After much speculation, US technology site Cnet has bought Silicon.com. The deal brings to an end Silicon’s rollercoaster ride over the past four years since its launch. It is looking likely that the Silicon.com brand will continue and that European news coverage of Cnet will be boosted by the deal, which will also see a number of editorial staff laid off. Last month, there was talk that Cnet had offered upwards of £30m to buy the site which, at the height of dot.com boom, was worth nearly £1bn.
Independent technology website The Register (www.theregister.co.uk) is planning to become an internet service provider (ISP). The company behind Register, Situation Publishing, is teaming up with Affinity Internet to offer the aptly named Vulture Capitalist ISP – vcisp.net. It is always good to see that there are still a few independents out there who, without any huge backing, constantly deliver a good service to their target audience. The Register has never been cash rich, but has built up a solid reputation for offering accessible online news.
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For every new ISP that comes along, another closes. Vizzavi, a venture between Vodafone and Vivendi, will be shut from the end of October and is encouraging its users to switch to Virgin. It says its mobile services will continue but being an ISP no longer fits in with its strategy. Vizzavi stopped accepting new subscribers several months ago, but for those who signed up and use the service having to switch ISPs and then change e-mail address will of course be a real hassle.
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The Press Association has enhanced its range of digital news feeds with a new Hollywood news service. PA will be offering its customers at least five stories each weekday covering showbiz news from Hollywood.
If, like me, you have a number of internet domain names that are coming up for renewal and you want to save money, then GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com) is probably the cheapest place to transfer them. For around £5 GoDaddy will extend the registration period of a .com, .net or. org by a year and also offer forwarding of the domain to an address of your choice. The only additional cost is an e-mail forwarding for the domain which costs 60p a year. For those not needing any frills, the GoDaddy service is certainly a bargain.
Google continues its domination of the search world and is now the default search option for AOL and its various online properties including aol.co.uk, CompuServe and Netscape sites and services.
Leslie Bunder
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