Big Brother’s corporate computer managers have a scary new tool in MailMarshal, super-snooper software that sits between employees and the company’s e-mail server. MailMarshal tips bosses if people use forbidden words in messages, send notes to people whom the bosses want banned or otherwise do things with e-mail that the company dislikes.
Product managers at NWTech (www.nwtechusa.com) say the software reads every word any employee puts into an e-mail and when it finds something taboo, it either blocks the e-mail or tattles to the boss.
These cybersnoops note that such monitoring can protect against leaks of corporate secrets as well as block pornography and other no-nos. Brrrrrrrrrr.
ATTENTION CARBON LIFE FORM
YOU’VE GOT FREE MAIL
The race to get people to sign up for free Internet access ratcheted up a big notch last week when the gigantic free e-mail outfit, Juno Online Services, signed a deal with General Magic to allow users of the Juno service to dial a toll-free number and have their waiting e-mail read to them, albeit robotically. Details of Juno’s deal with General Magic’s myTalk Web service are at www.juno.com.
NEW LIFE FOR THE DEAD
OBITFINDER DIGS IN
There always has been big money in death, and promotion-minded operators of the www.legacy.com Web site have offered a powerful tool for all kinds of gumshoe-type research with a new feature designed to find recent death notices and obituaries in newspapers throughout the United States.
Legacy.com works with undertakers to produce Web site memorials for their customers, which can be far longer than newspaper obits, not to mention there are no editors around to change the family’s words or crop pictures.
Now the site’s newly installed ObitFinder service calls up hundreds of small newspapers throughout the country, allowing users to search for far more information than just obituaries.
You call up a map of the United States and click each state to start looking through a superb selection of small- and medium-size newspapers in all 50 states.
GEEKFEST 2000
YOUR 5 WORDS ARE UP
On Tuesday, the Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences will announce nominees for the Oscars of the Internet, 27 Webby trophies in categories as diverse as newspaper Web site and, for the first time this year, Personal Web site. The Academy, by the way, limits acceptance speeches to five words.
Winning here won’t turn you into a bankable star, but Academy members who pick the winners include David Bowie, Esther Dyson, Francis Ford Coppola, and “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening.
