Netscape Offers Small-Business Help Site

John F. Thorsberg

Some 28 million U.S. companies have fewer than 10 employees, and many of them seek business help online. Netscape's new Netbusiness.com is an easy-to-use collection of third-party offerings--professional services and products, marketing and sales tools, and small-business news and information. The site is informative, easy to navigate, and full of helpful services for a wide range of businesses. But it is not unique.

Netbusiness.com consists of three sections: My Industry, My Business, and My Life. My Industry provides daily news updates (via Web content provider YellowBrix) of small-business news. You pick an industry--engineering, accounting, or the like--from a drop-down menu, and you thereafter receive just news items related to that area (you can change your industry designation at any time). If you don't choose an industry, the default option presents you with computer news, networking, industry chat, trade association links, research and references from a major online business info provider, and daily business tips from Inc., the magazine.

I especially liked the state and local government services part of Netbusiness.com, useful for locating city home pages, state travel guides, and government contacts.

In the My Business section, users can post a Netbusiness card listing their business information (contact info, products, services, and so on) for other site visitors to access. The card data is also listed automatically in AOL's Yellow Pages. You can buy office products and special goods and services from featured providers like Federal Express, Office Depot, and ADP. The Market & Sell section features vendors such as Bigstep.com, a Web page building site, and EFrenzy.com, which bills itself as a global marketplace.

The relatively weak My Life section doesn't venture beyond the usual message boards and business chat rooms plus wire service news.

You can find small-business information at other sites--the small-business channel at Yahoo, NBCi's AllBusiness.com, and newcomer SmallBusiness.com, for example--but Netbusiness.com has the widest and deepest offerings.

Buying Information

Netbusiness.com Free, all-in-one destination site for small-business help. No original content. Provides the ABCs and more for small-business newbies. $ Free Netscape http://www.netbusiness.com