In computer news this week, 03/29/2000

If everything's free, how does anyone make any money?

The Internet has many mysteries, and one of the biggest ones is how so many things to do and see on the Internet are apparently free. Recently we've even seen a lot of companies offering free internet access, like Juno.com and Altavista, and other companies are even offering free web hosting of web pages, all free.

But as I've been saying on Raw Bytes since the mid 80's, there is no such thing as a free lunch in the PC industry, so where do you end up paying the price for all the free services?

You have to understand the inner workings of the Internet to understand the concept, and the price you end up paying is your privacy.

One of the biggest advertising type companies on the Internet is Doubleclick.com, who recently made some interesting statements about privacy on the Internet, or their involvement in the lack of privacy. If you go to their site, Doubleclick.com, and view some of their advertising statements, you will see that they clearly mention that they track consumers on the internet, and it is possible for a website to keep information on people who visit their sites, and even to send these visitors advertising even if the people never return to that site. They actually have a whole network of websites under their program, and there are thousands of other similar type companies that do the same thing.

It all gets down to a body count game, and keeping track of the identities involved in the count, and then reselling these names to other perspective advertisers.

You visit a site that you've never visited before, but you never fill out any forms giving them any information about you, and you decide you're not really interested in this site, so you just surf away somewhere else. But mysteriously, a week later you receive an email advertisement from that site. Then you start getting email from other sites that sell similar products. Then perhaps a month later you even receive similar type advertisements at home in your paper snail mail.

As the lyrics to the 60's folk song went, "Something is happening here, but you don't know what it is, do you, Mrs. Jones?"

Internet sites can get your screen name and other information from you when you visit their sites, and they can also track your movements as you surf around the net. This is the privacy issue. You don't know this is happening, do you, Mr, or Mrs. Surfer?

Then they sell your screenname and other information to advertisers, and to other Internet companies that sell mailing lists. Mailing lists have always been very valuable in traditional advertising. Electronic mailing lists are even more valuable; you can advertise to millions of people for virtually nothing. No typing, no envelopes, no stamps, and potential big bucks from the millions of people using the Internet daily.

There are actually commissions paid by companies based on mouse clicks from web pages that generate a visit from another website. If you're looking at fishing tackle on a website, and you see a banner to go to another site that sells similar equipment, when you click on that banner you are unwittingly spreading information about you and your buying habits. The first site you visited probably already has your screen name and has placed a cookie on your computer to track you, and when you clicked on that banner, a few more things happened.

That mouse click was recorded as a referral to the other website, and the first site is going to get paid for that referral. Even though the per click payment is very small, less than a penny, when you think of the millions of people surfing the web, the amount quickly adds up. Then the 2nd site grabs your information, places their cookie, and then maybe you click on another banner - they get a commission - and you then give another site your personal information. And you keep getting bombarded with advertisements, electronic and paper, and you don't know why.

Then you get a free Internet service; totally free, even phone support. What a deal! Except you're constantly bombarded with advertisements as you use the service, and you have to expect that your screen name and your personal information - pages of which you probably had to fill out in order to get the free internet service - will be sold again and again to perspective advertisers.

Even pay services like AOL will bombard you with advertising unless you stop them. To do this, click on My Aol, preferences, and then marketing preferences, and turn off all the advertising they bombard you with by default unless you turn it off, which is your consumer right to do so.

Companies offering free services make money; you'd better believe it. They make money off you; without your unwitting participation they'd be out of business. If they give out 5 million free accounts, they can claim to have 5 million members, and advertisers sit up and take notice at that number.

Television today is horrible to me. Major networks that used to have good programs now sell prime time to infomercial companies. Sometimes it takes awhile to determine if something you tune on is a program or an ad. I've sat through up to 13 commercials in a single commercial break. And yet people still watch a lot of television.

Don't think the Internet advertisers haven't noticed this too.

For Raw Bytes, this is Frank Delaney

3414 E. 30th

Spokane, WA 99223

(509) 245-3736

fdspokane@aol.com