Internet technologies have lowered the barriers-to-entry considerably, allowing companies of every shape and size to build dynamic, cooperative business-to-business applications over the Internet. But we lack an open, universally-accepted database exchange protocol that allows this to happen.

At heart, Cat@log is a database-centric rapid application development platform that just happens to include really strong commerce technology. You build a storefront, shopping basket and transaction services by tapping into your existing product and customer databases, wrapping the tables and fields with commerce objects and controls, and then fine-tuning the presentation with stock HTML commands.

The latest version of this traffic analysis software provides a few much-needed improvements, making the upgrade a no-brainer for existing users. But the new features, although attractive, probably aren't enough to get people to switch from competing products.

Every so often, a product comes along that has the potential to change the way we work. Although Novatel Wireless' Minstrel Wireless IP Modem isn't earthshaking on its own, when used in conjunction with a 3Com PalmPilot Professional or IBM WorkPad handheld computer and some Internet-based applications, it's a dazzler. It allows truly mobile, wireless, pen-based access to standards-driven applications.

It's embarrassing when your customers argue among themselves. But it's a hanging offence when customers tell prospects what a miserable product you have, on your own service. These are avoidable scenarios, once you understand how the different aspects of communications theory represent and dictate the underlying communication patterns.

Continuing their push into corporate networks, Netscape Communications recently released SuiteSpot 3.5, a compilation of Netscape's Web, mail, groupware, and directory-server offerings. The key feature in SuiteSpot 3.5 is an increased focus on directory integration, with the various servers using Netscape's Directory Server as a common authentication and access-control repository.

This newsletter is a useful tool for expressing thoughts and discoveries that wouldn't fit cleanly into another forum. Think of it as an effective way for me to send the same journal entry to hundreds of people all at once, and you'll be on the right track.

Although many products will test a site for broken URLs, SiteSweeper goes well beyond this basic functionality. It checks images for proper dimensions, file sizes, predicted download times, redirected destinations, and almost every other thing that could possibly go wrong on your site.

Dynamic web documents just aren't going to work until we have a stateful protocol that allows the server to communicate with the client on a continual basis. Frames, style sheets and DHTML technologies are all a wash without this essential feature.

Rather than add another complex system to your local network, Viaweb Store is a self-contained, Web-based commerce server that runs on Viaweb's own Web site, where it is managed by Viaweb's professionals. All you have to do is create a storefront on their system using a Web browser, and then Viaweb does the rest.

Niche markets are, by definition, not typically well-served. N2K's family of web sites shows that if you can give a niche market the information and tools that your members will want, then you can build tremendous amounts of customer loyalty.

The first round of products from Novonyx -- the joint effort between Netscape and Novell to port Netscape's SuiteSpot line to the NetWare platform -- debuts today, and for the most part the products work well. However, minor inconsistencies, different management tools, and the normal spate of early-release bugs keep them from being 'must-have' products.

You've finally got your Web site online, you've spiked the major directories, and now you're getting hits. But from who? And why? Both WebTrends' WebTrends Professional Suite and WebManage Technologies' NetIntellect 3.0 promise to tell you everything about your site's visitors.

One of the popular refrains heard on the Internet is that the low-cost, liberating nature of HTML and the Web will allow anyone to become their own publisher. The perceived problem -- and one that has been proven correct by many failed ventures -- is that Net surfers do not want to pay for content. Not so, says Brendan Amyot, Chief Operating Officer at TheStreet.com, which has 15,000 paying subscribers to its Web site.

The Department of Justice has finally decided to show some teeth, suing Microsoft over their practice of forcing OEMs to bundle Internet Explorer with all copies of Windows 95. And they're right.

In September of 1996, Netscape became the undisputed king of the hill with the most-often visited Web site on the Internet. According to I/Pro's Web traffic audits, Netscape was receiving more than 100 million hits per day. And by early October, Netscape had broken the 110 million hit-per-day mark, which consisted of more than 3 million independent sessions, 10 million pages, and 230 gigabytes of data per day.

Surprisingly, it is technology that allows for censorship to occur, given that the political infrastructure of the society allows it as well. And where there are no technical ways to prevent something, there are laws that allow the prevention of it, either explicitly or indirectly.

Look around the World Wide Web, and most of what you'll find today are online equivalents of printed propaganda. There may also be some downloadable files or images -- as well as the seemingly requisite overabundance of hypertext links to every imaginable corner of the Internet. But, for the most part, Web servers are about as interactive as their paper-based counterparts.

For the most part, the web-based applications we've seen to date have been publicly-accessible databases or query tools published on some of the more technically-aggressive web sites. Everybody agrees however that in order for the technology to successfully displace WinTel, it has to be accepted and implemented on the corporate Intranets for use by the rank and file.