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                            THE STANDARD'S
                          M E D I A  G R O K
            A Commentary on What the Press Is Reporting and Why
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                                        | http://www.thestandard.com |

Thursday, June  7, 2001

TOP GROKS:
* Rough Takeoff for Orbitz
* VoterApathy.Co.Uk
* Excite's Cyber-Crusade Fizzles

MORE NEWS:
* Oracle's Silence
* Alcatel to Sell DSL Modem Business
* Excite@Home Decides to Beat a Retreat in Europe
* Tories Win Mobile Phone 'Vote'


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TOP GROKS
~~~~~~~~~
Rough Takeoff for Orbitz

By now you've probably heard about Orbitz, the airline-owned travel
Web site that launched Monday to much fanfare. But after most of the
hype disappeared, opinions differed on whether the site would ever
earn its wings.

Most recently, Thursday's Wall Street Journal ran an article about the
problems Orbitz had in its first few days off the ground. A
fiber-optic cable was severed in Orbitz's home city of Chicago,
slowing response times for three hours. Call centers in Florida were
swamped. Then Orbitz took the site down for an upgrade early Wednesday
and neglected to put up a placeholder. And this is after Orbitz
delayed its launch by 10 months "to perfect its service and product
offering," the Journal wrote.

Washington Post columnist Keith Alexander tested a few sample routes,
and Orbitz competitor Travelocity found the cheapest fare two times
out of three. WebTravelNews.com reported that the investment bank
Pacific Crest did a more formal pricing audit and "found that Orbitz
ranked last compared to Expedia and Travelocity when it came to
price." Orbitz seems to prefer the results from Arthur Andersen's
study, which said Orbitz meets or beats its competitors' low fares in
more than four out of five instances.

The Associated Press took Orbitz down another peg when it observed
that "Orbitz is not the first online travel site to offer consumers
the special fares airlines once sold only on their own Web sites." A
California company called SideStep has done something similar since
November. The Post agreed that Orbitz is "not an original concept."

Even Manitowoc, Wisconsin's Herald Times Reporter dismissed Orbitz,
albeit from a bricks-and-mortar angle. "The launch of the new Orbitz
Web site by five major airlines probably won't have a major impact on
travel agencies," said the article. The owner of the local business
David's House of Travel wasn't worried, since she assumed Orbitz would
split existing Internet customers with Travelocity and Expedia.

Happily for Orbitz, Reuters cut the company some slack in an article
that took its cue from an Orbitz press release. Because of the chaos
the Journal wrote about, Orbitz vowed to double its call-center staff
to more than 200 people over the next few weeks. "Having a lot of
business is a good problem to have," said an Orbitz spokesperson,
keeping the hype alive. - Jen Muehlbauer

Orbitz Sees Host of Problems in First Days As Airlines' Travel Web
Site Is Swamped
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB991866219530530646.htm
(Paid subscription required.)

Orbitz travel bookings soar above expectations (Reuters)
http://investor.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-6210285-0.html

Orbitz Enters The Web Travel Fray
http://www.washtech.com/news/software/10305-1.html

Ta da! Orbitz launches! So how are its prices? Hmm...
http://www.webtravelnews.com/article.html?id=773

Someone Beat Orbitz to Best Air Fares (AP)
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010603/tc/orbitz_sidestep_3.html

Airlines launch travel site
http://www.wisinfo.com/heraldtimes/local/060601-4.html

-------------------------------

VoterApathy.Co.Uk

Thought you could escape more Internet politics until 2004? Not if
you're reading the British media. England voted for prime minister on
Thursday, and the digital gimmickry involved may be more interesting
than Tony Blair's probable win.

The most brazen high-tech pitches have been the Labour Party's text
messages to about 5,000 mobile phone users. They range from the overly
cute ("thursday. It's a date then! X Labour on jun 7") to the vaguely
issue-oriented (one that the Guardian's Textmessage-ese-to-English
dictionary translates as "20-billion-pound cuts or extra money for
schools and hospitals - you decide on Thursday"). Both the Guardian
and the Times seized on the cryptic "d:*O WUCIWUG #:-O VTE LBR 2MORO"
- supposedly the first four characters represent Conservative
candidate William Hague in a baseball cap. Silly, but Labour seems
willing to try anything to woo the 80 percent of under-25s who don't
intend to vote. Labour hopes the recipients will forward the messages
to their friends. Media Grok hopes to win the lottery.

The Register offered a different solution for voter apathy: Go to
4noneoftheabove.com and register your displeasure with the candidates.
That site may make as much of a difference in the election as the
candidates' and parties' official sites.

"Attempts by the political parties to address voters directly through
official Web sites look set to be judged a flop," said the Financial
Times. "The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour all paid out
handsomely to develop Web sites, but the real high-tech battle is
raging over the nation's phones, e-mails and television sets." It's
not much of a battle if you believe the Democracy Online Project's
Michael Cornfield, who told the BBC, "What the Internet does not do is
convince undecided people to go one way or another."

If you can stand any more talk about this subject - in other words,
our British readers are excused now - there are plenty of
philosophical pieces on the nature of digital politics. The Guardian's
Mike Anderiesz and S.A. Mathieson pondered the effect online voting
could have on politics, while the BBC rehashed the effect the Internet
has had on U.S. elections. (McCain had the technology, but Bush still
won the primary).

FT.com has a "Cyber election" package that has followed Britain's
e-politicking antics since early May. We particularly like the one
