20 Go D Internet En Minutes

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- If you think "emoticons" get your point beyond better than words, maybe simulated versions of yourself will be even more effective.

In that location, a Silicon Valley technology start-up, is partnering with industry leaders to incorporate the use of avatars with Internet chatting, online gaming and instant messaging.

Substantially, information technology'southward expanding on the popularity of the "emoticons" often used to communicate via due east-mail or instant messaging. At present socializing on the Internet isn't just relegated to conversation. In many ways, the virtual earth interaction is like to Electronic Arts' ERTS interactive video game, called Sims Online.

As reported in this cavalcade on Sunday, Menlo Park, Calif.-based At that place on Monday launched its consumer service and announced its partners including ATI Technologies ATYT, Discreet, a unit of Autodesk ADSK, -three.14% , Hewlett-Packard HPQ, +1.08% , I-Hamlet IVIL, KnightRidder KRI, -i.47% , Comcast CMCSK, Plantronics PLT, +ane.57% , Levi'southward and Nike NKE, -1.31% .

Every bit part of the launch, There will officially take off the beta wraps and make its service commercially available for $4.95 per month, plus a $19.95 activation fee.

Beginning next year, HP is set to parcel There into its HP Media Middle PC line as a home-entertainment application. There will exist a "sign on" icon that appears on HP desktops. Comcast would non provide details as to its participation.

As for the role of Levi's and Nike, There's service is an experiment in "immersive advertising." The dress and sports companies are allowing In that location users to endeavour on clothes or exam products online.

The content companies are distributors of There'south service on the Web. I-Village and Knight-Ridder hope this type of communication service will attract and retain more users on their Web properties then advertisers will be drawn to the sites. There and the properties volition also share in the acquirement from the subscriber fees.

Knight-Ridder is a leading nationwide newspaper publisher whose Knight Ridder Digital property operates 28 localized sites, similar MercuryNews.com. I-Village is a site catering to woman.

Interestingly, afterward beta testing for the last 9 months, In that location plant its service to exist more popular with women. Female person members returned more ofttimes and represented a significant portion of the virtual communities, the visitor institute.

Chatting and online gaming are popular activities on the Web.

It's estimated that just in the terminal month fifty million people have chatted online and 35 million people take visited an online game site, co-ordinate to Nielsen/NetRatings.

There said that initial testing has gone well. Information technology boasts of having 180,000 consumers signing on to examination the experience.

To exist sure, it's unclear how much money consumers would spend but to raise communication with pals. For now, instant messaging and chat forums are gratis on the Spider web.

Nets in the news

In some other move to dominate the online travel market, InterActiveCorp IACI is buying Anyhow.com for $62.seven million. EBay EBAY, -1.55% hosts its analyst day this Wed. The online marketplace operator is expected to talk over the expansion of PayPal into Europe, according to JP Morgan.

Watch shares of Enquire Jeeves ASKJ on Monday. In this weekend's Barron's, the butler's valuation is questioned by reporter Eric Savitz.

Sina SINA, a Chinese portal, or "chortal," reports quarterly results on Mon. Investors will exist watching closely to find testify that sales from SMS, or short messaging service, a text-only platform, isn't slowing downwardly. SMS accounts for 50-plus percent of Sina's sales.

Sina'south report follows rival Sohu.com'due south study released on Friday. Sohu said third-quarter earnings of $2.7 1000000, up from $112,000 in the yr-ago catamenia. Sales soared to $22 million, up from $7.5 million last year. Sohu as well alleviated concerns that sales from SMS are slowing down. Sales there grew 9 per centum sequentially. The company had said that revenue would be apartment quarter over quarter.

The Chinese portals push their Web-based content on the SMS platform to mobile-telephone subscribers, who pay their phone bills. Carriers pay the portals 85 percent of the revenue.

Last Friday, Primedia PRM, -viii.35% said it's selling its Sprinks partition for an undisclosed amount to Silicon Valley search engine Google. The sectionalisation was created to spearhead a new area of advertising -- called content targeting -- to extend advertising keywords across the search page. Content targeting, likewise known as contextual advertising, is like to the pop paid-search model in that advertisers pay for placement.

The departure in content targeting is that advertisers pay for placement on an editorial page, and non search-results pages.

In the concluding year, Yahoo's YHOO Overture Services and Google accept launched their own content-targeting services as they seek to offer their advertisers other ways to reach the consumer. The difference is that Sprinks developed within a publishing house, and therefore has the understanding of how advertizing works on media properties as opposed to search-effect pages.

Observers had said that Sprinks was a target for suitors, and that Primedia should consider unleashing its fast-growing division at present when the market is placing a high value on such an asset.

Based on information derived from Sprinks in the by, information technology would appear the visitor is generating annual sales higher up $20 1000000, considering the distribution and average prices paid by advertisers.

Sprinks' distribution network spans Microsoft's MSFT, -0.26% MSNBC.com also as Time Warner's TWX Compuserve and Netscape, and About.com. Taking those page views alone, and assuming that people click on half the fourth dimension they view the pages -- and that advertisers pay fifty-plus cents for each time a person clicks -- i could reasonably estimate that Sprinks is generating that blazon of revenue.

In a July Net Stocks column, Sprinks said that the click-through rates for content-targeted advert is half a percentage indicate and that the boilerplate price per click for a term is roughly 57 cents.

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