Tag Archives: CNET Networks Inc.

About 4370 days ago E-Commerce

Browser Beware

Special Report Before you rely on an online ratings service, get to know the source — and how it makes money When you’re shopping online, whom can you trust to give you the best shopping experience? That’s the quandary facing consumers and small-business owners alike who are buying goods from unfamiliar Web stores. And with so many online companies vying for your hard-earned dollars — not to mention the fact that so many of them are in questionable financial condition — it’s natural to want to look to a trusted third party for a recommendation. But before you rely on an online ratings service like BizRate.com or Gomez.com, you’d better read the fine print. Consider the experience of Jehremy Foster, who was in the market for a camcorder this past December. He thought the camera would make a good Christmas present for his wife, who was then six months pregnant. An experienced Web shopper, Foster, 30, browsed consumer comments in an online camera forum until he settled on the model that seemed best for his soon-to-be-growing family: a Canon ZR10. Foster’s next stop: MySimon.com’s comparison-shopping service, where he sorted by price a listing of online merchants that sold the Canon camcorder. Noting that the lowest-priced vendors were listed at the top, Foster scanned down the list until he found vendors that rated at least two out of three possible stars on Gomez.com, an online ratings service. Family Photo and Video — a company that Foster had never heard of — had a Gomez rating of two stars and was selling the camcorder at the then-attractive price of $697. The prices other vendors listed for the same item ranged from $735 to $1,069. Foster says that he then searched for Family Photo and Video on BizRate .com, which rates 2,000 online merchants based on customer-survey information. The photo store rated an 8.3 out of 10, which sounded pretty good to Foster, so he placed the order online and crossed that item off his gift list. But the next day, Foster says, he got a call from a salesperson at Family Photo and Video that he found disturbing. The caller was pushing him to buy accessories and extra batteries for the camcorder he had just ordered. “It was totally bizarre,” says Foster. “Once the salesman realized I wasn’t going to buy anything extra, he was very rude and short with me.” (Family Photo and Video customer-service supervisor Mike Tate responds that sales reps follow up with customers primarily to confirm orders that might be bogus, and to offer promotional discounts. “There’s no pressure to buy,” he says, noting that Family Photo’s salespeople don’t work on commission.) Unsettled, Foster tracked down Family Photo and Video’s off-line address. When he found out that the business was located in New York City, he logged on to the site for the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan New York. There, to his mounting dismay, he found numerous complaints about Family Photo and Video — although the store was listed under another name, Abe’s of Maine. A general Web search for Abe’s of Maine led Foster to Photo.net, an online community of amateur and professional photographers, where he discovered some 70 complaints from people who said they had been burned by Abe’s of Maine. The complaints alleged everything from getting billed for $400 shipping charges to the old bait-and-switch routine. (A favorite ploy of certain camera merchants is to say a hot camera model is in stock and then ship a different model.) Foster wondered how Family Photo and Video had managed to get such seemingly favorable ratings from both BizRate.com and Gomez.com. Foster’s unfortunate experience notwithstanding, Tate says the ratings accurately reflect his company’s level of service. “We have a toll-free number, and whatever the problem, we will handle it,” says Tate. More than half of Family Photo and Video’s business comes from repeat customers, he adds. And given the site’s typical daily volume of about 200 orders, he maintains that receiving roughly 70 negative remarks on Photo.net during what was actually a five-year period isn’t a bad record at all. Still, Jehremy Foster’s story begs the question: How is it that the online ratings systems don’t reflect the bad experiences of people like Foster and visitors who post messages on Photo.net? The short answer is that ratings services are designed to spotlight good online merchants, not to warn consumers about bad ones. After all, the vast majority of online ratings sites are operated by companies that need to make money in order to keep providing their services. Most of the companies receive some part of their revenues from the merchants they are rating. Such a relationship between the ratings services and the companies they report on presents at least the appearance of compromising the quality of those ratings. San Francisco-based CNET Networks has considered posting consumer feedback regarding online merchants but has so far steered clear. “We don’t have the ability to verify whether a particular poster is truly a buyer from that merchant or whether it’s another merchant looking to slam their competitor,” says Dan Miller, director of CNET’s Shopper.com, a comparison-shopping service. CNET tracks feedback from consumers about resellers but doesn’t publish the individual comments. The feedback is offered to the merchants, and Miller says that most consumer complaints reported to CNET are resolved within two days. To help authenticate the complaints, consumers are asked to submit a customer-order number with a complaint about a vendor. In the future, Miller hopes to add to CNET’s merchant information the number of complaints the site has received about each vendor, as well as how many of those complaints have been satisfactorily resolved. Ratings services are designed to spotlight good online merchants, not to warn consumers about bad ones. If the situation is complicated for ratings purveyors, it’s even more befuddling for the average consumer, who’s likely to simply take the ratings at face value. But the fact is, using ratings sites effectively requires knowledge of the raters’ business model and of the degree to which the company’s economic interest could skew the way the information is presented. Without that knowledge, consumers might find themselves in trouble, especially, it seems, when they’re in the market for camera equipment. In May 2000 a computer-industry worker in Benicia, Calif. (who asked to be known only by her online alias, Cneber), ordered an Olympus C-3030 Zoom camera from Best Stop Digital, an online merchant she had found listed on CNET. Best Stop Digital’s site said that the highly in-demand camera was in stock at the attractive price of $850, while other merchants were listing it about $200 higher. A few days later, when Cneber hadn’t received the camera but found that her credit card had been charged for the purchase, she called Best Stop Digital to ask for a tracking number. She learned that the camera she’d ordered wasn’t in stock and probably wouldn’t ship for several weeks. When she asked the customer-service representative to cancel the order, she was put on hold and then disconnected. Further calls to Best Stop Digital were transferred, put on hold, or disconnected, and Cneber says that eventually no one answered the phone at all. Cneber, whose account is corroborated by documents and correspondence she shared with Inc. Technology, then sent an E-mail message to CNET to alert its product reviewers that a questionable merchant was included in its listings. She also recommended that CNET drop Best Stop Digital from its vendor list. She says that CNET responded with a message that the company made no guarantees regarding the quality of merchants that were listed on its site but not “CNET certified.” CNET’s Miller says he’s sorry about Cneber’s experience and confirms that CNET had received earlier complaints about Best Stop Digital. Miller says he suggested to Cneber that she contact her credit-card company for help with the charge. (Her account was credited for the amount of the purchase a few weeks later.) In this case, Miller says, CNET couldn’t mediate between the company and the consumer, because CNET’s best information indicated that Best Stop Digital had gone out of business and had been dropped from CNET’s ratings. (Best Stop Digital is, in fact, still in business, but the company didn’t respond to Inc. Technology‘s repeated requests for comment.) Miller says that CNET is well aware of cyberspace’s bad apples, who “are hurting the credibility of online retailers everywhere,” he says — not to mention the credibility of online information sites. To be a CNET-certified vendor, a merchant must supply CNET with up-to-date information on its pricing, shipping and handling, and inventory, as well as its site’s customer-service policy. The company must also honor the prices advertised on its Web site, conduct its transactions on a secure server, process orders promptly, deliver merchandise in professional packaging, and respond to all E-mail messages and phone calls from customers within two business days. According to Miller, CNET recently added a “code of conduct” that applies to all its listed vendors, whether they are CNET certified or not. The code prohibits certain bad practices, such as making orders contingent on the purchase of additional materials. CNET is also aware of the complaints about formerly CNET-certified merchant Family Photo and Video/Abe’s of Maine that are posted on Photo.net. “We can’t verify those complaints. We can only act on what we know,” explains Erik Kokkonen, a CNET vice-president. If a consumer complains to CNET about one of its vendors, a CNET staffer will contact the vendor and give it a certain amount of time to fix the situation. If the merchant is repeatedly unresponsive, CNET will kick it off the list for 5 days for the first serious offense and for 15 days for the second serious offense. If there’s a third offense, the merchant’s contract with CNET as a certified vendor is terminated, but the company can still remain on the site as a regular listed vendor. “We are in the business of bringing buyers and sellers together,” says Kokkonen. “But the reality is, we have a responsibility to the sellers to make sure we’re treating them fairly as well.” Where to Turn? Cameras and electronics are product categories that are especially rife with consumer complaints, especially with the prevalence of so-called “gray market” goods (“off-brand” versions of products that manufacturers produce to sell inexpensively abroad without warranties) that make their way into the U.S. market. But consumers need to be aware of the economic imperatives of the ratings services, no matter what kinds of goods they are looking to buy. Performing that level of research can be a big job, since there are so many different kinds of online services that aim to improve the Web shopping experience. (See “The Top Ratings and Comparison-Shopping Sites at a Glance,” below.) BizRate.com is one of the most visible comparison-shopping and vendor-rating sites on the Net. The site’s ratings section ranks 2,000 “partner” merchants on a scale of 1 to 10 based on data from consumer surveys. Using 10 shopping criteria, BizRate.com surveys shoppers, once at the point of sale and then again after