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In Around and Online 94 12 09
(Posted to alt.online-service, alt.internet.services and alt.business)
In, Around and Online- Issue 14, Week Ending 12/9/94
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Copyright (C) 1994 Robert Seidman. All rights reserved. May be
reproduced in any medium for non-commercial purposes.
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This Week's Big Story
=====================
On a Friday night in early October of 1993, I was wasting some time
reading the newsgroups when I stumbled upon a posting about NCSA's
version of Mosaic for Windows. The author of the posting went on to rave
about Mosaic as if it were a more spectacular event than the Boston Red
Sox winning a world series. Better than sex and chocolate... combined!
My thought at the time was, "Well, this guy has probably never had sex
while simultaneously eating a Hershey's SKOR bar." But, I wanted to see
what it was all about. So, I FTP'd the software and installed it and set
about my first web surfing experience.
I was in awe! I couldn't sit still. It was the single most impressive
thing I'd seen in over 10 years of online experience. I called and wrote
just about everyone I knew. "You must see this thing. Get an Internet
account. This will revolutionize the entire information industry."
This week, not too far from the very place I was born, "ooooooohs" and
"aaaaaahhhhhs" could be heard from the 11,000 or so that attended the
fall Internet World show in Washington, DC. It was especially exciting
for me to see those witnessing the WWW for the first time. Their initial
reaction wasn't much different than mine.
Clearly, the World Wide Web is THE thing on the Internet. Many have
stated that it is the "killer application" that will draw the masses to
the Internet and that certainly appears to be the case. If nothing else,
it is the application that the software industry and other businesses are
developing for. WWW clients, secure transactions via WWW, WWW sites, and
WWW "helpers" dominated Internet World.
Many companies are partnering together and I believe that you'll start to
see the big fish buying up the little fish in an effort to gain market
share. This year has been an exciting one, and the pace isn't going to
slow down in '95. But... don't give up your SKOR bars just yet!
Nobody Does It Better...than PRODIGY?
=====================================
The big three of the online services world all had a presence at Internet
World. When I started writing this newsletter three months ago, the
industry coverage seemed to revolve around the big 5 services (America
Online, CompuServe, Delphi, GEnie, and Prodigy). Over the last month or
so the trend has moved towards coverage of only the big three (America
Online, CompuServe and Prodigy). Mirroring this trend, Delphi and GEnie
were notably absent at Internet World. You can draw your own
conclusions, but one would expect to see a company called "Delphi
Internet Services" at the Internet World show!
As an aside, MCI was also not present as an exhibitor, though ironically,
they were one of the sponsors of the exhibit! Exhibit hall go-ers could
see an infomercial style commercial from MCI on the big display of
monitors outside the exhibit hall. Once inside however, MCI was nowhere
to be found.
Prodigy has clearly won the race of online services capable of providing
WWW access via an online service. Over a standard telephone line and
modem, Prodigy members will soon be able to download a WWW client that
links to the Prodigy service and allows them to traverse the World Wide
Web. Prodigy was demonstrating their WWW access at Internet World and it
was pretty impressive. Look for it to be released in the near future.
AOL and CompuServe had nothing so impressive to demonstrate, at least not
anything that linked directly to their online services.
In addition to making a good showing at Internet World, Prodigy had some
big news of its own this week. Prodigy announced that they were dropping
their proprietary technology and would begin supporting HTML
(HypeText Markup Language, the language used for putting up documents on
the World Wide Web). The switch to HTML will make it far easier to
publish on Prodigy. Further, those wishing to have a presence both on
Prodigy AND the Internet will only have to format their information
once. That is, they can put their information on Prodigy, in the exact
same format they've used for the Internet without having to change
anything. Other services, such as America Online have the capability for
flashy multimedia forms, but there is an efficiency cost. America Online
uses a tool called "Rainman" to publish. While the end results are very
nice, from what I hear, Rainman is much more difficult to use than HTML.
