My CEO Life

As many of you know, i run a business the operates in the internet space. We do a number of things incuding publish a number of sites.

There are often great ideas that blossom on the internet including such well known names as google, amazon and ebay. However, over the years there have been the real duds – i am sure every one remembers pets.com and the sock puppet.

So it was with interest that i was reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about “The Best of the Worst” of the internet. Do you remember cyberrebate.com, flooz.com, ismell, cuecats, iLoo, Audrey or point cast?

• Cyberrebate worked on the theory that people would be happy to pay up to 10 x the value of a product on the conditiion that they received a 100% rebate. The company worked on the theory that not all people would claim the rebate and they would make money. They closed their doors $83 m in debt

• iSmells was a product created to enhance the web surfing experience by engaging the users’ sense of smell by plugging the device into the USB port. Enough said …

• In May 2003, Microsoft announced the plans for iLoo – an internet enabled toilet! The UK office announced plans for a portable toilet complete with a computer, waterproof keyboard and wireless Internet connection, to be used at summer music festivals in England.

And we all remember pointcast – the technology to automatically deliver news and headlines over the web to the user’s PC … well the company knocked back $450m from News Corp and was eventually sold for $7m.

For more information check out the full Wall Street Journal article and enjoy … http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114424637699117715-OO16F7Ov3DMZcs1xpbu5ksPDTl0_20070503.html