goods have been shipped, in order to get feedback on the buyers’ fulfillment experience. BizRate.com calls its partner merchants “Gold Stores,” although that somewhat lofty designation may often be misleading, as it would seem to imply that the stores offer unusually high-quality products or service. According to BizRate.com president and CEO Chuck Davis, the company, located in Marina Del Ray, Calif., aims to include all online merchants in its surveys. It doesn’t charge vendors for a basic listing. However, vendors can pay for “preferred” placement in the marketplace section, which means that the merchant’s listing will appear at the top of any consumer search of that section. BizRate.com provides a daily feedback service to Gold Store merchants and sells additional detailed reports for about $3,000 a month. BizRate.com also makes money if buyers click through to the seller’s site to make a purchase. “We do no rating ourselves,” says Davis. “All we do is set up the infrastructure for unbiased buyer ratings.” BizRate.com’s ratings may seem free of commercial taint, since companies can’t pay to influence the surveys, but there is still room for murkiness. For instance, a merchant’s rating is based half on its front-end store and half on its back-end fulfillment, so stores with questionable practices can still receive a rating of 5.0 and above if they merely have a nice storefront. “It can be difficult to tell exactly what the numbers mean,” says Preston Gralla, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Online Shopping. “What’s an 8.4 versus a 9.5? Those numbers might be based on criteria that aren’t important to you.” Gralla advises that shoppers take advantage of a BizRate.com feature that allows consumers to rank merchants according to specific criteria, such as on-time delivery. “If a merchant has 91% on-time delivery, that means something,” says Gralla. On Gomez.com, another online ratings site, it’s especially difficult for consumers to assess whether a merchant’s score reflects variables that are important to them, and for a very good reason: Gomez.com doesn’t disclose all of the details about the criteria it uses to judge sites. “That would be like Coke giving away its special formula,” says Julio Gomez, chairman and CEO of Gomez Inc., in Waltham, Mass. “For each of the 75 industries that we cover, we have about a dozen criteria that we use to judge each site.” Gomez engages 30 industry analysts to generate the ratings rather than relying on consumers. (Gomez.com does publish basic information about its overall methodology, however.) In addition to running its own ratings site, Gomez.com provides merchant-ratings information to online comparison-shopping and consumer-information sites like MySimon.com, DealTime.com, and CNET.com. What online shoppers who come across a Gomez.com rating may not realize is that the Gomez score doesn’t take into account any aspect of the fulfillment experience. According to Julio Gomez, sites are scored only on the quality of the online experience they present to shoppers and on whether they have certain policies, such as accepting returned merchandise. So under Gomez.com’s system, it’s possible for a merchant with a slick online presence but questionable or even shabby business practices to receive a rating of two or even three stars out of three possible stars, as Jehremy Foster discovered when he encountered Family Photo and Video’s two-star Gomez rating. CEO Gomez answers such criticism by saying that his company concentrates on rating the consumer’s online experience, period. “We’re very focused on what we do. We are just about the customer experience on the Internet,” he says. His company doesn’t rate a merchant’s fulfillment performance, he says, because it wouldn’t be possible for his analysts to order products from all the 6,500 online merchants that are Gomez.com certified. “If someone out there would like to do that, they’re welcome to it,” he says. As it happens, Julio Gomez’s former employer, Forrester Research Inc., a Cambridge, Mass., market-research firm, appears to be doing just that. Forrester offers a free online consumer service called PowerRankings, which combines extensive consumer-survey data with expert analysis to rank the top E-commerce sites on the Web. According to Tom Rhinelander, research director at Forrester, no company can pay to get on (or off) the PowerRankings list. Here’s how the ranking system works: Forrester commissions a survey provider and research house (currently the NPD Group) to poll 20,000 customers of online E-tail and travel sites. From that data, Forrester analysts identify E-commerce sites that contain enough consumer data to justify inclusion in the PowerRankings. Since its resources are limited, Forrester ranks no more than 10 companies in each of the 13 industries that its rankings cover, which means that shoppers are unlikely to find unfamiliar merchants on the list. Forrester’s analysts open accounts with, and shop at, the sites in question, placing real orders for products; they then return all the merchandise. Based on those responses, Forrester prepares the rankings, giving the consumer-opinion data two-thirds weight and the in-house expert opinion one-third. “We believe the consumer data should carry more weight than expert opinion. That’s part of our methodology,” Rhinelander says. The PowerRankings list isn’t wholly free of the whiff of commercialism, since some of the companies on the list are Forrester’s clients. But Rhinelander says the company’s clients aren’t able to influence the ratings, even if they want to. Clients sometimes “call up and moan about the rankings,” he says. “The only way that will get any traction is if we get something wrong, and that can happen.” For consumers who are looking for a beacon of brand-name credibility on the Internet, there’s always the Reliability Seal of the Better Business Bureau OnLine (BBBOnLine). BBBOnLine is drawing on the bureau’s nearly 90 years of off-line credibility, making it a name to believe in, if not blindly trust. Consumers can search BBBOnLine to see if a particular merchant has received the organization’s certification. In order to achieve the Reliability Seal, online businesses must have been in business for at least a year and be members of their local bureau. The difference between BBBOnLine and other ratings services is that the companies that get the Reliability Seal must have already met certain qualifications. With straight sponsorship sites, virtually any company can pay to be listed. BBBOnLine has credibility because local bureau chapters are well situated to vouch for the legitimacy of businesses in their areas, according to Steve Salter, director of operations and administration for BBBOnLine, in Arlington, Va. Usually, local bureaus make an in-person visit to the companies that apply for membership, he says, which weeds out many of the worst types of operations. Checking with the Better Business Bureau sooner might have saved Jehremy Foster some headaches, although in the end he did receive the camera that he had ordered from Family Photo and Video (a.k.a. Abe’s of Maine). But Foster says his faith has been shaken. “I don’t trust any of the online ratings systems anymore,” he adds. “From now on, I’m going to either have a personal recommendation or stick with a known entity.” Lauren Gibbons Paul is a freelance writer based in Waban, Mass. The Top Ratings and Comparison-Shopping Sites at a Glance BBBOnLine What it is A service for certifying online merchants’ reliability and security and for finding out about consumer complaints lodged against merchants. How it works Consumers can search the site for companies that have received the BBBOnLine Reliability and Privacy Seals. Consumers can also file a complaint against a vendor online. How it makes money Like regional BBBs, BBBOnline charges companies membership dues that range from $100 to $10,000 annually (depending on the member company’s size). What you may not know BBBOnline doesn’t yet offer complete merchant data from all its 130 member organizations, so link to the bureau’s regional sites to investigate companies. BizRate.com What it is An online comparison-shopping and merchant-ratings service based on consumer-survey information. How it works Consumers can search for particular products in a variety of categories and see the rankings of merchants that sell the products online. In the Store Rating section, users can search for a particular store name and read detailed profiles. How it makes money Merchants pay BizRate.com to advertise their promotions. BizRate.com collects referral fees from merchants that get business off its site. BizRate.com also sells companies detailed market research culled from user surveys. What you may not know Although BizRate.com sites are ranked on a scale of 1 to 10, consumers are unlikely to find any site with a rating lower than 5. The designation “Gold Store” on BizRate.com means only that the merchant has agreed to put BizRate.com’s surveys on its site. CNET What it is An online news, reviews, and comparison-shopping portal. How it works Consumers can search CNET for product reviews and price comparisons. Consumers can also view comments from other shoppers in unmonitored message boards regarding a particular product or vendor. How it makes money CNET sells banner ads and also receives a referral fee from vendors when users go to their sites. All merchants in CNET Networks’ price listings pay to be listed. Some merchants pay a premium for order of placement or prominence on the list. What you may not know CNET makes no guarantees regarding the quality of merchants that are listed on the site but aren’t “CNET certified,” although it will investigate complaints about any listed vendor. Gomez.com What it is An online merchant-ratings service based on expert analysis. How it works Users can view ratings of the top vendors for the quality of the online shopping experience in a number of categories. How it makes money Gomez.com receives fees when consumers purchase products from certified vendors. It also sells consulting and in-depth reports to vendors. What you may not know Gomez’s ratings don’t take into account the consumer’s experience after an order has been placed. So the ratings don’t reflect either order fulfillment or customer service. MySimon.com What it is A comparison-shopping service. How it works MySimon.com allows consumers to compare prices on items offered by online vendors. It also lists Gomez.com’s ratings information for some vendors. How it makes money MySimon.com sells advertising to vendors. What you may not know MySimon.com aims to list as many merchants as possible that offer a particular product, but it lets vendors pay for preferential placement on its lists. PowerRankings of Forrester Research Inc. What it is An online merchant-ratings system based on consumer-survey data and expert analysis. How it works Visitors can view rankings of 10 merchants in 13 categories that include apparel, toys, banks, and electronics. How it makes money Forrester makes no revenues associated with its PowerRankings list. The company makes money through its primary business — market research and consulting. What you may not know The PowerRankings list rates no more than 10 companies in any single category. Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.

