Web Round-Up – W/E 6/6/97

Tullett & Tokyo, foreign exchange brokers, have launched the world’s first virtual foreign exchange service at http://www.tullett.com. The service developed and managed by AT&T allows follow-the-sun trading.

A personalised Web organiser is being introduced for advertisers. Taxi will be launched via the Internet and on CD ROM. Designed as a go between between the Web advertiser and the user, it aims to enable advertisers to target specific demographic groups.

The ghost Web site is the newest thing in Net crime. The Bank of England is warning that people carrying out financial transactions on the Net risk losing money if they accidentally go to a ghost site. In one example, a hacker replaced a site with an almost identical one replacing the phone number so that orders go to a competing company.

Oasis’s management is going ahead with its threat to start legal action against any unauthorised Web sites dedicated to the band Web Round-Up – W/E 23/05/97The 30 days grace are now up, but very few of the site managers concerned have taken any action. However, it is unclear whether copyright law would cover the material held on these unofficial sites. Short audio, video, text and graphics are acceptable under the fair use provisions of the law. Time will tell, which side wins out in the end.

The assumption that you can hot link to another site without permission is currently being challenged. Ticketmaster has issued a writ against Microsoft’s hot link to their site, because the link goes straight to the ticket ordering point avoiding the home page and advertising on the site. If the court rules in favour of Ticketmaster, the repercussions on Net business could be enormous.

Until they do, the International Advertising Association has launched a UK Web site hot link to it here, www.iaaukchp.co.uk. And, if you feel like brushing up your Russian, the Russian Government has just gone on-line at www.gov.ru.