Infoworld: A Resource Review
(http://www.infoworld.com)
Assignment #4
Submitted by Dave Reiss
10/6/03
Please note that after looking at the resources listed on pgs
263-265 of the E-marketing textbook, I decided to direct my research
on the InfoWorld website from assignment #1.
The Infoworld web site (www.infoworld.com) proclaims itself to
be dedicated to delivering in-depth coverage of Information Technology
products, trends and issues. Seemingly designed for the CTO, this
site provides valuable insight into Internet marketing. News from
the October 6, 2003, page ranged from Microsoft Office updates
and new Linux software, Windows security flaws, new technology
developments, corporate networking business stories, and various
legal coverage.
The news feeds are broken down into categories of interest including;
Top News, Columnists, Test Center Reviews, Applications, Development,
E-Business, Hardware, Networking, Operating Systems, Platforms,
security, Standards and Protocol, Storage, Telecommunications,
Wireless, and Web Services. There is also a job search feature,
as well as a sponsored white papers section. (The E-business news
feed alone makes taking a look at this site worthwhile, with the
latest news in e-commerce business and technology developments.)
For such a content-rich site the interface is remarkable clean
and easy to use. A few static banner ads are designed into a hypertext
heavy design with few graphics and a lot of white space. The approach
leads to a polished professional look and feel.
For marketing communications research, this particular site may
at first seem too technically oriented. But the E-Business Solutions
& Strategies section provides a paired down selection of breaking
related stories, such as the growing trend for companies to pay
for search engine advertising. Click on the "More Stories"
link on bottom of the page and a very useful list of over fifty
articles is presented. The content here covers a wide and diverse
area, including the various trials and tribulations of Microsoft,
different e-business endeavors, legal issues and legislation,
etc.
Another very useful section is the "Web Services" link.
Here stories of industry leaders and their products are presented.
Also task specific articles on topics such as web services management
practices, and related user and company experiences are written
about in detail. This can be particularly useful, as the experiences
of early adopters can be very beneficial for others who follow.
Even the "Applications" link, which one would believe
would be too technical from a marketing perspective, is full of
exciting business news, such as Reuters News and AOL connecting
instant messaging networks. That said, there is a fair amount
of overlap – the same story in one section will often be
in another related section as well. There is also a Test Center
component, which includes analysis, reviews, research and interviews.
The Opinions page gives a personal perspective of various writers
and the issues of technology, users, and the marketplace. It's
important for marketing personnel to have a broad understanding
of their market, in this case, the business of the Internet, and
getting the personal perspective from people actually using the
Internet and related technologies is invaluable.
Infoworld, at first a seemingly dense informational vehicle geared
toward technical issues, does have a lot of in depth articles
on IT and related computing issues. But, that can also be helpful
to Internet marketing professionals by giving them a solid understanding
of the market, technical issues, corporate histories, as well
as small and large company e-business experiences. This information
can be very beneficial in surveying how Internet advertising is
used, how consumers are behaving, and related issues such as marketplace
barriers, industry structure, market conduct and performance.