About 4462 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Handling Your Handheld

Best of the Web Our CEOs toured Web sites that sell software for personal digital assistants. What they found, what they liked, and what they found lacking When a CEO I know flies cross-country, he looks for bright lights on the ground. Not that he cares about the view. He wants to send and receive E-mail on a wireless Palm VII. With a foldout keyboard on the tray table, he types messages with a simple text editor until a populated area comes within range. Then he does quick uploads and downloads — literally on the fly. When his plane touches down, he can switch the use of his personal digital assistant (PDA) seamlessly from business to pleasure. During the taxicab ride from the airport, he often dials up Moviefone.com and punches in the zip code of his hotel. By the time he arrives at his destination, he knows which movies are playing where and how many minutes he has until show time. “It’s one of the little things I like the most,” says the CEO, who flew 90,000 miles last year alone and has owned five PDAs since he first bought a BOSS, a long-forgotten ancestor of today’s devices, in the late 1980s. “When I show up late in the evening, I don’t need to spend time looking for a movie. I already know what I want to see.” In some cases, when he has just enough time to drop his bags at the hotel before heading to the multiplex, the Palm makes a significant difference. Without it he would be unable to squeeze 100 minutes of entertainment into a 15-hour workday. Some CEOs buy their first PDA when their shoulders get sore. A few months ago, Sharon Middendorf grew tired of lugging a laptop computer wherever she went. The lead singer and songwriter for the New York City­based rock band Motorbaby, Middendorf is also CEO of the eponymous Motorbaby.com. After some early successes, her band was signed to a major record label. But after the deal fell through, she decided to market and promote the group herself. She recently released a new CD, Rush, but her high-velocity core business is licensing her music for films such as Troma Entertainment’s Terror Firmer and television shows like Jack & Jill and Baywatch. “I have to have so much contact information with me all the time,” she says. “When I travel, even when I’m just walking around New York, I need my database.” So Middendorf bought a Handspring Visor and began the process of deciding what software she needed to run her life. It started with contact management, but other applications are migrating slowly from her calendar to her handheld. She still, however, makes appointments on paper. “I prefer to see things on the page and write them down,” she says. The next application? Probably an MP3 player — a module that Handspring conveniently offers as a Visor attachment. Middendorf is one of the nine CEOs who rated Web sites for downloading software for handhelds. The panel included more experienced users than beginners, but the real difference among our CEOs lay in their lifestyles. And that proved to be the crucial difference. It seems that who you are dictates what you download. Our executives visited the sites to report on the lay of the land as well as to download freeware and shareware. We chose six sites that are getting particularly good buzz. Two sister sites, CNET.com and ZDNet.com, are probably better known as news and information sites, but visitors can find a wide range of software and hardware accessories for all kinds of computers, including handhelds, on them. Palm.com, Palmgear.com, and Handango .com are more tightly focused on handheld applications, and each aspires to be a complete, one-stop shop. Tucows.com is all about downloads — for every type of computer, including handhelds. Speaking of downloads, it seems that the men and women of the corner office have indeed mastered them. During our panel’s testing of the following sites, not one reviewer found it necessary to call customer service. And few even had to turn to the Help or FAQ sections — in fact, the favorite response of panelists queried about the sites’ online-help function was “N/A.” But our CEOs did look especially closely at product quality, as well as site reliability, navigation, and all-around ease of ordering. Here’s what they found. Handango.com This was among the most popular sites with our CEOs, though some loved it for the same reasons that others found it superfluous. One exec felt it would be easier to bypass this middleman and go directly to the producer. Others praised the site for keeping up with the rapid changes in wireless products and services and for offering a broad selection of software. Some panelists complained that the site had uninspiring graphics and was slow to download. (One CEO even reported that his browser had crashed in the process.) But overall, most of our Handango visitors said they would go back. ZDNet.com A technology-news site as well as an E-commerce outlet, ZDNet got high marks for ambition and scope. Veteran users returned over and over to browse for software and read the extensive PDA “Tips and FAQs.” Most saw the site as a useful resource for beginners, but one naysayer considered ZDNet “crowded and busy” — he reported suffering from “information overload” during his visit. The CEOs said that ZDNet filled their orders reliably, although two thought that the checkout process was confusing. The site earned kudos as a research tool. The worst things that anyone could say about the site’s huge selection of freeware and shareware were that full versions of the programs weren’t available on the site and that leaving ZDNet to visit manufacturers’ sites was a bit of a hassle. Palm.com Palm won the trust of our panelists simply because it is the official site of manufacturer Palm Inc. Who would know the product better, our CEOs wondered, than the people who make it? “It seems to be PDA central: everything you ever wanted to know about your Palm,” one CEO raved. Sure, the panel found some faults. One reviewer who tried to take some items out of the shopping cart before checkout suffered through a few confusing moments. But overall, panelists liked the site’s clean layout and good prices. (It should be noted that part of Palm’s software section is powered by Palm Gear HQ, the force behind Palmgear.com, reviewed here as well.) CNET.com Like its sister ZDNet, CNET offers news as well as downloads — and the mix proved controversial here as well. “Clear, complete information on each application was the best value of this site,” one enthusiast remarked. Panelists judged CNET as a great place to compare prices, although some complained about the sheer volume of information. One called it a resource for the “information junkie,” even as another warned of overdose, saying it was just too hard to navigate between news and downloads. Still, even he said he would go back: instead of “Just say no,” the consensus seemed to be “Use responsibly.” Tucows.com This site was branded “cartoony” by one serious soul but praised as colorful by others. Although everyone liked the Palm OS selection, some panelists complained that the downloads weren’t available directly on the site. “Almost everything on the site is either shareware, freeware, or demos,” complained one reviewer who wanted to buy full programs without clicking over to manufacturers’ sites. But the most serious criticism concerned other extra clicks. One CEO complained about having to specify the download location that was closest to him geographically before being allowed to search for software; he said that if he hadn’t agreed to evaluate the site, Tucows would have lost his business immediately. When it came to rating ease of ordering, those extra steps cost the otherwise well-received site some points. Palmgear.com Unlike Palm, which received stronger written evaluations than grades, Palmgear was damned with faint praise. In the categories of selection, navigation, and especially value, our panelists gave the site very low marks. The effort required to slog through a confusing selection of products was the determining factor. “Lots of software in inventory, but it is difficult to find what you need,” one CEO said. Difficulties in determining the price and especially the memory requirements of applications immediately discouraged some visitors. Since most handhelds have only 8MB of memory, many users will no doubt want to know the file size of the software they’re interested in. The Bottom Line On the whole our panelists wanted to cut to the chase. When placing an order, they wanted to get in and get out. “I would like to see the information broken out by device,” one panelist said. “If you have a Palm VII, you should be able to search only for Palm VII software.” Like many users, he was concerned about file size and hoped that more concisely written software applications would be available soon. “I kept seeing a lot of applications that were memory hogs. Some of them were 4MB or larger,” he said. Our panel clearly saw CNET and ZDNet as the information leaders among the sites — not just for industry news but for price comparisons. Tucows and Palmgear made our panelists click through too many hoops when they ordered software, and Handango reportedly crashed a browser. If who you are determines what you download, then what you like in a Web site may determine where you download it from. Folks who like to window-shop will flock to sites like CNET and ZDNet that are crowded with information. Those seeking a more streamlined experience will like Palm for its broad selection of software and ease of navigation. Ron Feemster is a freelance writer based in New York City. The Savvy CEO’s Guide to PDA Software Comments Would CEOs go back? What is the site good for? CEOs’ quick take www.handango.com “Yes.” “Extensive software listings.” Varies from “very professional” to “out of business soon” (a comment on the quality of the site, not its financial health). www.zdnet.com “Yes, to browse.” “Product information, tips, and FAQs.” Judgments from “great for beginners” to “information overload.” www.palm.com “Yes, as needed.” “Ordering hardware, software, and accessories.” “Very fast and easy to navigate.” www.cnet.com “Yes, occasionally.” “Product price comparisons.” “Clear, complete information.” www.tucows.com “Maybe.” “Very fast downloads.” “If you want freeware, Tucows has it.” www.palmgear.com “Once in a while.” “Difficult to find things.” “Needs an overhaul on the user interface.” Grades Navigation Selection Ease of Use Reliability Value Average Grade www.handango.com A A- A A B+ A- www.zdnet.com B A A A A A- www.palm.com A+ A B A A+ A www.cnet.com A- B B A A- B+ www.tucows.com B- C C A- A- B www.palmgear.com B B B B B- B Our Panelists Doug Carlson, cofounder and president, Knowledge Strategies Seth Christian, CEO, HotelTools Robert Karpman, president and cofounder, Socket Media Tim Longnecker, principal and CEO, Dynamis Solutions Sharon Middendorf, CEO, Motorbaby.com Ron Reed, CEO, Fullscope Marcus Samuelsson, chef and co-owner, Aquavit Howard Sherman, CEO, Roundhouse Scott Snyder, CEO, OmniChoice Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.

About 4462 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

It Slices! It Dices! It Doesn’t Do Either Very Well!

