In the struggle to turn red ink into black on the Web, a small business named Actio has succeeded in doing just that. And it's making profits by using high technology to accomplish something that's fairly unglamorous: distributing information on dangerous chemical substances via the Internet.

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The U.S. government inadvertently created this market through environment regulations. Every company that creates or handles chemicals -- from weapons manufacturers to car dealers and anything in between -- is required to have on file a document called a MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) on each substance.

The creator of an original MSDS is likely to spend $500 to $1,000 researching various government databases to find any chemical interactions that must be listed, according to Actio. But even companies that merely handle copies of the documents pay a price. Because a copy must be available to every employee who works with each chemical, a company typically spends $75 to $130 per document making duplicates and distributing them to each building and floor of its operation.

Actio CEO Russ McCann says these documents, despite their expense, can save lives. He says one company employee couldn't identify some substance, so he unscrewed the bottle's cap and sniffed inside. He suffered permanent lung damage because the material was acid, and he may be unable to work again.

Better access to MSDS documents can prevent accidents, McCann says, and Actio does this by putting all such documents on the Internet in a searchable form. His company was founded in 1998 by three principals, one of whom is a chemical engineer, who pooled several million dollars of startup capital. In calendar year 2001, Actio made a small, undisclosed profit on annual revenues of a few million dollars -- without having given up any of the company to outside investors.

Actio charges clients about one-third of what they would ordinarily pay to create or distribute MSDS documents. McCann says the savings can be even greater in some environments. Companies that operate "clean rooms," for example, must use special clean room paper to distribute MSDS documents to employees. (Ordinary paper sheds lint, which is intolerable in a sealed lab.) Viewing such documents on a specially cleaned PC, however, is faster and doesn't introduce problems.

Actio is just beginning to scratch the market, McCann says, because U.S. companies now spend $700 billion per year on this kind of document management.

NEXT WEEK: More on how the Actio business model can be applied to businesses that now pay for offline services.

ACTIO.NET SITE EXPLAINS "SPECIFIC CONTENT MANAGEMENT":

http://www.actio.net http://bri.li/?4e53

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E-BIZ TECH REVIEW: BLUETOOTH-ENABLE A LAPTOP, PC, OR PALM

I saw lots of new technology last week in Hannover, Germany, at CeBIT, the world's largest computer trade show. Most of it is more appropriate for me to write about in my Window Manager column in InfoWorld. But a few of the new gadgets are highly appropriate to sell on your e-commerce site or for e-business support in your own PC or laptop.

One trend is that Bluetooth, the wireless standard for communicating among devices within 33 feet of each other, is catching on for new cell phones and PC add-ons. For example, the new BlueFritz USB plug-in allows you to add Bluetooth communications to any laptop or PC that has a USB port. The tiny device sticks out of your USB port only about 1 inch -- it looks like a BlueThumb -- making it ideal for road warriors. You can use it to link up with a Bluetooth-equipped phone, or link to an access point like the BlueFritz AP-X (designed for the European market) to surf the Internet or a LAN.

Of course, you can do similar wireless things with Wi-Fi technology as well. But people who buy Bluetooth-enabled cell phones (which are starting to appear in the United States) may find they have more devices capable of Bluetooth than Wi-Fi. Users of many Palm handheld models, for instance, can now add Bluetooth connectivity by using the Palm Bluetooth SDIO Card. Ideally, your Palm, PC, laptop, and cell phone (and potentially many other devices) could all use Bluetooth. This is bleeding-edge stuff, but it promises to free you from at least a few of those cables you've been carrying around.

FRITZ "BLUETHUMB" DEVICE MAKES USB PORTS INTO BLUETOOTH:

http://www.avm.de http://bri.li/?7563

PALM BLUETOOTH SDIO CARD FOR M120, M135, M500, AND I705:

http://www.amazon.com http://bri.li/?B00006347Q

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LIVINGSTON'S TOP 10 NEWS PICKS O' THE WEEK

1. Ten steps that improve your e-commerce bottom line

http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com http://bri.li/?41b

2. Web travel sites seek to add offline profit centers

http://www.iht.com http://bri.li/?803

3. Humor mag ups retail sales 15 percent with Web stunt

http://www.contentbiz.com http://bri.li/?beb

4. Management tip: Discouraged workers become dumber

http://www.newscientist.com http://bri.li/?fd3

5. Companies blocking more sites than the "sinful six"

http://www.wired.com http://bri.li/?13bb

6. Pro redesigns FedEx Shipment Manager for better flow

http://www.37signals.com http://bri.li/?17a3

7. How a developer can launch his/her own solo business

http://www.builder.com http://bri.li/?1b8b

8. Expert shows wrong way to use CSS in page layouts

http://www.evolt.org http://bri.li/?1f73

9. HTML tips: Animating in Dreamweaver without Flash

http://www.webmasterbase.com http://bri.li/?235b

10. Had enough caffeine? How drugs affect web design

http://www.cannabis.net http://bri.li/?2743

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WACKY WEB WEEK: LAST WORDS OF THE FAMOUS AND INFAMOUS

My never-ending quest to bring you the latest wack led me this week to The Vocabula Review. This site is genuinely hilarious when it isn't being too serious about the use and abuse of the English language.

In an overview of the great and the not-so-great's dying words, an article in the latest edition ambles through some very mundane parting thoughts before arriving at a number of real howlers. As the author of the piece, Christopher Orlet, says, "You have to admire the single-mindedness of purpose in the last words of French grammarian Dominique Bouhours: 'I am about to -- or I am going to -- die; either expression is used.'"

But Orlet reserves his most effusive praise for those bon mots that arose spontaneously. For example, here's Voltaire's fading response as he was exhorted to condemn Satan: "This is no time to make new enemies."

It's never too early to start thinking of your own farewell message, and the link below will give you a lot to consider.

LAST WORDS OF THE DYING, THE DANGEROUS, THE DEMENTED:

http://www.vocabula.com http://bri.li/?c383

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E-BUSINESS SECRETS: Our mission is to bring you such useful and thought-provoking information about the Web that you actually look forward to reading your e-mail.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: E-Business Secrets is written by InfoWorld Contributing Editor Brian Livingston (http://SecretsPro.com). Research director is Ben Livingston (no relation). Brian has published 10 books, including:

Windows Me Secrets:

http://www.amazon.com http://bri.li/?0764534939

Windows 2000 Secrets:

http://www.amazon.com http://bri.li/?0764534130

Win a gift certificate good for a book, CD, or DVD of your choice if you're the first to send a tip Brian prints. Mail to: Brian@SecretsPro.com