[2] eTour.com to Bring International Cyber-celebrity Mahir Cagri to U.S. for Media Tour; eTour.com to Present Mahir With the First-ever 'Key to Cyberspace' At San Francisco Event.ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 7, 1999-- Leading Web surfing Refers to jumping from page to page on the Web. Just as in "TV channel surfing," where one clicks the remote to go from channel to channel, the hyperlink on Web pages makes it easy to jump from one page to another. guide eTour.com announced today that it will bring international cyber-celebrity Mahir Cagri to the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. to present him with the first-ever "Key to Cyberspace Coined by William Gibson in his 1984 novel "Neuromancer," it is a futuristic computer network that people use by plugging their minds into it! The term now refers to the Internet or to the online or digital world in general. See Internet and virtual reality. Contrast with meatspace. ". Following the ceremony, which will take place on December 15th in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , eTour is sponsoring a national media tour through San Francisco, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. for Mr. Cagri. eTour, a free member-based Internet service that specializes in bringing the best of the Web directly to its members, conjured up the "Key to Cyberspace" award as a way to celebrate the impact Mahir's instant celebrity has had on the Internet community. Mahir, a 37 year-old Turkish freelance journalist, first gained international recognition in November when his homepage, bearing the salutation "Welcome to my home page!!!!!!! I kiss you!!!!!" and illustrated by photographs of Mahir playing the accordion, playing ping-pong, and engaging in other leisure activities, was picked up by a computer hacker and forwarded around the world by email (http://members.xoom.com/_XOOM/primall/mahir/index.html). Since then, Mahir's homepage has garnered more than 2 million hits and has inspired dozens of fan sites in several countries. Mahir has recently been profiled in many major U.S. publications including Time, USA Today USA Today National U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. , Entertainment Weekly and People. The eTour-sponsored trip will mark Mahir's first visit to the United States. Roger Barnette, President and Chief Executive Officer of eTour, Inc., said: "Mahir's sudden brush with fame embodies the global potential of the Web. eTour delivers the best and most timely sites on the Web to our members, that's why we felt it was so appropriate for us to bring Mahir to the U.S. and allow his fans the opportunity to meet him in person." Jim Lanzone, Vice President of Marketing of eTour, Inc., added, "We couldn't really give the "Key to Cyberspace" out to the Dancing Baby The Dancing Baby, also known as "Baby Cha-Cha", refers to a 3D character and 3D-rendered animation of a baby dancing for several seconds. The video, one of the earliest examples of an Internet phenomenon, became popular in 1996-1997 after being distributed widely over the Internet. or the Dancing Hamsters, since they aren't actual people. Mahir is the Internet's first phenomenon made of flesh and blood." Lanzone continued, "Mahir `invitated' the world to come visit him in Turkey. True to eTour's style, we're bringing him directly to his fans instead. We'll also chronicle Mahir's `eTour of America' on our Web site with daily postings of his journal entries and photographs of his encounters with the American public." About eTour, Inc. eTour, Inc. was founded in 1997. eTour is headquartered in Atlanta and has offices in San Francisco and New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. . Prior to June, eTour.com was known as ProLaunch.com. Born out of their own frustration with surfing the Web, the founders of eTour identified a need for a surfing tool that provides members with real-time matching of sites with their interests. Members of the free service provide information about their hobbies and interests, such as music, health and news, and then automatically receive a different Web site matched to these interests each time they return to eTour.com. eTour currently has over 575,000 unique members and is growing rapidly. For twelve straight months, Media Metrix has ranked eTour.com the #1 Web site in "stickiness," or the average number of days that visitors return to the site each month. eTour can be reached through the Web at www.eTour.com. |
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