Road Warrior I have a complicated relationship with things electronic. On one hand, I want to carry as few of them as possible. I use a laptop not simply because it’s portable, but because it’s one compact piece of machinery instead of three bulky ones (monitor, keyboard, and computer). On the other hand, I tend to be suspicious of devices that claim to be two or three things in one. With certain notable exceptions (laptops, refrigerator/freezers, Ron Popeil’s Veg-O-Matic), the two or three features are usually so compromised that you’re better off with separate devices, each doing what it does best. And so I was torn when, despite the love and respect I had for my cell phone and my suspicions about multitasking gadgets, my eye began to wander. I saw people with devices that are cell phones, PDAs, and wireless E-mail modems all in one, and I longed for one. I wanted to be able to get my E-mail on the road without having to lug my laptop or log on to someone else’s computer. I wanted to have all my E-mail addresses and phone numbers and my calendar right there on my phone. And so, last month, I cheated on my beautiful, faithful Nokia. My first affair was with the Sprint PCS TP-3000 ($399). Here is a cell phone no larger than my Nokia that includes a PDA and provides Internet and E-mail access. I left my Nokia at home and ran off to Buenos Aires with the Sprint PCS. I checked my E-mail during a stopover in the Miami airport. There were six E-mail messages waiting for me. It was beautiful. Then I set about composing my replies. To do that you use a stylus and an alphabet keyboard that you tap, just as you would on a Visor. (A Graffiti-like handwriting-recognition function isn’t available on this model.) The difference is that the Sprint phone doesn’t provide the Visor’s reassuring chirp to acknowledge your selection. So half the time, you’ve moved on to the next tap when you realize the last one didn’t take, and you have to backtrack. To speed things up, you find yourself talking in license-plate shorthand. I actually caught myself writing “4 U” instead of “for you.” PU! After composing two or three messages, I gave up on capital letters and completely abandoned punctuation. The other problem was that everything — calendar, alphabet keyboard, E-mail display — was maddeningly small. Plus, I had to press fairly hard, not just tap, to have my pokes register. By the end of the third reply, I was bringing down my stylus like an ice pick, and people were starting to stare. A little Argentine girl wandered over to watch. “Es una telÉfono cellular con E-mail,” I explained. She giggled and ran away. You should, too. By the time I got to the fourth E-mail, I’d had all I could take. It was taking me a good 15 minutes to compose each reply. It was as though time had gone at once forward and back: suddenly I had the capacity to send E-mail messages through thin air, but I had to revert to Morse code to write them. On the fifth and sixth messages, I decided to just call the senders and leave phone replies instead. I shut down the browser and began dialing the phone. “Battery low,” said the TP-3000, and within minutes it shut down completely. Sending and receiving E-mail eats up a phone’s battery charge surprisingly swiftly. And I had forgotten to bring along the charger. So with a paragon of wireless-communication innovation in my pocket, I went to stand in line with the Argentines at the pay phones. And get this: the TP-3000 is apparently the best of its class. CNET.com named it the Best Web Phone, and Etown.com voted it Cell Phone of the Year. It seems it’s not simply the individual product that’s lacking but rather the entire breed. For now anyway, a cell phone can’t double as a satisfying PDA or E-mail-composing device. But what if you went in the other direction and tried to get a PDA to function as a cell phone and a wireless E-mail device? That is exactly what Handspring has set out to do. You can now buy a VisorPhone module ($299) that slides into the back of the Visor Platinum model ($299) and turns the popular PDA into a cell phone. You can then buy an OmniSky Minstrel S Wireless Modem ($299), which slides into the back of that same Visor Platinum (once you’ve removed the phone module) and lets you send and retrieve E-mail and browse the Internet. That’s what I tried next. My husband, Ed, and I took the Visor and its two sidekicks around town with us one weekend while we ran errands. The phone module worked nicely, though speaking into an organizer and tapping on pictures of phone buttons lacked the considerable aesthetic charm of using an actual cell phone. Plus, you tend to press the gadget into your cheek as you speak, which leaves smears of sunscreen, makeup, sweat, and what have you on your PDA screen. You also press buttons you don’t mean to press. Ed was checking our home phone messages and pressed the 3 key with his cheek, inadvertently erasing the message he was listening to. I have faith that one day soon there will be a single gadget that does it all, does it all well, and does it all well for a modest sum. Here’s the big reason I wouldn’t go this route: it doesn’t really cut down on your total gadget load. The VisorPhone module weighs three ounces. Ed’s new cell phone weighs about that much and is about the same size. The only real advantage to using a Visor PDA with a VisorPhone module — as opposed to a PDA and a freestanding cell phone — is that your address book is right there in your phone, enabling you to look someone up and call that person at the same time, on the same device. (That’s a function you can already perform on some existing cell phones, but I digress. …) I also tried out the OmniSky Minstrel S (the wireless modem). I started by trying to call up Web search engine Google. When I hit the Visor’s “ABC” icon to bring up the tappable alphabet keyboard, it kept giving me something else, a Go To menu. I finally figured out that the sync between the icons on my screen and whatever lies beneath them was off in some places by a couple millimeters. Hitting the E anywhere left of the center of the key gave me a W; hitting the A gave me a Tab. I imagine most Visors don’t have such a problem. I must have had a lemon. What I would rather have is a BlackBerry. The BlackBerry RIM 957 ($499) is a combined PDA and wireless E-mail and Internet modem. (It doesn’t function as a phone.) It has a three-inch-wide keyboard with real keys that you actually press, which makes writing E-mail and calendar entries relatively painless. (I said relatively.) It’s so well designed that using it is almost intuitive. I rarely had to consult the instructions. And the combined weight of a three-ounce cell phone and a five-ounce BlackBerry is four ounces lighter than a Visor with its separate E-mail and phone modules. Alas, unlimited wireless E-mail and Internet service on the BlackBerry costs $49 to $59 a month (prices vary according to the device used), which is a little steep for yours truly. (The monthly fee for the Visor’s E-mail module, by comparison, is $29 to $39, depending on whether you prepay.) I have faith that one day soon there will be a single gadget that does it all, does it all well, and does it all well for a modest sum. In the meantime, I am back with my Nokia and only occasionally indulge in BlackBerry fantasies. When she’s not queuing up with Argentines at pay phones, Mary Roach can be reached at roach@sfgrotto.org. Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.