about spoof sites such as Toryparty.co.uk, which once declared,
"Hague's election pledge: free petrol for all." Even better, The
Register reported the happy coincidence that WilliamHague.com is the
homepage of a nudist from Surrey. - Jen Muehlbauer

Tories Win Mobile Phone 'Vote'
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,26939,00.html

Text messaging election poll kicks off tomorrow
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/5/19428.html

Labour 'texts' young voters to combat apathy
http://www.mediaguardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,7496,501823,00.html

WUCIWUG - LBR is on msg for Uth
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001191499,00.html

Find out who to vote for tomorrow
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/19515.html

UK Election 2001 - Cyber election
http://specials.ft.com/ukelection2001/cyber.html

Internet lesson from US elections
http://news.bbc.co.uk/vote2001/hi/english/newsid_1372000/1372901.stm

Click here for your candidate
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,502669,00.html

Political cybersquatting: who owns what
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/52/19142.html

-------------------------------

Excite's Cyber-Crusade Fizzles

So the Internet isn't exactly Omaha Beach. On the anniversary of the
Allied invasion of Europe, ExciteAtHome fessed up that its
techno-liberation plans on the Continent were kaput. The only surprise
to most outlets was, what took it so long?

According to reporters, Excite is saying adieu, auf wiedersehn and
adios to its operations in France, Germany and Spain, and it will
close another half dozen Euro portals. It's also axing 85 jobs. Excite
blamed the closings on - what else? - the decline in online
advertising. It was reported to have been shopping itself around since
April.

The Register reminded readers that just two months ago, the Euro
division's managing director told the Financial Times that the company
"would rather sell the business for $1 than withdraw from Europe after
all the time and money we have invested." Before you rustle around
your pocket for the change, Reuters and the Associated Press noted
that the closings came just one day after Excite said it was in talks
about restructuring its commercial relationship with Comcast and Cox
Communications. That's Internet time for you.

The London Times tipped its hat to Excite as one of the best-known Net
brands in Europe, but one analyst told the Wall Street Journal that
the Euro Net scene had been "waiting to see some of the also-ran
portals close up shop." Looks like Excite was one of them: It led in
no markets, according to stats the Journal quoted from Jupiter
Communications.

Excite said that for now, its portals in Italy and the U.K. will
remain open. Yeah, yeah, toe-tapped the Register. "For how long?" The
skeptical Guardian pegged the sites as intact "for the time being."
Crusades just ain't what they used to be. - Deborah Asbrand

Excite@Home Decides to Beat a Retreat in Europe
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,26933,00.html

Excite@Home Closes European Portals
http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3V24B4NNC&live=true&tagid=FTDDMJNIFEC

Excite to Close Portal Businesses In France, Germany and Spain
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB991831518499584574.htm
(Paid subscription required.)

Excite Slashes European Operations
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4199510,00.html

Excite to Close Portals as Net Advertising Slumps
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,5-2001192405,00.html

Excite Exits France, Germany and Spain
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/19505.html

Excite@Home May Exit Europe
http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/articles.html?id=010413003424&query=Excite%40Home

Excite@Home shuts three sites in Europe  (Reuters)
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-6202277.html

ExciteAtHome to Close Operations in Germany, France, Spain (AP)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2001/06/06/financial1215EDT0192.DTL&type=business

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MORE NEWS AT THESTANDARD.COM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oracle's Silence
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,26948,00.html?nl=mg

Alcatel to Sell DSL Modem Business
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,26965,00.html?nl=mg

Excite@Home Decides to Beat a Retreat in Europe
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,26933,00.html?nl=mg

Tories Win Mobile Phone 'Vote'
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,26939,00.html?nl=mg



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MORE LINKS
~~~~~~~~~~
Among Code Warriors, Women, Too, Can Fight
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/07/technology/07WOME.html
(Registration required.)

HP Warns of Sales Decline
http://www.latimes.com/business/20010607/t000047308.html

Ahem, Bob Davis Was Right
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,127382,00.html

Can Two Paid Digital Music Services Co-Exist?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/583022.asp

Prospects Remain Grim For Dotcoms
http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=24677699&i=351092&d=1449180

Valley leaders aid charities in rent struggle
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/svfront/nonprf060701.htm

SurfControl Opposes Mass. Mandatory Net Filtering Effort
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/166546.html

They Think They Feel Your Pain
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,44245,00.html

Group Sues to Publish Flaws Found in Anti-Piracy Technology
http://www.washtech.com/news/media/10333-1.html



STAFF
~~~~~
Written by Deborah Asbrand (dasbrand@world.std.com), Michaela
Cavallaro (mcavalla@maine.rr.com),Keith Dawson (dawson@world.std.com),
Jen Muehlbauer (jen@englishmajor.com) and David Sims
(davesims@sonic.net).

Edited by Jimmy Guterman (guterman@vineyard.com).

Copyedited by Jim Duffy (jduffy@thestandard.com).

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