Gigabeat, an online music gateway and search engine, has also
been created with speed, efficiency and flexibility in mind. Using
data-mining technology, the Palo Alto, California-based site is
designed to arrange and serve up comprehensive music information
faster and better than ever before.
Gigabeat's co-founders, Narayanan Shivakumar, 26, Erin
Turner, 25, and Wilburt Labio, 28, know firsthand about living in
the college-connection fast lane. All three received degrees from
Stanford University just last year, and they're keenly attuned
to the expectations of the fickle college crowd. Still, they want
to make sure their site is accessible to those consumers who may
not have such speedy connections.
"Because our generation comes out of this environment, fast
access is something you tend to assume," says Turner.
"But we also have stepped back and asked, as we branch out to
newer audiences with modems, what kind of accommodations do we want
to make to also reach them?"
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It's a dilemma that has plagued many new sites that want to
reel in the young, bleeding-edge audience without leaving other
potential Web visitors in the dust. Keep in mind that the latter
group may include some loyal users who usually (but don't
always) have access to fast Web connections.
Stein advises start-ups to identify a primary audience, build
for that speed and assume that other people will eventually catch
up. At the same time, UConnections accepts slower-speed users by
making various media-rich parts of the site elective.
"We give them choices on our site," says Stein.
"If you have a 56Kbps modem, you can access most of our core
services, but if you have a faster modem, services like the video
streaming and games work much better. We need to make sure the core
piece offers the easy access and level of flash that they want, but
with the ability to go further and faster."
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