Author: Matt

“It’s not really in our model to provide work for hire.”

Yahoo Chief Operating Officer Jeff Mallett, who seems curiously unaware of such operations as the Netscape Guide by Yahoo and MTV UnfURLed, on his company’s standoffish approach to negotiations over renewing Netscape’s search agreements for its Netcenter Web site, TechWeb News, 4 May 1998

“We had the first great wave of visionaries and boosterism, which was exciting and energizing. But now we’ve lived here for a while, and we have a lot of empirical evidence about how it works.”

Feed editor Steven Johnson, on how his skilled hand at manufacturing hype and making oracular pronouncements will come in handy for a new discussion site sponsored by Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Wired News, 1 May 1998

“When I started Fray, everyone in the industry was talking about advertising and hourly news updates — all this stuff I already get on TV and radio. They were ignoring what the Web’s really good at, which is connecting people, letting them tell their stories and getting them involved in the experience. You just can’t do that in other media.”

Derek Powazek, freelance Web design guru and creator of the Fray and Kvetch, dissing old media in Tripod Web Tech, 30 April 1998

“We will be aggressively competing on the Internet…. Eventually content will prevail on the Internet.”

Disney Chairman Michael Eisner, speaking to a group of newspaper editors on why they should be worried about Disney’s Mickey-Mouse online efforts, News.com/Reuters, 29 April 1998

“We’re working with colleagues throughout … Time Warner to formulate a strategy for how to deal with this. If you think we’re concerned about protecting Time, you can be sure they’re concerned about Bugs Bunny.”

Julie Fenster, vice president of law and business affairs at Time Inc. New Media, on how the media giant intends to remain the master of its own domain names, The Industry Standard, 27 April 1998