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Bringing it all together
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Also by Keegan Kyle:
- Bringing it all together (December 13, 2007)
- Recruiting isn't easy on campus (December 7, 2007)
- Doyle set to sign off on ethics (February 2, 2007)
- Volunteerism on the road (October 19, 2007)
- Down and dirty on campus sanitation (October 11, 2007)
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Stumbling out of bed every morning, Elijah Rolli begins his day like many college students: He boots up his computer and gets on the Internet.
His homepage, however, is not some news organization, cheeky blog or e-mail service, but rather a growing enterprise managed by two University of Wisconsin seniors.
WiscoLinks.com is an amalgamation of links and features catered to interests of UW students.
The site is designed to reduce the number of sites students need to go to find information that relates to their lifestyles, said WiscoLinks' developer Mark Yarmarkovich. "I think it's just having everything right there," he said in an on-campus interview Tuesday.
Yarmarkovich and his business partner Matt Lerner, a marketing major, will both be graduating UW this weekend but will continue managing WiscoLinks on the side. They plan on launching a redesigned version of WiscoLinks with new services before spring semester. They have also talked about taking their idea to the national level with other colleges.
Yarmarkovich and Lerner refused to release any details about the new site but said it would likely impress students because most changes to WiscoLinks are currently user-driven.
"One of the advantages is that we're built on user feedback," Yarmarkovich said. "People e-mailed us what their favorite links were."
Yarmarkovich said the site attracts about 11,000 users each day — a number steadily growing since he launched the site May 2006 — and overall, the page recieives 60,000 hits. Some of the site's main services include weather, menus to local restaurants and a bar guide with weekly drink specials.
The site also contains links to several UW services, such as WiscMail and Badger Athletics, and also links to the two daily campus newspapers. Yarmarkovich said the site has permission to use all trademarked UW logos, but that assertion was not confirmed by UW Wednesday.
Cindy Van Matre, UW trademark licensing director, said she was unaware of any agreement with WiscoLinks. Yarmarkovich said he received an e-mail from Van Matre giving him permission to use the logos but she said, "I have no recollection of that."
Brian Rust, communications manager for the UW Division of Information Technology, said he has tried to contact the owners of WiscoLinks about the trademarked logos but has never received any reply. Several links include DoIT-created logos like Learn@UW and My WiscSpace.
"We would never let them use [those logos], especially in this format," Rust said. Several of the logos from DoIT are blurred or appear stretched. Rust said he would be open to the usage of DoIT logos if each is used with permission from UW and follows trademark standards.
Several other logos on the site also appear to be published without approval. The owner of Jimmy Johns on State Street said he never authorized any advertising for WiscoLinks. Editors at The Badger Herald and The Daily Cardinal also said they had never given permission to the owners to use their newspapers' masthead logos.
Yarmarkovich and Lerner said advertising on the site is a mix of paid and unpaid links because the students' interests are first priority. Some links are approved formally, others are presumed OK because it is essentially "free advertising."
"It's really a way for businesses to have a web presence without worrying about driving traffic to their own site," Lerner said. "If we always do run into a problem, we could just make a text box."
Van Matre at UW said there were no pending lawsuits against WiscoLinks to remove the logos, and a resolution would likely be met outside the courts.
Rolli said he would be surprised if the logos were used without permission. Even with that suggestion in mind, Rolli said he will continue visiting the site during his morning routine. To summarize his reasons, he said, "I think it's pretty convenient."
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dumb idea.
taking the site creator’s estimate for traffic stats…nice journalism work
why is this in the herald today if the site was launched over a year and a half ago? if the article is about trademark infringement, title it as such. do i smell a favor?
uh badgerportal.com
kthx.
way better
if i need something madison student related i’ll just go to redrodger.com, rentrodger.com, or the uw madison home page, they have been around longer, all free, and you dont have to change your homepage.