Richard Barry: IT's Like This...
I couldn't help wondering why the two pretenders to the online top spot hadn't even made the short list. CompuServe was pretty easy to figure: as Martin Turner, UK MD, pointed out in his interview with me a couple of weeks ago, things ain't been easy for the world's number two. Plus the fact CompuServe now belongs to AOL, it just wouldn't do to go up against its parent.
That leaves Judy Gibbons' bunch. Judy is director of MSN in the UK and she's become rather apt at parrying awkward questions from whipper snapper journalists trying to catch her out. One such question was why Microsoft has completely changed its whole approach to online services and gone as far as renaming MSN, ‘start'. But before I had a chance she nipped in and said: "Micosoft's core strategy - to provide the best online service possible is still our goal