Call it the "Year of the Channel."
The message on the Web has always been, "It's the content, stupid." And in
1997, as the Net gained a hold in mainstream America, it became clear that
Netizens not only want great content, but they generally want it to be
free, well-organized, accessible, and packed with useful, reliable information.
In other words, they want everything.
In 1997 they found that there were any number of places--from
traditional search engines such as Yahoo and Excite to software companies, online
services such as America Online and Microsoft Network, and start-ups--that
delivered, or at least promised to deliver.
Web sites reorganized and launched, trying to morph themselves into that
perfect site--the one so well-organized, so fast, and so filled with
information that surfers need go nowhere else.
In 1996, the distinction between search engines, online services, and free
centralized sites was fairly clear. In 1997, the lines began to blur
and have grown increasingly fuzzy. By the end of 1998, with so many companies
adopting similar interfaces and strategies, there might not be any
discernible distinctions among different kinds of sites.
The reason for the evolution? All Web companies have the same wish: to earn the hallowed
spot of home page in everyone's browsers.
In other words, they all seemed to figure out the same secret recipe for
success on the Net and then raced to their virtual kitchens to cook it up.
It goes something like this: Create channels featuring the different
aspects of the Net such as news and shopping; add hot content; and throw in a
few spicy goods, such as free email or instant messaging clients. Then
entice surfers to your page, tempt them to stay there with delicious
content, and then lure them back again and again.
While many companies transformed their pages, others added new ones and
some, such as Snap, owned by CNET (publisher of NEWS.COM), launched
completely new search engine-like services, hoping to put a dent in both
the strong search market and in online giant America Online's market dominance.
AOL got wise to the trend pretty fast and got into the act itself.
Leveraging its powerful brand name, AOL decided to extend its dominance
from its proprietary service to the Web. During the fall of 1997, it started pumping
some of its own steroids into its Web page, transforming it from a fancy
bulletin board advertising the online service into a bona fide destination
Web site complete with search, channels, Web-based email for its
members, and a bag of tricks aimed at pleasing the crowds.
AOL's prime competitor, Microsoft
Network, also got into the act.
To be fair, MSN has had a strongly Web-oriented strategy since its relaunch in October 1996, when the company decided to kill off the
proprietary network and put everything on the Web with both free and fee-based
content.
But despite pouring millions of dollars into the effort, it still finds
itself lagging behind AOL.
MSN is clearly hoping that won't last for long. As the year came to a close,
Microsoft announced two important deals that are clearly aimed at luring
surfers.
For one, the company will add a search engine built by Inktomi and code-named "Yukon" to its
sites.
And just last week, it announced what could amount to the partnership that
puts it in contention with AOL's strength of 10 million members: on New
Year's Eve, Microsoft announced it had purchased free email provider Hotmail.
Free email fever started heating up over the summer, and going into 1998, it has
evolved from an extra to a must-have feature for any Web site with
aspirations of becoming a home page.
Microsoft clearly saw the writing on the wall and, in typical Microsoft
fashion, instead of simply partnering with a free email company, it
bought one--and an industry leader, at that.
The move, Microsoft hopes, will allow it to plant advertising
featuring its own products in customers' email boxes without being accused of
spamming. Microsoft is also banking on drawing Hotmail customers to
its fold.
In the year's 11th hour, Microsoft also added innocuous-looking
pull-down menus to its sites as added inducement to stay within the
Microsoft circle. As small as the actual menus are, the concept reinforces
the larger trend.
CompuServe, which is being purchased by AOL, got into the act as well.
Just in time for the new year, CompuServe moved its content onto the Web and into a service it calls "C."
Although AOL, MSN, and CompuServe are online services, novice users
might have a tough time distinguishing between them
and traditional search engines or even large company Web pages,
such as Netscape.
And that's precisely the point.
Clearly the hope is that Netizens will have no need to go anywhere else but
Microsoft. Or AOL. Or Yahoo. Or Snap. Or Netscape--depending on one's
perspective.
Just choose practically any company with a big Internet presence and ask its chief executive
about plans for the future on the Net, and you are likely to hear the same
story about content and traffic and channels, peppered with words like
"synergy," "market share," and, of course, "clicks."