It's a Web, Web, Web, Web World

You check your email every 30 minutes. You buy books on Amazon.com and gossip about stocks on a Yahoo! message board. So you're an official member of the Web generation, with a high-speed connection to the best of the Web world. Right? Well, pause for a download. Since the emergence of the Web as the defining medium of business communication, many of the basics of business life have been reshaped: where you get your news, how you search for information, what it takes to communicate with people.

One overriding challenge of the Internet economy is keeping up with the Net itself. You can't claim to be well informed about business unless you're well informed about the Web, which virtually changes by the nanosecond. What's your best information weapon? The Web, of course. For example, Serena Satyasai, of ExpenseVision, a Web startup in San Francisco, keeps tabs on the newest Internet companies with "VentureWire," an email newsletter from Technologic Partners. Maura LoMonico, of Britannica.com Inc., gets a dozen similar newsletters from sites like ClickZ Network that give her up-to-date information about the overall business of the Web.

This edition of @work is dedicated to helping you Web-ify yourself -- making you more savvy about what it means to work online and putting the Web to work for you. A host of Internet executives will describe how they stay plugged in to what's going on. You'll also learn how to make your searches smarter and your Web writing stronger. So don't just sit there: Get clicking!

Have You Heard the News?

"The first thing you realize when you're launching a business is that you don't have time to read anything," says Philip Airey, 40, CEO of OurHouse.com, a home-improvement startup based in Evanston, Illinois. It's a paradox of working online. In a world that changes so quickly, there's an ever-growing amount to learn about new business models, new companies, and new ways of working. But everyone has less and less time to devote to learning. How can you keep up with what's new on the Web without spending all of your time surfing the Web -- and never getting any real work done?

David L. Sifry, 31, CTO and cofounder of Linuxcare, a technical-service provider in San Francisco, has to stay current on one of the hottest topics on the Internet -- the open-source operating system known as Linux. Among the many sites that Sifry monitors, NewsNow (www.newsnow.co.uk) is one of his most valued sources of up-to-the-minute news. "It's my favorite little secret site," he says. "It's really effective."

NewsNow gathers stories from many sources around the world, such as CNNfn, Bloomberg, Forbes, and Business Week, as well as from such portals as Yahoo! and Excite. The site adds new stories every five minutes and even provides the time of each posting next to each headline. After one quick search using the word "Linux," Sifry has the latest news from dozens of sources. He leaves NewsNow running in the background on his computer screen, so the very latest news is always right there.

But all that news isn't worth half as much if you hoard it. At Linuxcare, Sifry is the self-appointed "newshound for the company." He maintains an email-based mailing list to which he sends out relevant links to stories, along with his commentary, a few times a day. "It's a great way to facilitate good communications so that people share information across all the different lines of business," he says.

One time-honored way to stay on top of what's going on in business is to follow the money. Hoover's IPO Central (www.ipocentral.com) sends out its weekly email "IPO Update," a rundown of what's new in the public markets. It covers the most recent pricings and filings, along with a schedule of expected IPOs. While the site itself gives in-depth analysis of offerings, the weekly newsletter provides an easy way to scan them quickly. Meanwhile, internet.com Corp.'s daily email "Internet Stock Report" (http://e-newsletters.internet.com) presents news-driven analysis of what's happening with those dotcom evaluations. A typical recent headline: "Priceline.com: Patent-protected investment?"

If you're looking for even earlier-stage news, perhaps the best source is "VentureWire" (www.venturewire.com), the daily email newsletter from Technologic Partners. ExpenseVision's Serena Satyasai, 30, director of business development, uses the service to keep up with who's getting funded by whom. Not a rumor sheet, "VentureWire" is a way to get the skinny on dotcom companies and the high-tech sector.

That's not to say that there's anything wrong with rumors. Some of the best sources of Net information deliver gossip along with nitty-gritty news. A case in point: "Iconocast" (www.iconocast.com), the weekly email newsletter for Internet marketing. Yes, this online publication has lots of buttoned-up talk about page views, conversion rates, and personalization. But its real draw is the section called "the Jacobyte," which covers industry parties, company meltdowns, and the occasional intriguing job offer.