1996
SOFTWARE ADDS AUTOMATIC SITE UPDATING
FEATURE
In a foretaste of the emerging trend
towards Internet-based software, the latest version of First Aid - the
award-winning Windows/Windows95 technical support software from
Cybermedia - has added automatic
Internet updating and support to its large array of features. First Aid
95 Deluxe, the new release of the product which is designed to diagnose
and remedy defects in Windows95 setups, now incorporates Cyberfix (an extension
which will automatically upgrade itself through the Internet from Cybermedia's
home site whenever it detects that an upgrade or additional help is required)
and new a new Tech Support Yellow Pages feature which will move a user through
the Internet directly to a software vendor's web site for the latest technical
support information, bug fixes and drivers (a feature which is also automatically
upgraded by the product whenever a software vendor moves web addresses).
The $99.95 product is available in Australia through
Software Suppliers.
"Consumers want self-cleaning ovens, self-basting chickens and self-sealing
envelopes", Managing Director Bruce Lamb said. "Why not self-maintaining
software and self-fixing computers too?"
Monday 20th May
1996
ONLINE SHOPPING GROWING
Close to 1 in every 3 Net surfers use
the Internet to purchase goods and services, according to
International Data
Corporation (IDC), who released the results of their third survey
on Internet shopping at the Internet World trade show. According to IDC,
who interviewed 1000 people over a 2-month period, the average home user
purchases around US$50 a month on the Net whilst the average business user
purchases US$500 a month. Further, the surveyed shoppers tended to visit
an average of 8 sites per session. IDC said that they were surprised at the
result, expecting that less than 1 in 5 people would use the Net for purchasing
at the present time.
Friday 17th May
1996
LIFETIME PHOTOGRAPHY GETS MAJOR
UPGRADE
Lifetime
Photography's site has undergone a major upgrade. The latest version
of their cyberstore re-opened today after 24 hours off-line. The upgraded
version features much faster-loading photographs in their photographic galleries
(which have now been extended), a calendar of international photographic
events and extensive links (literally hundreds of them) to major photographic
sites all around the world. The site will be expanded even further over the
next few months, with the aim of building it into one of Australia's most
extensive photographic information resources.
Thursday 16th May
1996
CRIMESTOPPERS COMING TO THE NET
In an innovative move, the NSW Police
Service intend to launch their community policing program
Crimestoppers on the Internet, hoping that the site will encourage
online users to notify the police of both off-line and on-line criminal activity.
The new site will feature a Java-enhanced scrolling gallery of wanted criminals
and securely encoded forms to ensure that any tips provided to the site will
be anonymous. It is expected to be online with a week.
Wednesday 15th May
1996
ADOBE, SUN AIM TO IMPROVE WEB
GRAPHICS
Adobe
Systems have announced a partnership with
Javasoft, the Internet division
of Sun Microsystems, with the aim of improving Web graphics by making
two new Adobe products - Bravo and Vertigo - "ubiquitous Internet
standards". Bravo, which is based on Adobe's Postscript technologies, will
enable developers to include very complex, high-quality images in Web documents.
Vertigo will enable developers to include sound and video as well. For its
part, Sun announced that it will incorporate Bravo and Vertigo technology
in future versions of Java.
Tuesday 14th May
1996
TELSTRA CONSIDERS "TAKING OVER"
ISPs
Telstra
is considering taking over Australian ISP's and launching a national
TelstraNet service by mid-year, according to an exclusive report in
today's Australian
newspaper. If the report's recommendations are adopted, Telstra would buy
out existing ISPs and their customers and convert each ISP into the Internet
equivalent of a franchised mobile phone dealer. The plan is seen as a pre-emptive
strike against Optus, who intend to offer Australians a much faster
cable-modem service by year's end.
Monday 13th May
1996
CIVIL LIBERTIES COUNCIL CALLS FOR NET
CENSORSHIP
In an unusual turnaround for proponents
of free speech and open access to information, the Australian Civil Liberties
Council has called on the Federal Government and the Family Court to
censor the information the Family Court broadcasts on the Internet through
the Australasian Legal Information
Institute. ACLC President Terry O'Gorman has requested the
censorship as a "one-off". However, Family Law Court CEO Len Glare has downplayed
the controversy the ACLC request has engendered, saying that law reports
had been available for years and the only information available on the Internet
would be electronic versions of these. Details available on the Internet
(and in the law reports) include allegations of child abduction, psychological
assessments and the names and addresses of the parties involved. Mr O'Gorman
said it was "outrageous" to publish such material on the Internet.
Friday 10th May
1996
TELSTRA TO UPGRADE AUSTRALIA-US LINK
AGAIN
Telstra
will neither confirm nor deny the rumour that it intends to upgrade the existing
18Mb Australia-US trans-Pacific Internet link to 32Mb by mid-year. According
to rumours widely floated at the recent ATUG conference in Melbourne and
reported on the front page of PC Week, Telstra plan to upgrade the link in
two stages. The first stage, scheduled for mid-May, will increase the link
from 18Mb to 24Mb. The second phase, scheduled for late May to early June,
will upgrade the link from 24Mb to 32Mb. The last significant upgrade Telstra
carried out to Australia's international link was on January 1st this year
when the link was raised from 12Mb to 18Mb. The rumoured upgrade, if carried
out, means that Australia will have almost tripled its US connection channels
in less than 6 months.