About 4582 days ago Setting Up a Website

Web Awards 2000: ROI

First place Sumerset Custom Houseboats (See ” Web Awards 2000: General Excellence.”) Second place Dollars for Dialing Company: DirectWireless.com Web address: www.directwireless.com Why it won: This unadorned site generates at least 10 times in annual revenues what it cost to build. Company revenues: $2.4 million Site-launch cost: $25,000 Judge’s view: “While this is not the most elegantly designed site … it puts forward a no-frills, get-down-to-business attitude that should appeal to active, self-directed shoppers.” –Mark Leiter In 1997, Rob Marler, who was selling Nextel cell phones in central Florida, was living the sales rep’s nightmare: his customers wanted to buy things he couldn’t provide. They were asking for accessories like batteries, chargers, and cases, “and there weren’t any,” he recalls. Those items were always out of stock. “It seemed like a forgotten sales opportunity,” Marler says. He and a Nextel colleague, Brian Bangle, quit their jobs to start a wholesale business selling accessories to Nextel dealers. Next, they opened their Direct Wireless retail store near Orlando, adding products for Motorola, Nokia, and other brand-name phones. In 1998 they launched a Web site. A year later they renamed the whole company DirectWireless.com, acknowledging some of their repeat customers’ growing preference for ordering goods online. Currently, only about 10% of their customers make their subsequent purchases online, a percentage Marler hopes to increase in coming years. Today the 10-employee company offers 750 products, including hard-to-find accessories for older-model phones and for the latest models of pagers and handheld computers. The Web accounts for about 10% of the company’s revenues, but Marler expects that figure to grow with the market. (He estimates that there are 100 million cell-phone users in the United States this year, up from 79 million last year.) Initially, DirectWireless.com outsourced all its Web work, but “it cost $150 an hour and took a couple of weeks to get a new graphic or text on the site,” Marler recalls. Now a full-time Web staffer does the same work in minutes. Not that DirectWireless.com focuses on design. Judges unanimously mentioned the site’s stripped-down look. “Designed to win sales, not art awards,” noted judge Mark C. Thompson, but he added that he found accessories for his own phone faster on DirectWireless.com than he did on the “much prettier Motorola site.” Marler, who owns but rarely uses a cell phone, now wants to attract a new generation of customers: teenagers. “If we acquire them as customers today and keep them until they’re 80, we’ll be servicing every phone they ever use in their lifetimes,” he says. –Anne Stuart Third place Sweat Equity Company: Affordable Supplements Inc. Web address: www.affordablesupplements.com Why it won: The site helped to grow the company’s business in nutritional supplements so quickly that they now represent 95% of sales. Company revenues: $250,000 Site-launch cost: Less than $500 Judge’s view: “The site loads quickly and lists products immediately; it has a clear search capability, clear information on products, and an easy purchasing method. The ROI is huge since they designed the site themselves.” –Mark C. Thompson Dave Gray of Colby, Kans., thought he could muscle more money from the bodybuilding supplements he and his wife, Kristi, sell at their gym, the Fitness Club. At the time, sweaty athletes fresh from their workouts were buying about $2,000 worth of the supplements each month. Gray figured he’d be doing well if he made one sale a day online. So with no experience, Gray cobbled together and launched an E-commerce site in March 1999. He saw results within days, making his first sale to a weightlifter in England. Within six weeks, Web sales matched over-the-counter sales. As their fall season began, the Grays were doing 95% of their supplements sales over the Web, averaging more than 32 orders a day for projected sales of $750,000 this year. They still run their health club, but online sales account for 80% of their revenues, which reached $250,000 last year. Gray developed the business by focusing on a specialty audience: serious athletes, primarily body-builders, weightlifters, and football players. “MotherNature.com sells vitamins and herbs. We’ve stayed totally away from that,” he says. “If we do sell a vitamin, it’s because it’s targeted specifically to an athlete.” He buys in volume so he can deeply discount products like mineral supplements, muscle-building hormones, and powdered meal replacements. And Gray, who is an experienced weightlifter, knows whereof he sells. The Grays and two full-time employees answer hundreds of E-mail questions on everything from effective exercises to the pros and cons of protein supplements. While he can’t yet cite figures, Gray believes those personal responses convert to sales often enough to justify the effort. Gray, who calls himself “really cautious, the do-it-yourself kind,” chuckles when he hears about E-commerce start-ups that have spent six figures launching their Web sites. “I didn’t even buy Microsoft Front Page,” he says. Instead, he built the site himself with shareware he found online, mostly at CNET Download.com. He spent about $300 for software that handles credit-card processing and $50 on a scanner. Gray maintains the site; two employees handle order fulfillment, and a third does the product photography. Judges felt the site’s look and feel reflected its skinflint roots. “Weak and confusing navigational architecture, cluttered purchasing process,” wrote Nicholas DiGiacomo. “Ugly in a Yahoo sort of way,” agreed Mark C. Thompson, but added, “It definitely achieves the company’s business goals.” –A.S. Conversation with Mark C. Thompson Judge: ROI Trying to keep up with Mark Thompson is like chasing a hummingbird. That’s because he never stops moving. During this phone interview, for instance, he’s driving from Silicon Valley to San Francisco. En route, he stops for lunch and polishes off a chicken sandwich, all while talking nonstop about why Internet ROI isn’t an oxymoron. If anybody knows about E-commerce investments, it’s Thompson. Currently, he’s chairman of Integration Corp. of Mountain View, Calif. Previously, he spent 12 years at Charles Schwab & Co., most recently as executive producer of Schwab.com. Thompson, 43, says return on investment relates to how well companies know their customers — and how well they treat them. More Thompson musings: On the winners: “These companies jumped out at me because they appeared to quickly solve the problem the customer would be coming with: They want to buy sports supplements. They want to buy accessories for a mobile phone. They want to custom-design a houseboat.” On the losers: “I’m always surprised when you can’t actually complete a transaction on a site. Most people aren’t coming to browse. You need to have empathy for the poor customer who’s trying to get things done.” On designing for success: “There’s going to be a shift away from the designer Web site — one that’s used to showcase a company — towards a new pragmatism. [For example] Yahoo is enormously successful. Yahoo isn’t pretty. It’s fast, it’s effective, it’s on target. That should be a lesson.” –A.S. Annual Web Awards 2000 General Excellence Marketing Customer Service ROI Innovation Community Judges Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.

