Let's start with a basic -- www.iWon.com is a helluva piece of programming. In the amount of time it took me to register and get bombarded with six cookies, iWon built a home page for me complete with real-time market data, local weather and my Capricorn horoscope. The search engine found me with no trouble at all. The page loaded fast, looked clean, and made perfect sense in terms of choices. All the math required for the sweepstakes worked instantly and flawlessly. A real sweet piece of work.

   Just one problem.

   There's not much there there.

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   To appreciate what www.iWon.com is attempting to do, a bit of background is in order. If you look at the most-visited sites on the web, they are either "portals," that is, a gateway, a starting spot for further exploring; or "destinations," sites offering sales or original content or services (stock trades or greeting cards).

   Two television networks took the search engine concept one step further, NBC with Snap.com and ABC (and ESPN) with the Go Network. Here the idea was to not only be a portal, but to guide browsers to their own content areas while they are at it.

   CBS countered with iWon and a gimmick -- a $10,000 daily giveaway, a $1 million monthly giveaway, and a Tax Day $10 million payout. All the search capabilities and money to boot. Sounds like a winner.

   Until you take a look at the content, and see how it holds up day after day.

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   iWon steers you to content by actually paying you more, well, at least in a sense, to go to certain areas. As you click through the site, you can earn up to 100 entry points (sweepstakes chances) a day. Searching the web is worth three points, but you can get seven points for going to news, sports or shopping.

   In news and sports, iWon generally offers a lead story and three features. This is far less than what's generally offered by their real competitors (cnn.com and espn.com). And while sports is backed up by all kinds of database stat stuff, just like the real sports sites, a lot of the stats are dated. Cool programming, but lame in a useful news sense.

    There's a real lack of roundups and timely news in brief collections, which is odd, considering CBS runs a first-class radio outfit, and some of the writing is appalling. Check out this lead, for instance, on a recent dramatic Antartic medical rescue.

    Former Little America physician Jerri Nielsen is expected to arrive in Ohio Sunday night, her sister-in-law told a local newspaper. Excuse me? Her sister-in-law told a local newspaper?

    Not that the marketing folks are any better. In an explanatory piece "Too Good to be True?", there's this: Information from sources you know and trust, plus the chance to win a lot of money. Why wouldn't you?

    Nice ring to the phrase, but why wouldn't you what? Trust? Know? Win? Visit? Or maybe more importantly to iWon, will any of the visitors return?

    I find it interesting that three weeks into the site, a survey question popped up on how often people might use iWon and what other portals they might use. I find it interesting that the prize money is guaranteed only through next March 31.

    It seems to me iWon is hedging its bets; that its an open question of whether this is The Next Big Thing or a soon-to-be-footnote in the history of the web.

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    I don't mean to pick on iWon's writing unfairly. Few web sites -- including the well-funded portals -- meet old UPI standards in terms of sprightliness and timeliness. Web news can match the immediacy of radio even though many sites run slower than an old two-edition news cycle. The reason for this is simple. News is expensive in terms of people, time, equipment and communications costs.

    While the site is too young (launched at the end of September) to start discussing web Nielsen ratings, it's safe to predict the overall scenario: the gimmick will get browsers in, but the content will dictate if the browsers routinely return.

   :It's entirely possible that iWon could find it cheaper to attract viewers through something less expensive than an expensive database and 24/7 news and sports operation. CBS might find it makes more sense to give away money from its own web site, and just fill its portal with ads for CBS stuff.

    But maybe, just maybe, the folks behind iWon will get the idea that browsers don't browse for long odds on winning a prize. Maybe we surf because we are looking for the very best news, information and search capabilities. And maybe someday we can find it at iWon.

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