One of the questions plaguing our profession is, “Where do all the new content tools and sources fit within our intranet environments?” In IP’s continuing effort to provide answers and sort through the maze of offerings and possibilities, this issue features reviews of three intranet-related products.

Sue Feldman has long been recognized as an expert in testing content-related products and services to determine if they really do what they promise to do. With Sue’s strong track record in evaluating intranet products and other information technologies, we were delighted when she agreed to review the Factiva and Dialog Intranet Toolkits. Last issue’s Factiva review was very well received, as I’m sure this issue’s look at Dialog’s toolkit will be. It’s unfortunate Dialog was unable to provide Sue with k-working in time for the focus group testing, but her individual testing indicates that this is a product for us to pay attention to.

With Sue’s expertise and reputation, it’s not surprising that she’s moving on to International Data Corp., where she’ll be director of the Content and Document Management Technologies Research Program. This will include all categories of content; search engines, text retrieval, automatic categorization, and intranet toolkits will still fall under her gaze. Sue assures us she’ll still be focusing on technologies, companies, markets, analyzing trends, gathering data on the industry, and writing both analytical and descriptive articles on products and the industry. We are delighted for her and look forward to the high-quality work she will no doubt continue to generate. Stay in touch, Sue!

Powerize.com seems to be everywhere these days. Since Ellen Miller filed her story, Powerize.com has announced partnerships with both Annotate.net (www.annotate.net) and Hyperwave (www.hyperwave.com). Annotate.net creates a persistent icon on the desktop that brings up the titles of content from Powerize.com that’s related to the URL you are visiting. Have a look at this. I was initially irritated to have this box appear on my screen, with some content I had not requested, but we’ll test it further to determine its effectiveness. The Hyperwave Information Portal, a corporate portal, will use Powerize.com to deliver customizable Tracks or content channels. Another move in the convergence of content and platforms.

Intranets.com is yet another of the advertising-supported, free-to-you-as-the-user tools on the Web. We’ve been using it at Dysart & Jones, so our review is based on usage, not just testing. In this case, you get much more than you’ve paid for.

Within 15 minutes of arriving at Intranets 2000 in San Jose last February, I was talking with people about The Cluetrain Manifesto (www.cluetrain.com). If you haven’t had a chance to look at it, now is the time. It is not, as many think, about e-marketing; it is about how the Internet has so significantly changed our ability to communicate – with anyone – that it has changed business and organizations more than most really understand. Cluetrain’s mantras should be the peas under our mattresses that cause us the discomfort needed to keep us awake, keep us alert, and keep us changing and enhancing our intranets, products, and services. Products like Dialog’s Intranet Toolkit, Powerize.com, and Intranets.com offer incredible potential for creating new and powerful intranet offerings.
 

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