By moving away from the proprietary format, Prodigy was able to
cut about 100 positions.
Other Online News from Internet World
=====================================
America Online was on hand at Internet World showing off the point and
click FTP version available on America Online and showcasing Booklink's
"InternetWorks" package. InternetWorks is a stand alone set of
integrated applications that gives users point and click access to the
Internet. The cornerstone of this software is the WWW browser which
was original designed as a 32 bit application on the Windows NT
platform. What differentiates Booklink's browser is the capability to
download multiple pages simultaneously. This capability played into
AOL's decision to buy Booklink. When AOL Integrates the Booklink
technology into its service, the ability for users to download multiple
web pages simultaneously may give them the perception that it is working
"faster". This perception is important, especially over a 9.6 or
14.4Kbps lines. The other benefit of Booklink is that it supports OLE2
standards for integrating with other applications (via drag and drop).
Microsoft itself has licensed this technology from Booklink for MS's
Internet Assistant which will be available free to Word 6.0 users
sometime early next year as well as being bundled into the forthcoming
Word 6.1. (Microsoft had a small booth at Internet World where they were
demonstrating the Internet Assistant and it was impressive!)
Don't confuse Booklink's "InternetWorks" with America Online itself.
While the browser technology within InternetWorks will be incorporated
into the America Online software client, InternetWorks is a separate
package that will work with Internet service providers like Netcom, or
ClarkNet and especially AOLNET (if they decide to call it that).
According to Booklink VP Patricia Sabosik, Booklink will be responsible
for client technology and AOL's other recent addition, NaviSoft will be
responsible for server technology (including adding the capability for
secure transactions). You can get a "LITE" version of InternetWorks via
anonymous FTP at: ftp.booklink.com in the /lite directory.
No surprise, there were a couple of disclosures this week by America
Online representatives that America Online will be offering a standard
Internet service sometime in the first half of '95.
Prodigy spokesman, Brian Ek was quoted this week stating that Prodigy
would also launch a separate Internet service in the first half of '95
"that has Prodigy and the Internet interwoven with every piece of it."
CompuServe announced last week that they had joined with SPRY to provide
a stand alone Internet service. So in '95, there will be 3 online
services that provide Internet services via their online services, and
each of them will also be spawning off their own separate Internet
service. Keeping it all straight isn't going to be easy!
When I spoke with a CompuServe representative about their pricing and how
they would be able to compete given their current rate structure I was
advised that there would definitely be changes. No specifics were given,
but the CompuServe folks were quick to point out that they'd already
decreased rates by about 40% over the last 2 years. If they only cut
them by another 40%, it won't be enough... CompuServe was showcasing
their own implementation of FTP on the CompuServe Information Service as
well as displaying SPRY's AIR Mosaic running over the CompuServe Network
(as opposed to the online service).
Predictions/Analysis
====================
In the short term, sometime in 1995, AOL will become the consumer online
service with the most subscribers. I realize I'm not going way out on a
limb here. Hey, I never said I was Jean Dixon. America Online will win
in the short run despite the recent announcements at Prodigy and in spite
of the fact that CompuServe is currently the largest. Why? Simply put,
they appear to be better at marketing than the rest. Even at Internet
World, AOL show's that it knows the 3 L's of real estate: location,
location, location. America Online had an extremely visible,
spacious and inviting location. The Prodigy and CompuServe booths were
smaller, not as visible and probably cheaper.
In the long run, it remains to be seen how successful AOL will be able to
integrate its recent acquisitions of Booklink, NaviSoft, ANS and
Redgate. The AOL customer base will definitely benefit from these
acquisitions. Especially from Booklink and ANS, as these two will
provide AOL subscribers with World Wide Web access and faster access.
That much is clear. What isn't clear and probably won't be for some time
is whether America Online gets its moneys worth for these acquisitions.
