New Technology Threatens Internet Freeloading Pressure Is Building To Turn System Into Cash Cow
Those maps that gas stations used to hand out are free again, in cyberspace. Costly business research now is on the house. News gathered and printed at enormous cost is simply given away.
There has always been something vaguely un-American about the Internet - so much going on there that does not involve making a buck.
Now, efforts are intensifying to pound the medium into a capitalist tool.
Leaps in billing technology are making the long-impractical possible. The growing number of people online is an irresistible carrot for commerce.
Created from U.S. military technology, shaped by scholars and recently overrun by just folks, the Internet developed what PC World magazine editor Cathryn Baskin calls a “militant information-for-free mindset.”
That culture won’t yield easily. But yield it may, some Web pioneers say.
“Dollars and cents will overwhelm the old crowd,” predicts Don Heath, president of the Reston-based Internet Society, representing the system’s standard setters. “It’s part of the evolution.”
And a potential shock to a system where people typically pay a monthly fee and then dig in.
These days, hundreds of mainstream publications spend money to put their product on the World Wide Web.
Academics pile the research that is their stock in trade on the huge communal information heap. Help yourself.
People swap “freeware.” Enjoy.
Diners can buy books from the Zagat Survey series, rating restaurants, hotels and more, city by city. Or they can go online and see the collection for nothing.
It may all sound like socialism or flower power or something. But the will to turn the Net into a pot of gold has always been there.
Advertising has become increasingly sophisticated, with banners containing moving images beckoning them to click and read promotions that sometimes are tailored to the user’s interests.
Outside that mainstream, operators “spam” electronic mail addresses with mass distribution pitches.
But few believe ads alone will support all that’s going on.
The Wall Street Journal offered hope for online information sellers when it surpassed 100,000 paying customers for its Web edition in April, less than a year after it began charging.
Earlier, the public affairs online journal Slate indefinitely “chickened out” of plans to sell by subscription.
Editor Michael Kinsley wrote “there are too many people who are too damned cheap … er, we mean … too engaged by the novelty of the medium” to go that route now.
Such resistance pulses across the Internet’s spectral landscape. But Heath detects less of it.
“I’ve seen a change in a year,” he said.
Forces from the macro to the minute are pressing in on the freeloading.
Global telephone companies are finally making big Internet investments to create fancier and faster service, and they will want a return. Others are figuring out ways to nickel and dime people.
If not enough people would spend $19.95 for a Slate subscription, how about, say, a quarter for one issue? A nickel for one article?
A penny for your thoughts?
With an estimated 40 million people connected by computer around the world, those pennies could become big dollars.
That’s the thinking behind emerging technology that permits efficient billing of sums too small for credit cards.
“If the Internet is going to continue to be a free phenomenon, we don’t have a business,” says Denis Yaro, vice president at CyberCash.
“Until very recently it was very taboo to use it for any commercialization. There’s a lot of culture that’s still in play here. But it’s eroding.”
xxxx FREE FOR THE TAKING Here are some examples of free Internet services: News: About 50 current newspapers or magazines and almost 60 columnists can be found at http://www.drudgereport.com, among many sites offering news and sports. Business: Major business magazines are free (http://www.barrons.com, http://www.businessweek.com, http://www.forbes.com). Information on more than 2,700 companies is at http://www.hoovers.com; more detailed company profiles are by subscription; stock quotes, delayed 20 minutes, are at http://www.quote.com; information on corporate filings with stock-market regulators: http://www.sec.gov Travel: Travel guide information and customized trip planning at http://www.fodors.com; among road mapping sites: http://www.mapquest.com; for flight schedules, pricing and reservations: http://www.thetrip.com References: Assorted dictionaries, libraries and newspaper archives can be freely tapped. Library of Congress: http://lcweb.loc.gov (no www prefix); Christian Science Monitor, with archives back to 1980: http://www.csmonitor.com; MerriamWebster OnLine: http://www.m-w.com Government: http://www.fedtstats.gov, offering an enormous selection of national statistics, is a new entry on the long list of government sites. Personal Finance: http://www.consumerworld.org/pages/ money.htm offers a wealth of information and calculation aids on mortgages, credit cards, student loans and investments. Pen Pals: E-mail and online chatting are typically free. -Associated Press