Rough Drafts

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

Yet another retail exchange. Hey, guys? B2B exchanges are supposed to unite markets, not fragment them. How about teaming up with Sears, or Wal-Mart, both of which also recently launched big retail exchanges? Retailers to form trading exchange

It may sound obvious, but a new study shows that the single most important factor for online profitability is customer loyalty — getting customers to come back regularly. In fact, most online retailers lose money on one-time shoppers. To earn customers’ loyalty, the study’s authors recommend, treat

Fifteen big gas and electric companies are hiring PriceWaterhouseCooper to build them an online energy exchange, slated to be ready by the end of this year. No indication of how they plan to deal with existing energy exchanges, such as Altra, which are already ahead of them be a year or more. Utilit

Career shortcut: In a hurry to get on the Internet bandwagon? No time to figure out what you can do? The Monster.com Dotcom Job Converter will tell you exactly how to transform yourself from some useless old-economy role like “Teacher” into a way-new-economy position like “Internet Trainer.” Just pi

Some progress: Now two patent officers will review applications for online business method patents, instead of just one. U.S. to revise Net patent process

Odd lots go online: “Exclude autos on one side and fresh vegetables on the other side, and we’ll sell everything in between,” touts company chief executive Ken Frieze. – Online exchange reinvents the closeout sale

Defense industry exchange announced … most mysterious is their choice of Microsoft for the underlying software. Microsoft??? No one building B2B exchanges these days is doing anything with Microsoft, as Computerworld recently reported. – Global trading exchange announced for aerospace and defense in

The New York Times’ outstanding technology columnist Denise Caruso is leaving the paper. Her farewell column voices her reservations about the unbridled greed that seems to have overtaken the technology industry of late: Technology Has Made Some People Money, but Is That All There Is?

E-commerce is getting hot in Hong Kong — and in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, India, and the rest of Asia, where B2C commerce will hit $8.4 billion this year and B2B commerce will hit $30 billion … and the investment capital is flowing. One difference: Asian investors look for profits, and seem to have litt

Newsweek takes a closer look at the spate of recent dot-com flameouts, including Cook Express, Peapod, and Beyond.com: – Newsweek.com: Dot-Coms Over a Barrel

FedEx founder Frederick W. Smith thinks that the majority of consumer dot-coms have vastly underestimated the costs and difficulties of delivering physical goods. If he’s right, the Standard’s Jonathan Weber writes, “the messy realities of the old economy