I bet you can’t wait for this site to go live: Coca-Cola has a Web strategy and will launch its site this summer. “The new site will allow visitors to view branded Coke products in various indoor and outdoor settings.” Be still, my heart!
E-Coke – It’s the Real Thing
Oops — so much for that trend! Investors are getting spooked about B2B e-commerce now, too.
Analysts see hard times for e-commerce firms
The Washington Post published a nice history of B2B e-commerce this week, tracing its roots back to EDI:
B2B: Almost as Old as the Internet
A panel at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference agreed: Broadband opens a can of security worms for unsophisticated home users.
Panel: Broadband security threat no exaggeration
Web sites are becoming obsolete, as I’ve long argued. This article by Harvard Business Review editor Nicholas G. Carr makes the point convincingly. He points single-function applications like Napster, interactive email tools like Zaplets, and mobile/wireless commerce tools — all of which utilize the Internet without requiring the user to “go” to a Web “site.” In the future, Carr says, the Web will be transformed from “‘a clumsy and page-by-page experience’ to a set of customized, specialized tools controlled by the individual.”
Out of Site
What comes after Web sites? Distributed merchandising.
The U.S. Commerce Dept. has launched a site to help small and midsize businesses in the U.S. break into global commerce. The site features research, multimedia webcasts, and a virtual exchange where businesses can get leads from overseas companies looking for products or services. Also, the site is — at least this morning — slow as a dog.
- Commerce site aims at boosting global trade
- USATrade.gov Web site
Six old-school, high-culture institutions, including Columbia University and the London School of Economics, are teaming up to cash in on the Internet-based-education trend. Their new site, called Fathom, will “will seek to address one of the most serious weaknesses of the Internet, its founders said: the reliability of information on the Web.” The audio and photo archives alone should be a gold mine for researchers.
Venture Aims to Offer Reliable Citations on Web
Business portals fall short of actual CEOs’ expectations, according to this Inc. Magazine story. “In general, the sites’ level of sophistication was far below what most heads of growing companies could really use. ”
Managing by the Web
