Types of attractors

The gift shop

Gifts and free samples nearly always get attention. Web gifts typically include digitized material such as software (e.g., screensavers and utilities), photographs, digital paintings, research reports, and non-digital offerings (e.g., a T-shirt). Often, gifts are provided as an explicit bargain for dialogue participation (e.g., the collection of demographic data).

Examples include:

  • Ameritech's Claude Monet exhibition where yo u can download digital paintings;
  • Kodak's library of colorful, high-quality digital images that are downloadable;
  • Ragu Foods offers recipes, Italian-language lessons, merchandise, and stories written by Internet users. You can e-mail a request for product coupons. There is culture, too, in the form of an architectural tour of a typical Pompeiian house;
  • MCA/Universal Cyberwalk offers audio and video clips from upcoming Universal Pictures' releases, and a virtual tour of Universal Studios, Hollywood's new ride based on Back to the Future. There is even a downloadable coupon hidden in the area that will let you bypass the line for the ride at the theme park.

One noteworthy subspecies of the gift is the software utility or update. Many software companies distribute upgrades and complimentary freeware or shareware via their Web site. In some situations (e.g., a free operating system upgrade), this can generate overwhelming traffic for one or two weeks. Because some software vendors automatically notify registered customers by e-mail whenever they add an update or utility, such sites can have bursts of excessively high attractiveness.