The explosive growth of the Internet combined with the looming threat of
Microsoft has forced the entire industry to make some quick decisions and
I expect we'll see several more in the coming weeks.
The entire Internet explosion causes one to wonder if there is indeed any
place at all in the long run for closed online systems. Even though
America Online and CompuServe are already available via TCP/IP access,
how much value will these services have as more and more content
providers begin publishing directly on the Internet? As I've said in
past issues, there will definitely be a place for aggregators of
information that point users to good content and handle billing and
collections. How big of a role this will be and how much money companies
that provide such services can make is not yet known.
There is good news for the online services, especially those of the point
and click variety. In spite of the many software packages that are out
there claiming easy one step access...it still isn't easy enough.
The Three Most Hated Words on the Internet
==========================================
Pot. Kettle. Black. I hate seeing these words. Typing them turned my
stomach. But these were the words that came to mind when I read the FLUX
page of HotWired (http://www.wired.com/ ) earlier this week. In an
"article" alleging that America Online is having early problems with the
MAC version of its WWW client, the writer referred to Steve Case as a
"shameless self promoter".
This had me laughing out loud. Steve Case is a brilliant marketer who
had a vision. He built something that people liked, and as a result he
has made millions of dollars. That doesn't sound too different from the
way things have been going for WIRED.
Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed MANY issues of WIRED magazine and have
great respect for many of the writers there. HotWired is an interesting
WWW site, mostly because the implementation they've used is innovative.
But sometimes they seem to try too hard to express an attitude. Newsweek
even had a blurb in this week's issue, "Is HotWired, Wired Magazine's Web
site, too cool to live?" Apparently it was too cool for Howard
Rheingold, who resigned this week from his position of Executive Editor
for HotWired.
Rheingold is a founding member of the WELL (Whole Earth 'Letronically
Linked), a San Francisco based online/BBS service (also available via the
Internet) and the author of "The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the
Electronic Frontier.
At this weeks interview with the Internet Roundtable Society (scheduled
way in advance), Rheingold said, "I had a very different vision of
HotWired than the one (Wired editor and publisher) Louis Rossetto
insisted upon." He went on to add, "A glib and probably unfair way to
state our differences is that Louis wanted to create something cool for
the sponsors and I wanted to create something cool for people on the Web."
Interchange News
================
The sale of Interchange is now back on. Sources have stated they expect
Ziff will accept a bid in the 50-70 million dollar range a far cry from
the $150 million they were allegedly asking for and a lot less (if you
believe what you read) than some of the bids received during the initial
round of bidding.
I still haven't received my Beta kit and have resigned myself to reading
the Washington Post the old fashioned way. I hope the gang at the Post
are planning on an Internet version, because the longer Interchange takes
to be released, the less I find myself caring.
Ain't We Lucky We Got 'Em....GOOD TIMES!
========================================
Florida: "Thelma, be careful, I've heard there was this virus on
America Online and I don't want you catching
anything when you read your mail!"
Thelma: "Momma, I'm scared! Michael, I don't know what to do. I
just have to read my mail!"
Michael: "Relax, you can't get a virus from reading your e-mail. E-
mail is in ASCII and only Binary files can cause viruses.
However, any time you receive a binary file as an AOL mail
attachment you can use a virus checking program. Since
this particular virus was reported to be sent from the
Internet to AOL the only way you could get a virus is if
there was a UU Encoded ASCII file inside and then you'd have
to use a UU Decoder to turn it into a binary file."
JJ: "Can you repeat that in English puh-leaze?"
Michael: "If you read your e-mail, your computer will blow up!"
JJ: "DYN-O-MITE!!"
Florida: "Now Michael, tell your sister what it really means."
Michael: "Okay momma. It's just a hoax"
Stay tuned next week for the "All in the Family Virus". Sue me, I grew
up in the 70's. Besides, if there ever IS a virus that is capable of
transmitting via an ASCII e-mail message, I'm sure our friends at Condom
Country (http:// www.ag.com/condom/country ) will come up with a condom
for our e-mail clients.
