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Who's Online?

According to the most recent surveys, active users of the Web (for purchasing) include:

• Well educated, well-off, older men. A News Century Networks/Laredo Group study found 72% of active buyers are male; 90% have attended college; 81% are employed; and 66% are over the age of 35. In addition, 48% earn at least $75,000 a year.
• Online news readers. The New Century Networks also found 57% of online newspaper readers (who may be more Web savvy than other surfers) surveyed have bought something on the Net in the last year. Making them twice as likely to make purchases online as the average Internet user.

Over the next few years several successful e-commerce models will emerge, the result of many risky ventures. And many failures. One thing is certain: The floodgates of profitable Web sales will open once security improves. If you wait until then to figure out how you can cash in, the Holy Grail will be long gone -- spirited away by competition that planned ahead.

According to Dataquest, there will be 82 million personal computers connected to the Internet by the end of 1999, up 71 percent from 1996. Dataquest analysts said the business market will continue to drive the implementation of the Internet and by 2001, 268 million computers are projected to be connected. Dramatic growth in Internet users has generated an Internet software and services market that is forecast to grow 60 percent in 1999 with revenue reaching USD12.2 billion, up from USD7.5 billion in 1996. Dataquest predicts the Internet software and services market will reach USD32.2 billion by 2001.

According to a report released by Consult, an Australian Internet Research company, there are 790,000 commercial internet users and 600,000 academic and educational users in Australia. Those logging on from home said they are looking for entertainment first and e-mail second. Chat comprised 4 percent of usage with users being predominantly female. The average person spends 22 hours online per week and this is usually between 6.00pm and 12.00pm local time. 80 percent of this time is spent viewing US content. Of more than 8,500 surveyed 30 percent conveyed a desire for faster response times. The majority of growth in the Web in Australia is business-based but this is impeded by slow connection which manifests itself in less traffic per minute. Australian businesses are paying the same prices as US businesses pay for high-speed access.

240 percent growth in Asia since 1996 Aug 14 1999: Asia accounts for 10 percent of total Internet hosts, according to a report by Paul Budde Communication's. The report showed that average growth in Asia and the Pacific was 240 percent since 1996. At 500,000 the Philippines have the largest number of Internet hosts while Japan have the highest growth rate at 200 percent. In the next two years, it's expected that the number of subscribers will triple from 2 million in 1996 to 6 million in 1998. This is attributed to the fact that 50 percent of the population in the Asia/Pacific region are under 25, compared to 26 percent in the US and 28 percent in Australia. The China Education and Research Network (CERNET) is planning to introduce the Internet to the country's universities and education/research institutes making this the largest Internet project under construction in the region so far.

Search Tips

Internet Sleuth is a powerful tool that allows you to conduct subject searches in a variety of ways. You can use the left side of the page to do a broad search for a category. You can use the center of the page to search simultaneously through several internet search tools.

For a general subject search tools, use the center of the page. The databases to choose from are divided into types and include:

• web directories and major search engines
• reviewed sites and what's new sites
• news business, finance, and software databases
• usenet groups

Start, for instance, in the web directory and engine box at the top of the list. Type in the keywords for what you're looking for. Then highlight which of the engines you want searched. For instance a search for "resume databases" in 4 of the listed databases, brings up 47 initial possibilities. Each of the results includes a clickable link and brief description.

Using Internet Sleuth in this way is just like using an individual search engine or directory. Its values comes from only doing the search once but getting the results from multiple sources.

If you'd rather, you can just enter the same query in the reviewed sites field. This limits your results to necessarily larger sites. Less information is returned, but it's a quick way to catch up on major sites you need to know about.

Instead of beginning a search directly, you could use the left side of the screen to determine appropriate categories in which to search. Click on the non-Java browser enabled link to expand the categories. Look through the hierarchies because doing so gives insight into how the designers of Internet Sleuth think. For instance, click on employment in the left category. Internet Sleuth bring up 15 major database links. Most all of these, though, are geared towards those who are seeking employment rather than recruiting employees. However, note that business has several sub-categories. A quick browse through the available database in, say, trade and industry, immediately creates awareness of several key resources which can then, themselves, be searched.

Then, too, you can just dive in. In the left column, at the top, is a search box. You can begin here if you have a broad category you wish to search. For instance, if you enter technology as your query, you'll get more than 30 database sources (plus a line that says, "too many, narrow search") where you can begin to narrow your search. However, if you type "business technology", you'll get 26 databases and descriptions on which to focus.

If you have loads of time, you can look through the alphabetical listings to display all listings on the Sleuth beginning with a particular letter of the alphabet. If you want an idea of just of how large the internet is, this exercise will help.

There are thousands of searchable databases on the internet. However, locating them and then generating search results can be tedious. The Internet Sleuth finds the databases for you, and allows you to perform your search through any of those databases without leaving its site.