If your company plans to do serious research or marketing on the Internet, a dedicated Web search specialist can help clean up and codify corporate Web search techniques. The Internet is in danger of collapsing under the weight of its own load - or failing to serve the needs of some of its original disciples. NetNews Microsoft's Trials and Tribulations Bill Gates and company continue to tangle with the Justice Department, and claim a victory over a Connecticut vendor.
Smart agents are a dumb idea.
BFWs are simply the best way of matching supply with demand in real time. The best answer is usually Competitive Intelligence, or CI, the collection of data about competitors' activities in a particular area. Internet-based news clipping services can help satisfy the CI requirements of a wide range of corporate users. The Extensible Markup Language offers a powerful way to describe the meaning of the data in a document instead of just its structure. XML also promises a host of possible implementations for companies large and small, from an alliance with EDI to a new way to handle micropayments.