Puppet masters: Who controls the Net

- Gartner Group analyst David Smith

Is Gates pulling the Net's strings?
interactive Like the browser wars, the fight over instant messaging is part of a larger struggle for control of the Web by industry titans. And Microsoft may raise the stakes by taking on AOL with low- or no-cost Net access.

Where the Web will be won
As computing moves even further onto the Net, identifying the next key technological battlefront is more important than ever for America Online, Microsoft, and a cast of smaller hopefuls.

How AOL rose from the ashes
How did AOL go from a digital whipping post to an Internet superpower? The answer lies in a combination of marketing hubris and an obsession with the Internet novice.

Microsoft: Resistance is futile
Borland's plight at the hands of the Redmond empire shows how Microsoft's perseverance can spell disaster for its competitors even when it's lagging or completely absent from a particular market.

Why open standards are a myth
interactive The rhetoric behind the technological control over instant messaging is beginning to resemble campaign speeches on family values in an election year--and is inspiring similar cynicism.