'Net Buzz

On Tuesday, I had lunch with Alexandre Konanykhine, president of KMGI.com, a New York-based start-up. Before taking our food order, the waitress asked us to watch a short videotaped commercial on a TV screen positioned over our table. The same thing happened just before dessert.

Yes, I'm kidding. Nobody would put up with such an intrusion during lunch, unless, of course, the commercials showed scantily clad women romping on a beach.

However, KMGI's business is based on the dubious assumption that Web site visitors will sit still for five- to seven-second, full-screen "Webmercials" as a price for accessing the content they crave. KMGI has used Flash technology from Macro-media to produce prototypes of what Konanykhine insists will revolutionize Internet advertising. You can check them out at www.kmgi.com.

"I believe advertisers are going to pay much more for something that works than they do for banner ads that don't work," he says.

But will the surfing masses watch commercials? Probably, given that they have learned to tolerate ads virtually everywhere else.

Me? I'm pointing my browser at the restaurant that will serve my meal without a heavy sales pitch for an appetizer.

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One start-up that debuted here might drive network managers batty, or, prompt them to straighten out their drives. SportsID.com off-ers free online access to 500 Quicktime video clips that feature in-structional advice from professional athletes in 50 sports. Advertising banners pay the freight.

Given the bandwidth demands for clips that run anywhere from two to 20 minutes, CEO Mark Passalacqua says he expects many of his customers will hit the site from their well-equipped workplaces. In other words, SportsID.com will be another "un-productivity tool," as my colleague Jim Duffy likes to call them.

"Hey, the bosses will be watching these things, too," Passalacqua predicts.

One clip promises to help me hit a golf ball off a downhill lie. If SportID.com can teach this duffer that trick, we may have a winner here.

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Have you ever been to a wedding where the reception hall was too small to accommodate all the guests? Those shunted to the auxiliary room are generally not amused, even if there's an open bar.

Which brings us to David Coursey's Showcase Encore '99, held last week in conjunction with Internet World. The event is a marriage of 30 interesting Internet companies and a select list - hey, Buzz was there - of press types and analysts. The Marriott's "grande salon" was packed with movers, shakers, yummy eats and free booze.

Stuck outside in a hallway, though, were a few spillover vendor tables, including two for some company called Microsoft.

Don't tell Gates.

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Web-based fax companies were spread out across the show floor like so many chickens on Old McDonald's farm: Fax4Free, eFax, jFax, everywhere a fax-fax. With this much activity, one can assume there is a market here and that these folks will peck each other to death in pursuit of their rightful share.

Personally, I don't understand the appeal. Force me to deep-six one of our office communications devices, and it wouldn't take but a second to choose the fax machine. Sure, once a month or so a well-timed fax keeps my feathers out of the fry-o-lator, but 99% of the faxes our newsroom receives are little more than spam on white.

When he's in a snit, McNamara is loath to give out his fax number. You may, however, contact him at (508) 820-7471 or pmcnamara@nww.com.