College Student Aims High With Web WallCollege Student Aims High With Web Wall

A 19-year-old Georgia man is trying to raise money for college, enter the Guinness Book of Worlds Records and create a Web destination for advertisers, romantics and just about anyone -- all with a single project.

Travis Smith, a sophomore at the Savannah College of Art and Design, is trying to create the world's longest Internet page with postings from a broad array of people and companies. If Smith accomplishes his goal, the site will stretch for a mile horizontally. Though he has attracted many advertisers, Smith is trying to distinguish his site, the Mile Wall, from www.milliondollarhomepage.com/ and similar sites, virtual billboards of advertisements that sell a pixel for $1.

"The biggest difference and probably the most important is that it is an ad space but it's pretty much up for anything that the user wants," he said during an interview Tuesday. "It doesn't necessarily have to be a link. I envision, and it's probably just a dream, but I think it would be funny if someone used it to ask someone to marry them on it, just something quirky, crazy anything like that."

Smith is also offering features like searches and flash. Several Flash designers are working on movies for yet another aspect of the wall: a competition that lets Internet visitors decide which Flash movie is best. Smith said that if he accomplishes his goal of a mile, he'll give the Flash movie winner $1,000.

Entries of all kinds are $1 per inch and can contain still images, text and mixed media featuring anything except offers for "free" products and services, gambling sites, pornography and "anything else which will make the wall look dull and clich."

Smith said he saw a television interview of the college student who created milliondollarhomepage.com and decided to change the concept a little and try it himself.

In the three weeks since Smith took milliondollarhomepage.com's inspiration and put it to work for himself with a new twist, it has grown to about 8 feet. If it goes the full mile, he'll collect $450,000, enough to cover the $35,000 tuition he pays. He said he would use the remainder to help his mother, feed himself and to feed his entrepreneurial spirit. Smith said that if the rate of entries keeps on pace with this week, he could finish in six months, but it lots of people request a single inch of space, he'll have to recruit help for what's now a one-man show. Once he reaches his goal, he may continue adding entries.

"If it did make it, I don't see any reason to stop," he said.

Participants have been drawn from Germany, Israel and the United States, after news articles and blog entries mention the Mile Wall.

So far, no one has taken Smith up on his offer to submit text dedications. The first entry shows a paint brush with swirls of red, pink and blue swirls behind it. That's Smith's art work. He offers automotive painting, as well as other acrylics and oils, on another Web site.

His girlfriend's family bought space to showcase her photography. That slot is slated for a link to her Web site, which is under development. Other than that, the entries are coming from strangers, Smith says. Some link to windows in foreign languages that the enterprising Web designer does not understand.

A few are obviously personal, including an image of a POW/MIA war veteran's patch, but none have come with stories or personal messages, Smith said.

"I did envision ads, but I just kind of hope that maybe some people, every now and then, have a more creative entry," he said.