Month: October 1999

“We are pleased to note that they spelled our name correctly … traffic to our Web site was up substantially today because of the publicity.”

Barnesandnoble.com, issuing an official response to a patent lawsuit from Amazon.com without considering the implicit comment on the site’s everyday traffic levels, Wired News, 22 October 1999

“The Internet sells better than sex or crime. The hunger for the thing is great. The story’s become so rich and ubiquitous that we can no longer contain the thing in Fortune without turning it into an Internet magazine.”

Fortune managing editor John Huey, on his business magazine’s dot-com marketing plan, The Washington Post, 21 October 1999

“Today we’re talking a lot about the enterprise because it’s enterprise Tuesday. We’re going to talk big-time about consumers on Thursday with Jim ‘I’m-big-because-I-testified-before-the-federal-government’ Barksdale.”

Palm Computing president Alan Kessler, explaining that his company’s day-by-day shifts in strategic focus are actually carefully choreographed, Wired News, 20 October 1999

“Before the Web existed, it was very difficult to explain what the Web was.”

World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, on the days before the computer industry had invented vaporware, Seattle Times, 17 October 1999

“Business has already embraced the Internet. What we wanted to do was give everyone else a glimpse of the future.”

Cisco exec Diane Merrick, displaying the know-it-all Silicon Valley smarm that led to the resignation of NetAid organizer Harry Belafonte, The Washington Post, 8 October 1999