SHORT TAKES
===========
McPAPER ONLINE?: USA TODAY has announced the formation of the USA TODAY
Information Network, a separate business unit of the newspaper that will
explore on-line opportunities.
TOO MANY CYBER SANTAS!: In addition to the 2 electronic Santas that I've
included over the last 3 weeks, there are now about a dozen more. Two
Jolly Old St. Nick's are enough for me. But, the Delphi Holiday Gopher
is back and worth a look if you're feeling festive. If you're not
feeling festive, you will after visiting this. Gopher to delphi.com or
point your WWW client to: gopher://delphi.com/1holiday .
FEELING GROOVY?: I'm Woodstock'd out for the next 25 years, but you may
feel differently. If so, you'll be glad to know that the Woodstock
Interactive Press Kit is now available on CompuServe (GO POLYGRAM),
America Online and Delphi (in the Critic's Choice area) and on New York's
Echo. It's also available via the World Wide Web at:
http://woodstock94.com/album/ and via Gopher at gopher.echonyc.com or
gopher://echonyc.com if you're using a WWW client. This was announced on
Thursday, but doesn't seem to be available yet as of this writing.
ANOTHER COOL GOVERNMENT SITE: Check out the Department of Energy's WWW
site at: http://www.doe.gov . No "Socks" the cat, but still pretty
interesting!
BECAUSE IT'S FREE!: In my continuing quest to tell you about free stuff,
I'd be remiss in not pointing out that LOTUS is giving away the new
version of their Lotus Organizer software- well sort of. The only
problem is that you have to be on CompuServe and I didn't get any
indication that it was free of connect time. Still, even at a whopping
4.1 meg, if you're on at 14.4, you can pull it down in less than an
hour. Available on CompuServe in the ZIFFNET area through Dec. 15.
VIRTUAL BOOKSTORE: Browse the aisles of the BookZone, a cyber bookstore
available via WWW at: http://ttx.com/bookzone .
THE BLACK CROWES: One of my favorite rock and roll bands of the 90's.
Their first album "Shake Your Money Maker" was a classic. This Monday,
lead singer Chris Robinson will be the guest on Warner Record's weekly
Cyber-Talk. Dec. 12 at 9:30 p.m. Eastern on America Online at Keyword:
WARNER .
THE ONLINE WORLD resources handbook by Odd de Presno is available
(shareware) via WWW at http://login.eunet.no/~presno/index.html and
gopher at gopher at cosn.org.Select Networking Information/Reference/The
Online World. A vast resource of online information from an
international perspective.
YOU'RE A MEAN ONE... Mr. Grinch! I know we've all probably had enough of
Santa..but I can't have anyone calling me a Grinch, so I have to get this
one last Santa plug in. Check out NovaLink's home page at:
http://www.novalink.com it has links to a Santa page (complete with a
form where you can actually check off whether you've been naughty or
nice- the default is nice) and The Salvation Army Page.
AH, WHAT THE HELL: Once you go over five pages it is a lost battle, so I
can't exclude the fact that Santa will be making a LIVE cyberspace
appearance on CompuServe on Friday, Dec. 16 at 9:30 p.m. Eastern.
To get there, use GO CONVENTION . Tell the big guy I've been nice!
KEEP YOUR EYES on your television guide and look for a listing on PBS
called "The Internet Show".
I WANTED TO include a review of the 2Market CD ROM I received this week.
To quote Arlo Guthrie, I'm not tired..or proud, but this week's issue has
gone on long enough already, so look for the review next week.
Happy Holidays! See you next week.
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"In, Around and Online"-A Weekly Summary of Consumer Online Services
Robert Seidman http://www.clark.net:80/pub/robert/home.html
robert@clark.net Anon FTP: ftp.clark.net pub/robert
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