Surf the Net while you sleep

Black Enterprise, Dec, 1996 by Marvin Greene

Retrieving information from the Internet is no easy task. Wading through enormous amounts of data requires more free time and patience than most people have - not to mention the online connection fees. The busy, constantly increasing Internet traffic causes the downloading of Web pages to slow to a crawl. Even search engines - currently the most effective way to browse the Web - consume an inordinate amount of connect time.

Search engines generally scan thousands of site entries relating to a single user query. The result is that exasperated Web users spend more time using search engines than at information rich sites.

Now there's a solution to this virtual headache: go online, off-line. Since the beginning of this year, the growth in off-line reading services has been explosive. Off-line readers are utilities that browse the Internet and save desired Web pages to your hard drive. Some allow the user to designate how many successive and/or linked pages of a Web site to save. The information can then be viewed at your leisure using your browser or screen saver, even when you're not connected to the Net.

Off-line readers retrieve and filter preselected, customized information without the user having to muddle through the Internet's World Wide Web to find it. They allow you to select predefined categories, such as business or sports, or configure your own grouping. Think of an off-line reader as a personal shopper for the Web. Of course, all of those pages can squander space on a hard drive, but it's just a matter of deleting them after they're viewed. More than 30 companies now offer off-line reading software and/or services.

Off-line readers are of both businesses and consumers, but are probably used more by businesses today, says Joni Berkley, of Freeloader Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based off-line Web delivery service. "Businesses can keep tabs on competitors by staying on top of data such as securities filings, stock prices or press articles."

These services save not only time but also the cost of connection fees, particularly for companies and individuals that access the Internet through commercial online services. Businesses that use or monitor specific sites regularly are potentially the biggest winners. "Business users tend to track Web sites, and they spend more time online [than consumers]," comments Berkley. According to FIND/SVP, a market research firm in New York City, work-related use of the Internet - both in home and office environments - makes up 58% of this online traffic, a far greater number than academic (15%) and recreational consumer users (27%).

FreeLoader Inc.'s Freeloader 1.0 is advertising-supported and, therefore, free to consumers. It can download single Web pages or entire Web sites to your hard drive, either at your command or on a prearranged schedule. In addition to the Web pages you desire, this program will also download news and advertisements from its corporate sponsors. Not all off-line readers follow this advertising-driven model, but it has proved successful for Freeloader, which now boasts more than 100,000 downloads since May.

The price of off-line readers vary. Some, such as Freeloader 1.0, are free to users who download the software from the World Wide Web (www.freeloader.net), but you'll have to put up with constant advertisements. Tympani Development Inc.'s NetAttache-Pro (www.tympani.com) can be downloaded, as well as Open Market's OM-Express (www.openmarket.com). Other off-line reader programs available are:

Smart Bookmarks 2.0 ($24.95), FirstFloor; 800-639-6387;

Web Whacker ($69.95), ForeFront Group; 800-867-1101;

WebEx ($29.95), Traveling Software; 800-343-8080.