The spring Internet World 98 conference is being held this week in Los Angeles and a quick run down of companies (see events.internet.com/spring98/) vying for a chunk of the business indicates where the industry believes the honey pots are hidden.

One key area of development is geared toward small businesses. The message seems to be that on the Internet a small business can compete equally with a big business. The focus remains on developing electronic commerce, or in the lingo of the trade, e-commerce.

For example Virtual Wall Street (wirtualwallstreet.com) will help your company go public. Virtual Wall handles public offerings on the Internet in the range of $500,000 to $5 million, below the range that normally interests investment bankers or venture capitalists.

Publishing company ZDNet (zdnet.com) will be debuting ZDNet Small Business Advisor on the Internet. The site will provide information for the "expanding small business and home office markets''.

Internet Billing Co. (ibill.com) is offering its ibill software, which allows the processing of credit card and 900-number payments for goods and services purchased over the Internet.

"With ibill, Web sites can be conducting e-commerce in 48 hours with no setup costs or software,'' according to the company.

Some companies like Sprint Corp. and Encanto Networks are targeting small businesses which want to set up Web sites. Encanto's e.go software, estimated to cost about $1,300 will allow companies to build an electronic site to take orders and process payments. To track your customers Engage Technologies (engagetech.com) has developed a database of profiles of Web site visitors.

"Companies can access the profiles in real-time to customise the adertising they show, the content they present, and the transaction options they offer to both repeat and first-time visitors,'' the company states.

Uni-Verse Inc (uni-verse.com) is marketing Diplomat 2.0 as the "first multi-lingual, multi-directional, real-time translator, (which) eliminates the Internet's language barriers forever''. The company sees its customers as the chat room user, or businesses that intend to sell products around the world.

In a related development, Internet banking got a US$20 million vote of confidence this week when the Royal Bank of Canada bought Atlanta-based Security First Network Bank. The purchase gives Royal Bank access to Security First Internet experience. Security First (sfnb.com) was the first bank to launch a fully functional banking service on the Internet.

Banking services on the Internet are the key to getting commerce on the international computer network off the ground. Security First provides savings and transactions accounts, certificates of deposit, electronic bill payment and customer statements over the Internet. The company has about $55 million in deposits, $14 million loans, and $47 million in securities.

The company's subsidiary will market Internet software to other banks. Royal bank sees the purchase as a means to service the two million "snowbirds'' -- Canadians who travel to Florida every winter -- and to small and mid-sized companies operating in the US.

The National Association of Securities Dealers (nasd.com) in the US is going to put brokers' employment histories -- including any disciplinary actions -- on the Internet by the end of March. Perhaps the Bermuda Association of Securities Dealers would be willing to take up a similar project for brokers and investment advisors in the local market? Such information can only help increase investor confidence in the market. We're after all still waiting for the Investment Services Act to come out.

Have you ever been spammed? A spam is an unsolicited piece of junk mail sent over the Internet. Spams are annoying because if you have become a target, your mailbox soon gets stuffed. America Online (AOL) has decided to tackle the spammers of the US electronic network by taking some of them to court. You may not know it, but every time you visit many sites -- especially those offering pornography -- or make a purchase on the Internet, data is being collected about your habits. This data could then be sold to other companies and soon you'll be the receipient of a spam. You may have heard from these guys at some point in your Internet experience. Those on America Online's "10 Most Wanted Spammer List'' represent a "severe impediment to the growth of the medium and are causing a significant depreciation of the expereince for the average consumer'', the company stated in a press release. "We look forward to taking them on one at a time.'' The number one spammer's name is unknown so AOL calls the business the "Notoriously Nasty'' Spammer, a pornography site which offers access to 7,400 adult sites.

The number two culprit, interestingly, is The LoseWeight Centre, which claims it can help you lose weight through "Homeopathic Medicinal Nutraceuticals''.

Numbers three to eight on the hit list are all purveyors of pornography.

Number nine is American Eagle, which offers the sale of "Stealth Bomber Software'' to help you do bulk e-mailing over the Internet. That is the company will help you become a spammer. Number 10 is Springdale Publications (springdalepub.com) which advertises it will provide information on "What Airlines Don't Want You to Know''.

AOL found that the registered telephone number for the California company reaches the Garden Grove police department's office of planning and research.

Probably some employee just got nabbed for moonlighting! By the way, some people have asked me if they can reach AOL from Bermuda. The answer is "Yes...but...'' AOL is an electronic network separate from the Internet. The network's members have access to the Internet as one of the services provided by AOL. You can electronically look out from AOL if you're a member, but you can't access the network's information database and services from outside if you're not a member.

You can gain access to AOL by signing up with the service. But from Bermuda you would have to make a long distance call and pay at regular telephone rates during your log-on time to the network, a huge expense.

Actually the company's web site (aol.com) gives you access to quite a lot of information.