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April 03, 2000
PRESS RELEASE
IRS and Tax-Information Web Sites Coping Well With
Demands of Filing Season According to Keynote's Tax-Site
Performance Report
Note to press and analysts: Call Keynote's media and
analyst-relations hotline at (650) 522-1234 to request
additional information or an interview. To be added
to Keynote's press-release distribution list, send
an email to press@keynote.com and specify your press
affiliation.
San Mateo, California, April 3, 2000 - With the deadline
for filing tax forms less than two weeks away, the
Internal Revenue Service and major tax-information
web sites are performing well overall, according to
more than 140,000 measurements conducted during the
week of March 27 by Keynote (Nasdaq:KEYN), the Internet
Performance AuthorityTM.
The performance of the tax information sites during
the week ranged from 3.90 seconds at hrblock.com, with
90.1 percent availability, to 1.58 seconds at turbotax.com,
with 98.8 percent availability. The weekend's performance
was about the same, from 3.99 seconds at hrblock.com,
with 97.3 percent availability, to 1.58 seconds at
turbotax.com, with 99.5 percent availability.
The following table shows the average performance
of the web sites of four major tax information sites,
as well as the IRS web site, as measured by Keynote
every 15 minutes from Monday, March 27 through Sunday,
April 2 from 5:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. Pacific time
from computers at 66 Internet access points in 25 large
metropolitan areas around the United States. The performance
numbers are the average time in seconds required to
access and download the home page of each web site
over a T-1 or T-3 Internet connection. Lower performance
numbers are better and indicate faster performance.
The table also shows the average size in kilobytes
(thousands of bytes) of the site's home page including
all of its graphics. The following table shows the
average performance of the web sites of four major
tax information sites, as well as the IRS web site,
as measured by Keynote every 15 minutes from Monday,
March 27 through Sunday, April 2 from 5:00 a.m. until
9:00 p.m. Pacific time from computers at 66 Internet
access points in 25 large metropolitan areas around
the United States. The performance numbers are the
average time in seconds required to access and download
the home page of each web site over a T-1 or T-3 Internet
connection. Lower performance numbers are better and
indicate faster performance. The table also shows the
average size in kilobytes (thousands of bytes) of the
site's home page including all of its graphics.
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Keynote's Tax Site Performance Report |
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Average time in seconds and % availability to download web page |
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Web Site |
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H&R Block
www.hrblock.com |
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Internal Revenue Service
www.irs.gov |
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MSN Money Central Taxes www.moneycentral.com
/tax/home.asp |
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TaxCut
www.taxcut.com |
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TurboTax
www.turbotax.com |
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Monday – Friday
March 27 - 31 |
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Perf (secs) |
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3.90 |
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2.70 |
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1.76 |
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2.84 |
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1.58 |
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Avail (%) |
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90.1% |
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96.8% |
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86.5% |
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99.4% |
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98.8% |
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Saturday and Sunday
April 1 - 2 |
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Perf (secs) |
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3.99 |
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2.62 |
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1.71 |
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3.95 |
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1.58 |
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Avail (%) |
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97.3% |
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98.9% |
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97.1% |
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97.1% |
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99.5% |
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Page Size |
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124 KB
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137 KB
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55 KB |
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78 KB |
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78 KB |
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Source: Keynote Systems (www.keynote.com) |
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How Keynote Measured the Tax Sites
Keynote used its PerspectiveTM service to measure site performance and availability
every 15 minutes from computers at 66 Internet access points in 25 metropolitan
locations around the United States which are a subset of Keynote's global network
of measurement computers in over 120 locations around the world. Final results
are based on Keynote's AccuStatTM technology which calculates each result as
the mean of the medians of the measurements from each measurement computer,
for maximum accuracy and statistical validity.
"The increasing amount of Internet content and inconsistencies in the
Internet infrastructure cause bottlenecks, traffic delays, and ultimately,
frustration for Web site visitors," said Umang Gupta, chairman and CEO
of Keynote. "Adero's content distribution technology is providing a critical
solution to improve the online user experience. And Keynote's global network
of measurement computers can measure the performance of Web sites serviced
by Adero and validate the effectiveness of content distribution."
The Keynote PerspectiveTM service is based on an extensive network of strategically
located measurement computers connected to the major Internet backbones in
over 120 statistically selected locations across 50 metropolitan areas worldwide.
