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."