The 30-month shift of  Web Influence since  May 1996 to November 1998

Internet Valley looks at the top 100 leaders in the industry still standing after 3 years of sudden mergers and dying publications:

"The study, conducted by Internet Valley, www.netvalley.com, an Internet consulting and publishing company, tracked the progress of the top 100 online computer-based magazines for a 30-month period. Internet Valley measured the Web influence of online magazines as the total number of external hyperlinks to each publication's Web site using major Internet search engines and ranked the publications accordingly."    Business Wire , Jan. 5, 1999

Internet Valley's Data vs. Rumors & Speculations

- Ziff-Davis stock jumped more than 30 percent to more than 23 in late December on rumors that their company was planning a stock IPO to track the performance of ZDNet, the Company's Internet business division. Industry observers said one intent of this move was to "help unlock the Web operation's value."  Through the usage of nearly three years of research and strong data measuring ZDNet's Web influence over the last 30 months, Internet Valley has determined ZDNet to be the leader in this area. These facts themselves show the "Web operation's value" as one of the highest in the IT area, IPO aside.

- ... both Ziff-Davis and Mac Publishing will be the probable targets of the fiercest insinuations, allegations, accusations, etc. for the simple fact of the matter that both of them are the highest profile businesses as far as Mac Centric related content is concerned. In the recent survey of Online  Publications, MacWEEK came in 6th behind: ZDNet, C|Net, News.com, PC World and one other. Macworld came in 10th. MacCentral, the next Mac Centric site that was listed came in at 34th. With so many titles in the "Top 10" both Ziff-Davis and Mac Publishing are the "Biggest Targets" for the conspiracy theorists.

                           Echo 4 Communications/Recon for Investors (RFI), 05 Jan 99

Top 100 Computer Companies Ranked by Web Influence: Nov 1998

The iFactor: A quotient comparing a company's current state of Web influence to its current state of sales, for an estimate of future sales growth in the global e-commerce market.

"Internet Valley's research on 1997 Web influence of the top 100 companies shows that Apple's 3.54 "iFactor," which relates a company's current state of Web influence to its possible e-commerce expectations, is second only to Microsoft among the top 10 sales companies--well ahead of its traditional sales ranking (15):

"This means that the company's level of Web influence is substantially higher than its level of sales would otherwise indicate."

Compaq, Dell, and IBM have iFactor ratings of less than one, whereas software companies such as Imprise, Adobe, Symantec, and Microsoft lead the way with ratings of 38, 32.7, 16.4, and 6.91". Macintosh News Network

Internet Valley's comments:

Warning: Compaq is On the WWWarpath

(12/6/98)- Compaq purchased Digital Equipment Corporation, including the company's rights to the one of the major search engines, AltaVista, a site with one of the highest level of Web influence. But Compaq has not yet used its rights to the search engine to raise its own Web influence to similar levels. Visitors to this site, one of the two most popular searching tools on the Internet, are unlikely to know Compaq is associated with AltaVista in any fashion.
   We consider this as a perfect example of a major computer company that in searching for a better market presence, has failed to accumulate Web presence.

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(1/19/99)- In January of 1998, the Compaq Corporation purchased Digital Equipment Corporation for $9.6 billion, creating one of the largest computer companies worldwide. With this purchase, Compaq obtained a vast resource of enterprise-related technology, as well as increased research and development possibilities. What few media observers mentioned was that Compaq had also obtained the rights to Digital's top-rated search engine, Alta Vista, acclaimed as one of the top five-visited sites on the Internet. Compaq too was quiet regarding this acquired technology during 1998.

When we published our table on the top 100 computer companies and the current state of Web Influence on December 6, 1998, Internet Valley noted this lack of effort on the part of Compaq to utilize Alta Vista. In a public scolding, Internet Valley wrote Compaq's failure as "a perfect example of a major computer company that in searching for a better market presence, has failed to accumulate Web presence."

By January 11, only three weeks after our publication, Compaq and the national technology media announced that they plan to "make AltaVista the leading guide for both information and e-commerce on the Internet." - Yahoo! Business news (1/11/99)

Following this, shares of Compaq jumped nearly 10 percent on the news, and the company's announced $220 million purchase of Shopping.com.

If that declaration and some of the preliminary movements in this direction, including an increased use of the Alta Vista site, truly become Compaq's long-term market strategy, we at Internet Valley can see enough reasons to believe that it will become one of the strongest leaders of the Internet soon.

In brief conclusion: if taken in consideration that Compaq still has a relatively low market capitalization to sales ratio and an increasing state of Web influence, this company's stocks value will likely significantly increase its ascent over the near future.

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Inprise Web Presence Remains in Bore-Land

- Inprise corporation, formerly Borland, abandoned one of the most-popular Internet brand names, and has left Internet travelers little more than a road sign to its new address. While change on the fast-paced Internet is common, Inprise's refusal to mirror its new address on its older site, which carries a significant measure of Web Influence, may have lost customers along the way.

See also: WebSite Story- Hyperlinks Mechanics - HyperGarage

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