Thursday 9th May
1996
AUSTRALIA NOW WORLD'S 4TH NET
NATION
The Economist magazine has listed
Australia as the 4th biggest Internet market in the world (per head of
population) behind Finland, the USA and Norway in a
table of 22 OECD countries. Two years ago Australia was ranked 2nd in the
world behind the USA in computing power per head of population, and more
than 50% of Australian homes now have a PC. Meanwhile,
Network Wizards estimate that Australia
has 17 hosts for every 1,000 of population and has enjoyed an increase in
Net usage of a whopping 49% since July 1995.
Wednesday 8th May
1996
INFO GATHERING STILL OUTPACES
PURCHASING
According to a joint research project
recently undertaken amongst 23,000 Internet users by Georgia Tech
and the University of Michigan, most Net users still see the Internet
primarily as an information-gathering resource rather than a place to make
actual purchases. Security concerns, poor interfaces and other factors continue
to stymie the development of on-line commerce according to the study, and
people are now less likely to post credit card information on the Net than
they were 6 months ago because of concerns about security. Nonetheless,
considerable commerce is now being conducted on the Internet, and the expected
release of secure commerce servers later in 1996 is expected to reverse this
trend.
Tuesday 7th May
1996
NETSCAPE BROWSER SHARE HITS 84%
International research firm
Dataquest has confirmed what Netscape has been saying all along:
Netscape Navigator now holds 84% of the Internet browser market, well
ahead of rival Microsoft whose Internet Explorer places a distant
second with slightly more than 7% of the browser market, despite massive
publicity from the PC giant. America Online holds third position with
3%, NSCA Mosaic holds fourth with 1%, and all other browsers
make up the remaining 5%. Meanwhile, Netscape has announced that its browser
is now also being used for up to 92% of all corporate intranets (internal
versions of the Internet).
Monday 6th May
1996
TOYOTA MAKE $200,000 FROM WEB SITE
Australian
Toyota's general manager for marketing Bob Miller has admitted
that the firm has broken even on its Internet investment. The company, which
poured $100,000 into the development of its Australian site over the first
12 months of operations, has achieved $200,000 in sales from it - and generated
interest from as far afield as The Philippines. At current new car prices,
this equates to around 6 sales over the initial 12-month period. Nonetheless,
Miller is pleased with the result. "We've made enough money out of the site
for it to have been done at no charge", he said.
Friday 3rd May
1996
CONSUMER COMMISSION TO TARGET NET
SCAMS
The Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission has warned that it now intends to police the Internet as well
as its terrestrial jurisdiction, and will "vigorously pursue" anyone using
the Net to run electronic scams. Speaking in Sydney this week, ACCC acting
chairman Allan Asher said that the ACCC will actively prosecute firms who
practise fraudulent or misleading conduct against on-line consumers, and
praised the Internet Industry Association's efforts to draft a code
of conduct for its members. Meanwhile, the ACT Consumer Affairs Bureau
this week announced that it had written to the originators of two scams being
promoted on the Net at the moment: Fortuna Alliance, which requires
people to pay $250 to join, and an email chain letter originating from Canada
which promises a profit of $375,885 within 90 days. Amusingly, neither the
ACCC nor the ACT Consumer Affairs Bureau currently have an Internet
presence.
Thursday 2nd May
1996
DESIGN-A-RUG OPENS ON OUR MALL
Another new cyberstore has opened on
our Mall - and it's an unusual one for the highly-automated 1990s (where
most of us seem to want everything n-o-w). Sydney's Design-A-Rug produce
custom-designed, hand-woven rugs and wall-hangings for their clients on a
3-month to 6-month timeframe. The company, which has been in business for
close to 18 years, has carved out a unique niche in Australia, supplying
many schools, organisations and military units with ceremonial wall-hangings.
Yet surprisingly, 99% of its business still comes from individuals who want
something rare in their homes - such as their family coat of arms woven into
a rug or wall-hanging.
Wednesday 1st May
1996
AUSTRALIAN NET SITES CONTINUE TO
BOOM
Since January 1st this year Australian
Cybermalls have regularly polled several major search engines at the start
of each month to determine the number of web pages listed in Australia and
- from this - to deduce the approximate rate of growth that is occurring
on the domestic Internet. In the 60 day period between February 1st and April
1st this year the number of web pages listed with the engines in all major
capital cities grew by almost 50%. The May 1st figures (with April 1st figures
in brackets) show that this explosive growth trend is continuing unabated,
and accelerating:
Australian
Internet Growth Index April 1996
(Figures Show Estimated Sites) |
-
Brisbane - 1221 (762)
-
Sydney - 4115 (2491)
-
Melbourne - 3442 (2100)
-
Adelaide - 1444 (897)
|
-
Perth - 1138 (691)
-
Hobart - 645 (348)
-
Canberra - 1340 (861)
-
Darwin - 1086 (New)
|
|
This month's survey figures indicate
that during the last 30 days the Australian Internet grew by close to 60%.
The previous growth rate was 25% to 30% per month.
|