About 4735 days ago E-Commerce

Prepare Your Site for Going Global

For many companies, localization is an afterthought. Whenever I inquire of people in the information technology and/or e-commerce industries whether they are planning to localize their Web sites, I am told, “We are concentrating on the English version first.” This kind of thinking often turns out to be costly for future expansion into international markets, because the initial design of the back end and front end of your Web site will determine future localization costs. If you don’t do some planning before you build your Web site, reengineering it later to accommodate localization needs will be needlessly expensive. Whether you plan an international Web site outright or just “concentrate on the English version first,” your base Web site most likely is going to be the foundation for all future language versions. Below are three pointers for planning your Web site. They will save you money when the time comes to localize your site. Up-Front Market ResearchDefine the issues and develop the strategies necessary to meet your business objectives and match your vision. Up-front market research will lower the cost of localization by identifying issues that will affect marketing across the globe. Pay particular attention to Web site features that customers in your target market(s) will directly interact with, such as page layout, graphics, site navigation, etc. One useful approach to attaining market insight is to review your competitors’ sites. Once you know how far they have progressed beyond “English only,” move on to reviewing some of the major multilingual Web sites (those of Microsoft, MSNBC, CNET, ZDNet, and Symantec). Note if and how their page layouts and graphics differ from one language site to another. See how they bring each language site version in line with the base site. Finally, decide where in the localization spectrum you want your Web site to be. (Will you localize your shopping cart only or translate every page of your site?) Keep this in mind when designing your Web site. Site DesignNow that you have an idea as to what you would or would not want a localized version of your Web site to include, you need to keep in mind that your site’s design has to accommodate the need for both universality and cultural specificity. Most companies’ localized Web sites link off a main home page and have a design and layout that complement the base site. Companies do this because they want their localized sites to have an integrated look and feel, rather than appearing to be disconnected Web sites lumped together at one address. Consequently, attaining a balance between universality and cultural specificity while maintaining the crucial elements needed for company branding should be one of the overall goals when designing your Web site. Remember: Think long term rather than short term. Thinking in terms of “English only” ? or, for that matter, French or Arabic only ? prevents you from seeing the larger picture. My advice is to begin by developing a simple design without cultural details specific to any target country. Then let it be the foundation for your other localized sites. Here are some points to keep in mind when thinking of a design for your base Web site: Keep the layout simple and avoid cultural icons such as an American flag or a Russian sickle. Try to avoid adding elements that would give the site the “flavor” of the target country. Keep the page layouts and color choices similar throughout all the pages of your base site. This way, you can use your base site as a template for your localized versions, thus saving money. Keep in mind that if you can review color and graphic issues before you build your site, you will reduce costs considerably when you localize. Choose visual elements that can work across cultures. Once you localize, these elements can help further integrate all your foreign-language sites together. So it’s important that they remain consistent across all your sites and that you make your initial choices carefully. If you need to choose different images or formats for localized versions, they should still be representative of your base site. Do not lose sight of the purpose of your Web site. It should serve as a tool that communicates the benefits of your products or services to a customer, with the goal of provoking an action, such as a purchase. Site TestingThoroughly test your site to make sure that it can handle different character sets, localization of scripts, etc. This will ensure that your internationalization efforts were successful, and that your Web site can handle localization when your business is ready to go global. With the growing number of non-English-speaking users logging on to the Internet, more and more companies are focusing on internationalizing their Web sites to reduce the amount of time and effort it takes to expand into foreign markets ? and so should you. Copyright © 1995-2000 Pinnacle WebWorkz Inc. All rights reserved. Do notduplicate or redistribute in any form.

About 4735 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Top Sites for Tech Buying

