Down, not out.(comments on the future of web advertising)(Brief Article)

Advertising Age, February, 2001

Last year, Sun Microsystems pitched itself as ``the dot in .com.'' That's tantamount now to saying you're the bank in bankrupt. Needless to say, Sun found a new slogan. And the dots keep on disconnecting. Dot-commers got their comeuppance, Net skeptics are smiling-and companies that smugly think the Web is yesterday's news put themselves at risk.

True, the pace of Net failures is daunting. It was no surprise last year when the most ill-conceived dot-coms collapsed. But now we're seeing the demise of seemingly good ideas, such as eToys (good ads, good site, appealing niche). And we're seeing giants of the old world, such as Walt Disney Co., drastically scale back Net bets. Web advertising has stalled; Net services outfits have fallen off a cliff.

It's...

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