Internet performance and availability data are collected at Keynote's sophisticated
operations center and are instantly available to customers through any Web
browser.
Keynote Perspective gives companies a systematic means to manage e-commerce
Web site quality of service. Keynote Perspective is an outsourced service that
shows, in real time, how end users experience the Web site. It measures how
long it takes to access content or execute transactions from various geographic
locations. Automatic summary reports and immediate alarms via email or pager
notify users when performance problems do occur, and robust diagnostic support
is available right from the Web browser. Problems are quickly pinpointed and
solved before they turn into customer complaints. This service measures, assures
and improves e-commerce Web site performance 24 hours a day from over 100 locations
worldwide.
How Keynote Measures Quality of Service
The Keynote PerspectiveTM service profiles the complete user experience of
executing interactive multi-page transactions, such as buying merchandise
or making a travel reservation, and downloading content, including graphics
and banner ads, from World Wide Web sites to multiple locations around the
world. The service supports industry-standard HTTP and secure HTTPS, the
same protocols used by the Microsoft (Nasdq:MSFT) and Netscape (Nasdaq:AOL)
web browsers. The measurements can be performed every 15 minutes around the
clock from each of Keynote's automated measurement locations which are connected
to the Internet via T-1 or T-3 communication lines. Performance results and
availability rates for measured web sites, for a popular Site-of-the-Week
and for the Keynote Business 40 Index are available in real time via MyKeynote
software to anyone with a web browser. Keynote Perspective also provides
daily quality-of-service summary reports by email as well as an alarm service
that notifies subscribers by pager or email of outages or deteriorations
in quality of service.
About Keynote
Keynote is the largest provider of Internet performance
measurement, diagnostic and consulting services to
companies that operate e-commerce Web sites. The
company markets Keynote PerspectiveTM, Transaction
PerspectiveTM, Consumer PerspectiveTM
and Keynote
LifelineTM, global real-time services that
measure, assure and improve the quality of service
of e-commerce
Web sites around the world. The company captures
over 25 million performance measurements daily using
Keynote's global infrastructure of more than 500
measurement computers connected to the major Internet
backbones from over 120 statistically selected Internet
access locations representing 50 metropolitan areas
worldwide. Internet performance and availability
data are collected at Keynote's sophisticated operations
center and are instantly available to customers through
any Web browser.
Keynote customers include over 1000 leading
e-commerce Web sites and hosting companies including
AdForce (Nasdaq:CMGI),
Akamai (Nasdaq: AKAM), Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN),
Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI), Compaq Computer (NYSE:CPQ),
Cisco Systems
(Nasdaq:CSCO), Dell Computer (Nasdaq:DELL), Digital
Island (Nasdaq:ISLD), Digex (Nasdaq:DIGX), DoubleClick
(Nasdaq:DCLK), Global Center (Nasdaq:GBLX), Microsoft
(Nasdaq:MSFT), National Semiconductor (NYSE:NSM),
Pets.com (Nasdaq:IPET), SABRE Holdings (NYSE:TSG),
UPS (NYSE:
UPS) and WorldCom/UUNET (Nasdaq:WCOM).
Keynote is a member of the nationally-known Stanford
University Statistics Department's Industrial Affiliates
Program. Keynote works with Stanford statistics experts
within the program to help define its methodology for
measuring Web-site performance and ensure the accuracy
of its data.
For further information about Keynote, visit the Keynote
Web site at http://www.keynote.com or contact the company
at Keynote Systems, Inc., 2855 Campus Drive, San Mateo,
California 94403, telephone (650) 522-1000, fax (650)
522-1099, email info@keynote.com or call Keynote's
media and analyst-relations hotline at (650) 522-1234.
To be added to Keynote's press-release distribution
list, send an email to press@keynote.com and specify
your press affiliation.
Keynote, Perspective, Consumer Perspective, MyKeynote,
Lifeline and The Internet Performance Authority are
trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks
are the property of their respective owners. Editorial Contacts:
Dan Berkowitz, Keynote, (650) 522-1168, dberkowitz@keynote.com
Mary Lindsay, Lindsay PR, (408) 984-7242, mary@lindsaypr.com
Deniz Bolbol, Eastwick Communications, (650) 480-4028,
deniz@eastwick.com
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