CEO’s Start-Up Toolkit: Best of the Web A panel of entrepreneurs searches for the best spots to shop online Does anybody buy computers in person anymore? If you buy technology today, the odds are pretty good that you make some of the purchases online — or at least choose some items based on information you’ve found online. Your most important choice may therefore be not which product to buy but which site to start with. With our crew of entrepreneurs, we reviewed three of the top multivendor retailers, with an eye to their overall effectiveness as tech-buying sites for Inc. Technology readers. We didn’t evaluate the quality of the products sold there but rather considered whether the site would help readers make quick, productive work of buying computers, peripherals, and/or networking hardware (all from multiple manufacturers) for a small company. (Note, too, that for this trip we ignored the single-source, direct-market sites such as Dell.com and Gateway.com. But, of course, you may want to give those sites a try.) Another buying site not reviewed here but worth checking out is Zones.com, which features a unique set of business-to-business buying tools. But what good is an online technology source without unbiased online technology insight? To accompany our source reviews, we first looked at a selection of “product comparison” research sites, places that promise unbiased reviews, comparisons, specifications, and other data to help you make informed decisions when shopping online. Where to Do Your Research www.zdnet.com What it offers: Oodles of product information and articles; links to buying sites What it’s good for: Locating in-depth articles and analysis Don’t waste your time on: Expecting to navigate the site without getting a migraine; the layout is too busy. What our panel had to say: Our reviewers were un-wowed by ZDNet, although one panelist, the CEO of a consulting and publishing firm, found the site’s “Anti-Virus Guide” very valuable. He also appreciated how much content ZDNet offered from a single access point. Still, he wished the presentation had been better. He recommended an “at a glance” organizational model in which lists of products in a category or resulting from a search are shown with review data on a single page. www.cnet.com What it offers: Lots of good tech information and links to buying sites What it’s good for: Product reviews, articles, “Editors’ Choice” awards Don’t waste your time on: Clicking on the links to “premier sponsor” sellers, which muddy an otherwise unbiased presentation What our panel had to say: CNet.com is broad in the same way that ZDNet.com is, but it’s much better organized and easier on the eyes. The site features not only product information and comparisons but also articles, tech news, tech-job notices, how-to instructions, and even product auctions. In addition to doing broad product searches, visitors can display “Editors’ Choice” picks and lists of the most popular products in various categories. The site presents it all within a happy balance of good design and readability. The combination of product news, reviews, and access to technical products makes CNet an easy stop. Panelists liked CNet. One dubbed it “simple, concise, and focused,” and observed that “there are other comparison-shopping engines, but the combination of news, reviews, and shopping for technical products makes this an easy stop.” www.productopia.com What it offers: A friendly gateway to product information and links to buying sites What it’s good for: Training-wheels-easy tours of product categories Don’t waste your time on: Getting advanced techie-type info; the content is skewed to newbies. What our panel had to say: Productopia is exactly what it sounds like: a consumer-oriented, all-purpose repository of information on all types of products, including cars, appliances, clothing, and more. The pages that deal with computers are adequate though clearly skewed to novices. In the plus column, however, there are “user reviews” and discussion groups that may offer some firsthand insight into products you’re considering buying — although we could find very little information about the items we tried. Both Mac and PC products are available and offered as equivalent choices for the same tasks. For example, computers that were selected as “Style Picks” (apparently for how good they’ll look sitting on your desk) included an Apple iMac as well as PCs from Sony and Quantex. Despite the site’s consumerishness, panelists were impressed with Productopia, which got unanimously high marks for its search function, presentation, and navigability. www.techshopper.com What it offers: A handy way to research and buy from a single site What it’s good for: Research, but not purchasing Don’t waste your time on: Trying to locate customer service; panelists had trouble tracking down that link. What our panel had to say: The reviewers approved of TechShopper, although one wished that the site’s customer service had been made more apparent. Another panelist was surprised and impressed by the amount of Mac information that was available, though he conceded that the site was skewed to the PC market. “If you’re not sure what you want, then this site is great to clarify,” commented one reviewer. “But if you just want to click and buy, too much effort is required to get to the final step.” www.dealtime.com What it offers: One-site searches for a product’s price and availability on multiple other sites What it’s good for: Great searches Don’t waste your time on: Looking for consumer comments to back up your choices. You won’t find any. What our panel had to say: In addition to doling out product information on pet supplies and jewelry along with computer information, DealTime searches online stores, auctions, classifieds, and buying groups and delivers a list of places where shoppers can find what they want at the best price or terms. Great finds: DealTime.com searches for places you can shop for the lowest prices or the best terms. Panelists loved DealTime’s navigability and search function. One entrepreneur especially appreciated the site’s tracking feature, which automatically sends customers updates on products that they have flagged for tracking for up to two months. One panelist would have appreciated some pictures of the products in the initial search-response list. She also would like to have seen comments from other consumers to assist her in making her decision. www.mysimon.com What it offers: One-site convenience for searching for a product’s price and availability on multiple other sites What it’s good for: It’s friendly to very new shoppers. Don’t waste your time on: Navigation. It’s more difficult than it seems at first glance. And the “Simon” cartoon character is annoying. What our panel had to say: Like DealTime, mySimon searches online stores for products in order to help you find the best deals on the Web. The site’s name and personality derive from its mascot and spokesman, a cartoon character you might like only if you also like the Office Assistant character that offers help in Microsoft Office. Panelists drubbed mySimon. “This site is difficult to navigate, it’s nonintuitive, and it presents itself as unbiased when in fact — unless they are just bad at what they do — their search engine fails to find many products I know are available on numerous sites on the Web,” said one entrepreneur. “They have a great idea and an unbiased shopping search engine. However, they sell advertising and present some stores in a biased fashion, so they don’t do what they claim to do.” Another panelist liked mySimon only slightly better but also lamented the small range of products her searches turned up. Where to Buy www.beyond.com What it offers: Lots and lots of software What it’s good for: Software, handhelds, and business discounts available with registration Don’t waste your time on: Looking for desktops and notebooks. Plus, the Recommendation Guide is too simplistic to offer much expert guidance. What our panel had to say: Panelists liked Beyond’s “Top 10″ lists of the most popular products in a category and the links to Top Products by Top Publishers and Top Manufacturers, which provides fast access to the latest and greatest from Microsoft, Symantec, and other heavy hitters. One panelist called Beyond “unique, deep, and competitive.” Another panelist found Beyond of “limited use” because of its dearth of Mac hardware. Our panelists said that Beyond.com goes above and beyond in offering a broad selection of software. www.buycomp.com What it offers: A complete range of computer products, including hardware, software, and networking options What it’s good for: Product searches and special sales Don’t waste your time on: Expecting to find everything you need in one place — or a strong B2B personality What our panel had to say: This site packs all of the useful product-search tools, including keyword and shop-by-brand searches, and it appears to be a good place to check for special discounts and sales. Move quickly, though; sales may be offered on a very limited number of units, in some cases. Wait half an hour, and they might be out of stock. Though the site looks and feels like a substantial warehouse, it’s surprising how limited the selection is at times. And the site makes no real attempt to address the special needs of business buyers. Panelists thought BuyComp was OK but agreed that although “the notion is good, the entire process of business-to-business ordering, tracking, and promoting customer satisfaction is not yet quite there.” This same panelist wanted to find out more about such things as order turnaround time and support contracts. www.cdw.com What it offers: A complete range of computer products, including hardware, software, and networking options What it’s good for: Well-managed business accounts and good search and organizational tools Don’t waste your time on: Looking for product reviews. You’ll find only product specs, not opinions. What our panel had to say: This site appears to be well tailored to the business-technology buyer. From a “My Company” link on the home page, you can set up a customized “CDW@work” extranet for your company. (You can use the extranet to communicate product selections and standards to your purchasing team and also to set up and administer employee purchase programs and to access customized pricing.) Panelists rated CDW about average overall. One offered, “The site is good at delivering the basic information, but nothing special.” He felt that the corporate-account features were easy to set up and use but added little value. Listing product specifications without any accompanying reviews was also cited as a CDW downfall. Ned Snell is a freelance writer based in Arlington, Va. Research Sites Would our CEOs go back? What is the site good for? CEOs’ quick take TechShopper.com www.techshopper.com Occasionally, if they had a specific need Selection; accurate product information “I liked the layout: easy to use, simple, straightforward.” DealTime.com www.dealtime.com Occasionally, if they had a specific need Strong product information for research “For setting up or expanding an office, it would be very useful.” mySimon.com www.mysimon.com Occasionally, if they had a specific need Thoroughness “Not too much different from all the other shopping sites out there.” ZDNet.com www.zdnet.com Occasionally, if they had a specific need New-product announcements; free downloads “Too detailed; very similar to other sites; nothing special about it.” CNet.com www.cnet.com Once a week Usefulness of content; industry-specific information “It allowed me to get the information I needed.” Productopia.com www.productopia.com Once a week Outstanding consumer-goods section “It is a consumer service with limited business applications.” Buying Sites Would our CEOs go back? What is the site good for? CEOs’ quick take CDW.com www.cdw.com Occasionally, if they had a specific need Basic information “They deliver the basic information, but nothing special.” Beyond.com www.beyond.com Once a week Links to top publishers and manufacturers “Unique, deep, and competitive.” BuyComp.com www.buycomp.com Occasionally, if they had a specific need Product quality; accuracy of information “Good concepts, but fuzzy on such things as order turnaround time and support contracts.” Our Reviewers Al Acitelli, CEO, BestInService.com Credit Reporting Jay Graves, president and cofounder, DataMark Inc. Susan Howington, vice-president business development, Lee Hecht Harrison Linda Kellogg, founder and CEO, Start-Up Resources Inc. Beth Marcus, CEO, president and founder, Glow Dog Inc. Dan Maude, president and CEO, Beacon Application Services Corp. Marion McGovern, president, M Squared LLC Debbi Milner, CEO, Jade Systems Corp. James Morel, president, 1-800 Postcards Gerry Philpott, president and CEO, E-Poll.com Eric Schechter, president, GAME: Great American Marketing & Events Al Shariff, owner and president, GlobeTrends Inc. Srikanth Sundararajan, CEO and president, Pretzel Logic Software Inc. Vincent Trantolo, chief operating officer, Annotate.net LLC Maura White, founder and CEO, GoBabies.com Mark Zweig, president and CEO, Zweig White & Associates Inc. For more on the gear you really need to start and grow your small business, see our CEO’s Start-Up Toolkit. Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.

About 4796 days ago E-Commerce

Find the Right On-Site Search Engine

Do your homework to find a search engine that’s right for your needs. You’ll have to evaluate different search options, from downloading freeware to having your Web host or a third party provide your search capability. Your Web host or solution provider may already run a site search system and be able to add your site as an additional index or directory. If you have friends or colleagues with a spider-capable search tool on their site, find out whether they’d be willing to host your search on their server. There are some freeware options to consider. FreeFind, Thunderstone, and whatUseek intraSearch are free and will visit your site and create an index of your pages hosted that will be hosted remotely. This means you can offer search capability for your site without having to install anything but a simple HTML file. See CNET’s Search Tool Listing for a survey of other site search tools available on the Internet. Visit Search Engine Watch for an overview of search engine software vendors. Copyright © 1995-2000 Pinnacle WebWorkz Inc. All rightsreserved. Do not duplicate or redistribute in any form.