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On Fri, 21 Apr 1995, Langdon Doty wrote:

> With these indexes and search engines (Yahoo, Lycos, etc, etc) being
> bought/courted by the big players, if not eventually swallowed up entirely,
> It is quite evident that the devil's advocate is correct.

It's kind of funny though.  A simple list like Steve's list of 
publications or the MecklerWeb's top pages, can generate several thousand 
hits from highly qualified customers.  Right now, all of the resources 
are listed in alphabetical order.  What is the impact of offering the 
highest slot to the highest bidder.  Each company says what they will 
pay, and sort the postings (and allocate space) according to the payment 
offered.  Practically every list in the country could get a bit of 
reference money.  Even on a small list, advertisers will pay NOT to be 
listed next to "Crazy Eddies Computers- Right off the truck".

It's the same reason that Businesses pay a fortune to have presence on 
5th avenue, and almost no one wants to put a store up at Hunt's Point.
You can still get some great bargains in the back alleys of 42nd street, 
but you have to shop more carefully.

> An index and/or search engine which has become a "popular" filterer of
> information (we can include the hotwired's, in fact anybody that has
> created a large repeat audience on the net) with a facility for secure
> transactions, taking a little piece off the top,  is where all the big
> players are heading (look at Microsoft, etc, etc). And if the are not too
> greedy, they might just pull it off.  Their reasoning is, if you act as a
> sort of "infobank", charging modest fees for a business to be there, taking
> 3-5% off the top if they opt for your secure payment facility, and making
When I proposed this 3 months ago, I had no idea how much people would 
pay.  It will be interesting to see how the publications "fan out", and 
how they use mailing-lists and news-groups to boost their circulations.

> sure you offer compelling enough content for people to continue to visit,
> you will create the ingredients for quite an impressive virtual empire,
> which could expand exponentially.
It's almost like a ponzi scheme isn't it?  But since the slots 25 page 
selections from the Prodigy Home page are probably going to net $50/week,
The parent slots can pay $100 and break even with 3 links on that 
page.  Most pages support 20-50 links.  Meckler Web Internet Mall is 9 
listings/page.  They already have 6 pages of Clothing vendors.  Most just 
point you off to email catalogues, but it won't be long before you can 
get your Fredrick's of Hollywood catalog right off the WEB.

>  The first one off the block to offer 1) the most compelling filter (Yahoo
> is ahead on that one),
Of course we also have Meckler, WAIS, and Lycos, which also have some 
meaty "Text with URLs content and potential".

> and 2) the most cost effective method of paying for
> the goods and services highlighted (the game is wide open on this one) will
The biggest roadblock here has been government blocks.  Since encryption 
is not exportable, and encrypted messages from legally obtained sources 
out of the country could be sent to servers in this country, there has 
been a government barrier to encryption, therefore no internet.

The most likely candidate will be some flavor of Kerberos, X.509, or 
related RFC.  The "check-book" will likely be separate from the HTTP 
server/browser.  It will be necessary for the server to forward payment 
authentication to 3rd parties (Banks, holding companies...).  The big 3 
will likely be big players here, as will players like Visa and Digicash.

> have tremendous leverage. Sequoia capitalists are no fools.  They will play
> the sponsorship game in the short run because that is where the mass market
> bozo's think their money is well spent, but what they will be leveraging in
> the future, unless they're clueless (which they are not), is the tremendous

> traffic going their way. I'm assuming they wont be too greedy and they will
> probably start charging a modest fee to be posted there, and if some
> company wants more, which many will since that is usually the first spot
> anybody goes to for their information (so far, but expect a real war in the
> future between different "Mega Filterers"), they will offer a secure
> payment facility.
With book-marks, it is still possible to set up several anchor points.  
In addition, the "Go" button lets you go shopping almost anywhere.
Where are people most likely to go for a home page that's relevant?  The 
"local" server.

> So by offering compelling content as a lure, modest rent to those who want
> to be listed there (charging very little for non commercial types), and a
> modest processing fee for those who want a payment facility, you are
> offering a win win situation, which will eventually knock out any greedy
> monopolists (we won't mention any names).  And what you have is a potential
It's interesting.  Many of the original architects of the internet were 
avid fans of the "Foundation Trilogy".  The are living out that reality 
now.

> empire. Coupled with a clever interlinking of various nonprofit and other
> businesses' products and services to synergize sales, and you have a real
> winner. etc, etc.
Much of the same resources we have today will still be available, with 
with private enterprize directly funding it, we'll be seeing much MORE of 
it.

> That's what I think will happen anyway. I leav it to the floor.
Not too far off.

	Rex Ballard


From rballard@cnj.digex.net Wed May  3 02:15:31 1995