Search

Editor's Note: Yesterday I attended one of a series of luncheons for major customers among information professionals and listened to Dan Wagner's presentation. I thought it was sincere and articulate, [...]

'We--and a bunch of others--threw a ton of resources at a problem, without realizing that we were at the crest of a wave, and there was a bigger wave coming [...]

Remember when you first discovered online information? You can probably recall it with clarity, as you can for other turning points. If your experience goes back to the beginnings of [...]

Microsoft Network (MSN) does not offer any major advantages over other online services. Its bundling with Microsoft Windows 95 will not defeat the other online services from a competitive standpoint. MSN is evolving as other consumer online services are evolving. MSN offers chat rooms and bulletin boards which demonstrate that its communications sections are operating well. MSN is still developing its reference and research services., Microsoft Network, Microsoft's new online service, has much in common with Windows 95 (with which it comes bundled). Both were accompanied by fanfare and hype that exceeded their actual significance. [...]

The initial reaction of the online community of Dialog's purchase of Data-Star recalled the story of David and Goliath. Dialog was cast as Goliath, a powerful giant bent on beating [...]

Most data bases will provide flat-rate pricing options in the near future. Connect-time pricing, where the user is billed for the time spent online, has been the norm for the past 20 years and has kept many libraries and other potential users away from online services. Searchers are enthusiastic about flat-rate searching fees because they are able to search completely without time restraints. The data base industry has been hesitant to move to flat-rate pricing but is beginning to yield to consumer demand. Several data banks and their specific flat-rate pricing arrangements are discussed., About twenty years ago, when online searching of computerized databases moved from the R&D labs to the marketplace, the industry's entrepreneurs made a fateful decision - they decided to price [...]

Niche databanks are sprouting in small sectors in the information environment that large comprehensive databanks can't easily fill. Despite their immense range, systems like DIALOG and NEXIS cannot supply every [...]

The sensational death of Robert Maxwell revealed the Maxwell empire as a giant Ponzi game in which enormous sums were plundered from one part to shore up shortfalls elsewhere. In [...]

The number of online databases continues to grow and is now, by conservative reckoning, well over 4,000. Yet most online searchers regularly use only several dozen, and are aware of [...]

When I first started writing for ONLINE in May 1985, the main topic of discussion among online professionals was end-user searching. The amount of digital content on the professional services [...]

One of the Web's great wonders is its enormous amount of free reference and research content. Whatever your information needs-academic, technical, professional, business, how-to, consumer, or personal-there are vast quantities [...]

The proliferation of virtual content is an important trend for libraries in recent years. It's instructive to recall your library of 15, 10, or even 5 years ago: a physical [...]

Among end-users, the name Dialog is less well known than those of rivals like Factiva and LexisNexis. This is ironic, because none of the proprietary online services have worked harder [...]

No brand is more widely recognized and trusted, at least in the U.S., than Consumer Reports. Since 1936, the magazine, published by Consumers Union, has delivered thorough--and often blunt--consumer product [...]

A mid the many corporate earnings announcements for the fourth quarter 2001, an unassuming release from Hoover's Inc. could be easily overlooked. The company, which went public only in 1999, [...]

We're now in the post dot com age, as the great dot com contraction of the past year and a half continues. Once high-flying sites are being bought out, reducing [...]

DIALOG has a rich history of end-user products. Starting over a decade ago with the well-crafted, but premature Business Connection, it moved along through the elaborate DIALOG Menus, the KR [...]

Over the past year there have been several paradigmshaking developments in consumer online. In November the revised, Web-based Microsoft Network appeared, with a radically new look and feel and greatly [...]

For many years CompuServe was the unquestioned leader in consumer online innovation. It pioneered significant applications like end-user database searching, special interest groups, and graphics transmission. It is even fair [...]

The 1994 launching of AT&T Business Network symbolizes AT&T Corp.'s magisterial entry into the online information service industry. Competing with established information providers such as America Online and CompuServe, AT&T Business Network targets small information customers such as consultants, small business managers, and independent professionals. Its advanced software as well as the impressive breadth of databases to which it has access ensure that it will become a major player in the industry., AT&T's entrance into online information has been watched with keen interest by the rest of the industry. With a proposed suite of products including business, consumer, transactional, and Internet services, [...]

In the history of consumer online, 1996 may be second in importance only to 1979, when CompuServe and The Source created consumer online service. 1996 (and beyond) will be a [...]

You are going online to research current U.S. politics. First, you download the text of a piece of significant legislation, and then monitor its progress with daily reports. You check [...]

Dun & Bradstreet and Prodigy? This seems as likely a pairing as the Wall Street Journal and People, the National Gallery of Art and Disneyland, or Brooks Brothers and the [...]

Online databases are a bit like Professor Henry Higgins and Freddy Eynsford-Hill, Eliza Doolittle's loquacious suitors--very good at providing words, but not too adept at other forms of expression. Henry [...]

O'LEARY ONLINE columns are usually systematic affairs. They start with a discrete topic, move steadily through the research, and finish with a tightly written column. This one is different. It [...]

This is not the End of Days, but is instead the end of a cycle that brings us back full circle to where we started. Aterrible thing is happening on [...]

New Academic Information Model Bypasses Libraries The 'New Economy' looks a little like vaporware as the dot coms and their newfangled ways come crashing down. There is one market, how [...]

We may be at the point of diminishing returns with these mega-databases; they stretch the envelope so far that we may be better off contracting it instead of expanding it [...]

If you're interested in one type of ebook information--news, publishers, opinions--you can turn to a single site to meet your needs. The ebook race is on. They'll soon be at [...]

If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and read Don Hawkins' excellent 'Electronic Books: A Major Publishing Revolution' (a two-part series in the July/August and September/October 2000 issues of [...]

The democratization of the Web is not just an occasion for diversity high fives. It is critically important to all sorts of people. What is the most significant Internet statistic [...]

One of today's biggest Web trends is the portal. Whether it's the battle for the top consumer portal, the portal as the medium of B2B ecommerce, or the proliferation of [...]

You may be fed up with the ubiquitous cell phone, but get used to it. Not only are they becoming ever more commonplace, they are merging with that other unavoidable [...]

Distance learning is a very big trend, and is steadily and quickly growing. Distance learning--taking courses and training over the Internet and other media--is radically altering the ways in which [...]

All libraries face a great challenge in the age of the Web: how do you respond when you've lost your monopoly? The Web now does very well many of the [...]

Most recently, Dialog has announced three new Web-oriented knowledge-worker products: Dialog Portals, Dialog PowerPortal, and WebTop When Dan Wagner and M.A.I.D. bought Dialog, they promised change--and delivered. Dialog in 2000 [...]

Vortals are quickly becoming an important source of business, professional, and technical information. Vortal. Yes, here's yet another bit of Web jargon to deal with. You may have heard the [...]

Fifteen years ago, the potential of librarians and libraries appeared particularly far from fulfillment. This was, of course, a difficult time for organizations of all kinds. American business was reeling [...]

While decent Internet businesses may decry their unsavory peers, they also want no regulation that might somehow interfere with their own activities. As the Internet becomes more and more an [...]