I suppose biz/ed should feel the ANR most under threat. I have looked at Yahoo UK and welcome this
new service. It complements rather than threatens.
No complacency I can assure you. Rather that Biz/ed sees its future as more than just a search
engine. It seeks to be a dedicated one-stop business and economics information gateway on the
Internet for students, teachers and lecturers, created by the profession and for the profession.
We will continue to work as an ANR which networks with professional associations and enthusiastic
end users to catalogue *quality* resources. Trusted information providers use password protected
forms to edit/create recommended listing using ROADs WWW forms and a UDC based cataloguing approach
of course:-).
Moreover, we only catalogue quality resources which we feel will be appreciated by end users. QA
standards are set and monitored by professional associations involved such as the ABS and EBEA
We are working with original copyright holders to make available *new* internet effective
resources.
And our supporters in industry value our ability to offer guaranteed exposure to tomorrow's decision
makers: students.
Anyone who saw the BT-News International announcement this morning can see that the
wonderful Times site will soon go the way of Sky Television. Free at first and then by
subscription. Are we not heading for a two tier Internet:
* subscribers with fast connections accessing premium services
* the rest accessing 'free' materials
In my view the future of ANR lies in their understanding and knowing the needs of their specialist
audience; establishing an open platform and encouraging new material. If we are successful then end
users will appreciate and value our services.
Just how that valuation is captured by the price mechanism and monetary exchanges remains to be
seen. Will there be an even playing field. Can ANRs carry explicit commercial sponsorship from,
say, Virgin?
On Thu, 26 Sep 1996 14:11:54 +0000 Frank Norman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Chris Rusbridge
asked about:
> > http://www.yahoo.co.uk
> > First glance: looks interesting, but have they sized it right? Veerrrry
> > slow!
> > Do we now have some serious competition for the eLib ANR projects?
>
> Yahoo UK looks like a fine collection of links, covering a wide
> range of subjects, with some usefully pragmatic headings. BUT their
> descriptions are always very brief, and the entries are nearly
> always at a server level. They do not often get down to individual
> documents or databases on servers. I'm unclear what lies behind
> their searching, but I don't think that entries are indexed in any
> depth, and certainly not using a thesaurus that could match the
> richness of specialised subject thesauri. Yahoo! is a cut above
> your average URL listing service, but only just.
>
> They will provide some competition, but we do not fear that. It is
> good to have a competitor lurking, just to make sure you stay ahead
> of them! They are probably competing more directly with NISS -
> another wide ranging directory service - than with ANR projects which
> are all exploiting their specialised subject knowledge to add value
> in one way or other.
>
> I wonder whether Yahoo! UK will be producing an evaluation of their
> user base and impact on HE ... ?
>
> Frank Norman National Institute for Medical Research
> Deputy Librarian The Ridgeway, Mill Hill
> OMNI Project Coordinator London NW7 1AA
> tel 0181 959 3666 ext 2380 UK
> fax 0181 913 8534
> email [log in to unmask]
----------------------------------------------------
Project Director, Business Education on the Internet
Centre for Computing in the Social Sciences
University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road,
Bristol BS8 1TN, UK
Voice:+44 (0)117 928 8467 Fax:+44 (0)117 928 8473
Email: [log in to unmask]
biz/ed <http://bized.ac.uk>
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