At Last, CNBC.com Returns to the Web

After a five-year absence, during which financial cable network CNBC provided occasional insights for a partner site generally judged to be less than competitive, the network has come back swinging this morning.

Along with it, CNBC.com brings back to the Web its trademark silver-and-blue stock ticker - although this time it actually works. In a prior incarnation, CNBC.com had been picked to help Microsoft premiere the concept of ActiveX controls, with a ticker geared for use only with Internet Explorer. At that time, Netscape Navigator was still a major force on the Internet. It was to have been one of the key selling features of Microsoft's original Active Desktop concept, but the stock ticker -- probably through no fault of its own -- ended up downgrading investors' opinions of ActiveX altogether, especially following numerous crashes.

The new ticker uses Adobe's Macromedia Flash player. Live streaming charts, including up-to-the-second Dow Jones and NASDAQ averages, are now being provided through Java windows. In our initial tests, the charts ran flawlessly in Firefox 2.0, letting you literally follow a bouncing ball as it skis over the yellow crests and valleys. Each chart stays zoomed in enough for you to be able to detect a peak or a dropoff as it happens, even while you're not looking directly at it.

Some might say CNBC.com's new graphics are even more sensible and readable than the network's own, which launched last year to a seemingly unanimous chorus of disapproval.

There do appear to be some early technical glitches. For instance, the moment you turn streaming charts on (they're off by default), global charts for markets that have already closed (for instance, the Financial Times index in London) fail to display the data for their closing hours of trading. Instead, the blue dot appears on the far left side of the chart representing the closing average accurately, but not the trading activity leading to that average.

In both IE7 and Firefox, the connection between the site's live video popup window and the streaming source were quite slow, taking as long as 15 minutes to pull up Windows Media Player. From this window, CNBC.com plans to present one-minute market updates on the half-hour, with live interviews scheduled for some of the intervening periods. But it's clearly not designed to compete with the mothership, as the live feed often devotes several uninterrupted minutes of a webcam trained on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

We also noticed the authentication service for new subscribers to CNBC Plus -- which serves up live links to the network's US, Asia Pacific, and European feeds -- was down for some time during the afternoon. The CNBC Plus subscription package is expected to resemble CNN's Pipeline, though using its existing global cable feeds. This is where the site is expected to see its payoff, making its revenue model less dependent on advertising alone. Of course, it needs to be able to sign up subscribers to do this, and perhaps that job will get easier as the tide of new visitors subsides a bit.

When CNBC partnered with MSN in 2001 to contribute content to its MoneyCentral site, rather than maintain its own presence, it was obvious that by playing second banana to a different host, it was losing an opportunity to affix its brand to investors' consciousness. It also lost the capability for its TV service to make a direct connection with its viewers: Up to this point, CNBC has asked viewers for their comments and input through a completely separate Web site.

During the noon hour on the East Coast, one of the network's key personalities, Maria Bartiromo (known by many as "The Money Honey,") interviewed Goldman Sachs chief portfolio strategist Abby Joseph Cohen, whose TV appearances generally draw a sizable audience. Bartiromo fielded some e-mail questions live from the online viewing audience, finally pulling off what the network tried to do seven years ago. There was a notable absence of graphical flash and pizzazz during this production, which could be a welcome change from the network's over-polished graphics, some of which literally do make a "whooshing" sound.

Also missing from the interview were the nearly constant reminders to the guest that time is running out, as Cohen was given most of the half-hour, uninterrupted by commercials. On this first day of service, the online feed -- once the player finally started -- was very smooth and unimpeded on our cable modem connection.

What will be interesting to see going forward is how this affects the CNBC/Dow Jones partnership. On TV, CNBC gives strong promotion to that alliance and gives a special platform to its reporters (although last month, some Wall Street Journal reporters declined to make use of it). However, Dow Jones' online partner is MarketWatch, which last year ended its alliance with CBS. Meanwhile, the other peacock Web site, MSNBC.com, continues to acquire its business news from MSN, with some video supplied by CNBC TV.

With parent company NBC Universal in the midst of a controversial reorganization, which involves a renewed focus on coordination - in lieu of an outright merger - between NBC News, MSNBC, and CNBC on related stories, executives may soon turn their attention to the online divisions. Any moves made there may have an impact on the parent company's key partnerships, not only with Dow Jones but also with Microsoft.