Where Are Those Free PCs?

I just read the story about Microsoft's offer of a free computer when you purchase three years of Internet access. I tried to get more information from Microsoft's Web site, but to no avail.

Can you help?

David Cicutti

EDITOR'S RESPONSE: The offer of a free Lan Plus PC with the purchase of three years' MSN Internet access is being offered through Lan Plus's subsidiary, ePC. You can find more information about the offer on ePC's Web site.

An "Intelligent" Search Engine?

PC World Online posted a software review on Search by Media. Your reporter began the review by explaining that Search by Media would locate multimedia contents on the Web and surpass the functionality of traditional search engines. He further described Search by Media as "an intelligent search-engine technology," in fact he used the words "smart" and "intelligent" several times in his review to describe the search engine. I found this to be an exaggeration, and it was apparent to me after just one use of Search by Media. I did receive my search results, but the search engine also pulled up a lot of other unrelated material. For example, I searched for the heavy metal band Judas Priest, and it returned results linking to sites about ska and reggae bands.

I use another multimedia search product from EastBay Technologies--a real "intelligent" multimedia search engine called MediaGrab. You can find it at EastBay Technologies' Web site.

Shannon Sturges

You Like Us! You Really Like Us!

I just wanted to comment on the advances in usability and function on the PC World Online Web site. I have been online since the early eighties (using a Commodore 64 and a 300-bits-per-second modem to log in to CompuServe), so I have enjoyed seeing the great advances in Internet technology. It doesn't seem like so long ago that I found your Web site ugly, clunky, and slow. Today your site is well organized, very appealing to the eye, and packed with useful, pertinent information.

I have always respected PC World for its consumer advocacy. I will be adding PC World Online to my hot links for my frequent visits in pursuit of what I enjoy best: technobabble.

T. Laury

--Edited by Arin Hailey