Stories about: Vividence

During the dotcom heyday, companies slapped sites on the Web and waited for traffic to pour in. They counted "eyeballs" and measured their site's "stickiness" as a way to convey the online real estate's value to advertisers. When the Internet bubble burst, "sticky eyeballs" seemed suddenly worthless. Now, as the Web has moved from being a technology pipe to a sales channel, companies need to update their Web measurement strategy with new metrics and analysis tools that can help them analyze customer behavior and improve their site's business success.

Public relations pros aren't exactly known for keeping quiet. But with dot-coms folding and the Nasdaq crashing, the P.R. machines that helped inflate the tech bubble have gone silent. The byword these days in new-economy P.R.: Shhhh!

In a traditional business, it's easy to tell whether things are going well or not: you count up the money.

Lack of clear-cut, understandable privacy policies could be the biggest impediment to online retailers this year as they gear up for the hectic fourth-quarter, holiday-buying season.

Corporate IT managers can look for new Web search and navigation tools, content syndication software and managed network services from start-ups that were showcased at a conference for venture capitalists and Internet entrepreneurs held this week.

Q. We've conducted a few face-to-face focus groups in the past, but we're thinking of trying to do some focus groups and marketing research online. We've tried to do some things ourselves, such as surveys in pop-up windows, with mixed results. What kind of information can you glean from online groups? Should we turn to regular research firms or are there specialists?

BuyerTouch Inc. CEO Mike Bezona emphasizes his company's qualitative research and focus on the user experience. This secret-shopper methodology is one type of market research; others include quantitative measurements of popularity such as customer surveys asking for ratings.

Think of it as cyber-moonlighting. An influx of Web sites that pay end users to surf, search and send e-mails are enticing employees to use their speedy Internet connections at work to earn a little extra cash while on the job.

Friday, Feb. 25

Keeping that in mind, the Demo 2000 show last week in Palm Springs, Calif., still provided an impressive parade of 81 fledgling companies . . . including a handful that had better keep fresh resumes handy. Here's a taste of the good and the bad: