| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : JANUARY 25, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| BITS & BYTES
Sit Back, and Let This Service Do the Surfing ANALYSTS IN THE INTERNET INDUSTRY say the era of browsing the World Wide Web for kicks is coming to an end. But you wouldn't know that from a survey by ProLaunch (www.prolaunch. com), a new filtering service based in Atlanta. Of 80 topics selected by ProLaunch's 100,000 initial subscribers, the top three were entertainment: movies, weird sites, and music. The first really serious topic--investing--was ranked eighth. ProLaunch, a free service, offers subscribers who make it their Internet start-page a steady stream of new Web sites that match their personal tastes. ''People can browse without searching,'' says James Lanzone, vice-president for marketing at JuxtaNet Corp., the company that runs ProLaunch. Lanzone says he was surprised that the ''weird sites'' category ranked so highly. One such site, Big Green Button (www.geocities. com/Hollywood/5945/bgb/press01.html), consists of a big green button that people can click on--eliciting first threats and then insults for being stupid enough to sit around pushing a big green button. Who says the Web is growing up? EDITED BY STEVE HAMM _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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