In, Around and Online- Issue 2.2 - Week Ending 1/13/95 ===================================================== Copyright (C) 1995 Robert "Don't Call Me Bob" Seidman. All rights reserved. May be reproduced in any medium for non-commercial purposes. In This Issue... ================ - Billy "Bob" is Everywhere! (Microsoft Announces Internet Plans) - CompuServe Announces Hourly Rate Drop - Prodigy's World Wide Web Browser - AT&T's Interchange Will Serve Up Some Real Competition - Additional Interchange Online Network Commentary- By Scott Magoon - Newsworthy Notes - Short Takes - Stock Watch Billy "BOB" is Everywhere! (Microsoft Announces Internet Plans) ============================================================== What do you call an interface with no arms and no legs that floats in the water? I'm eternally grateful to my mother for instilling anti-Bob tendencies in this Robert at a young age. What does Microsoft's forthcoming front end assistant for Windows, "BOB" have to do with the online service industry? Not a darn thing. Enough said. This week at an online conference sponsored by the Washington Software Association, Microsoft chairman and CEO, Bill Gates, announced plans to provide full Internet access via Windows '95. With the onslaught of stories I read about this, I might have gotten the idea that this was a new direction for Microsoft. It isn't; Microsoft has been talking about "point and click" access to the Internet as a part of its forthcoming Windows '95 operating system for months. Anyone really using the Internet knows that the only true point and click access comes at the expense of being preconfigured for one particular service. MS simply laid their cards on the table by announcing that MS had formed a strategic relationship (a minority investment) with UUNET Technologies Inc. What this means in the simplest terms is that MS now can pre-configure SLIP/PPP connections to UUNET. Voila', "point and click". If it isn't preconfigured for one service then the user has to do "something". No matter how "trivial" that something may or may not be it removes "point and click" by at least one step. IBM had the right idea with the "Information Highway" access kit included on the OS/2 WARP bonus disk. Once installed, the software is preconfigured to work over the Advantis network. It works and it is easy. Unfortunately, it's pretty darn expensive at $4.00/hour. The service can be configured for use with other providers, but that's adding a step most users don't want to deal with. So, how does this affect "The Microsoft Network" (MSN) online service that is planned. My guess is, that the Internet access will be wrapped around it. If they're smart, (and make no mistake about it, they are not dummmmmb) they'll package MSN so that it is accessible via TCP/IP. Since it is "point and click" the access will be transparent to the user. Make no mistake about it, MSN will be a full fledged online service. On the other hand, Microsoft may not truly be offering the full sort of SLIP/PPP Internet access that many are familiar with. How might it differ? For one, MSN will have newsgroups as a part of the Online Service. I'd predict that rather than offering an NNTP server that allows users to read news from any of the winsock compatible newsreaders that news will only be offered via MSN. Is this bad? If not for the flexibility of MSN, I might say that it was. But since MSN is an integral part of the operating system, you can manage newsgroups from your desktop. A user could create a folder on MSN containing the newsgroups the user wants to read. The user could then create a "shortcut" right on the desktop, simply clicking on the shortcut would (at least in theory) go out and update your newsgroup. "Point and click". What about the World Wide Web? It's in there. Microsoft has announced that they've licensed technology from SpyGlass Inc. that includes a licensed version of NCSA's Mosaic so you can expect to see a WWW browser as a part of Windows '95 operating system. Many are saying, "Big Deal, Netscape now owns the browser market." While that may be true, there is a far bigger truth: If analysts are even close to correct, 80% of the folks that will be on the Internet in 5 years have never seen it or thought about it. Besides, whether Microsoft provides the be all end all WWW browser is irrelevant. If someone wants to use Netscape, then they'll use it. I don't envision MS blocking use of 3rd party Internet applications. Netscape seems to run just fine on the Windows '95 beta. Many industry analysts have cast a cloud of doom for all the other players once Windows '95 is shipped. A couple of analysts have even speculated that it is Microsoft that will face the tough competitive challenge. Who are these analysts and why is anybody paying for their opinions? (Note: please keep in mind that this newsletter is FREE!) Assuming that the Internet/Online service grow at the explosive rates predicted, they'll be plenty of money for a lot of people for a while. Even though their products have not fully been developed or released, Microsoft is in the strongest position to be a dominant player. Still, as MS will probably offer some form of metered Internet service, this does not spell the death of local and smaller Internet providers. At least in the short term, it just spells more competition. That is good for all of us. CompuServe Announces Hourly Rate Drop ===================================== Rumored for weeks, this week CompuServe officially announced rate changes that will go into effect on 2/5/95. CompuServe will be cutting 9.6 and 14.4Kbps hourly access in half, going from $9.60/hr. to $4.80/hr. Additionally CompuServe will be jacking up the price of the monthly fee for basic service from $8.95 to $9.95. Is $4.80/hr. a good deal for CompuServe access? Well, it's a heck of a lot better than $9.60! Ultimately, it depends on what you're accessing and how much time you'd normally spend accessing it somewhere else. If what you're looking for doesn't exist on any consumer service other than CompuServe or can be accessed more quickly (via off-line reading) than other services, then it's a pretty good deal. While CompuServe still has more content than anyone, much of what the average user wants access to can be found elsewhere; sometimes for a lot less. Internet access at $4.80/hr. is not a good deal no matter how you look at it. However, when CompuServe rolls out their stand alone Internet service, it may be priced far more competitively. The one thing CompuServe has going for it is that the bare essentials like news, weather and sports are available within the $9.95/mo. fee at no extra cost. Still, America Online and Prodigy are cutting the distance in CompuServe's lead. Why not just go ahead and cut the hourly rate to $2.95 an hour and blow the other guys out of the water? It would seem Microsoft plays into this decision. When Microsoft rolls out their services, CompuServe will ultimately have to do something. When that happens, look for the rate drop to drop closer to the $2.95/hr mark. Prodigy's World Wide Web Browser ================================ I thought this might be a long story. As it turns out, it's a very short one. Prodigy's World Wide Web browser that is scheduled for release this coming Tuesday (1/17) is very nice. It is as slow as one might expect at 9.6 Kbps, but if you turn graphics off it runs just fine. Even with the graphics turned on, it is not as slow as I expected it to be. If Prodigy doesn't bog down due to all the people that are about to go pounding on the WWW, they've done very well. It has just about every imaginable feature out there. Rather than being competitive with the standard NCSA version of Mosaic, it is competitive with commercial quality browsers like Netscape. It can be set to paint text first (this is actually the default), you can set up hot lists, caching, and a number of other customized details. I could only find one minor nit to pick with it. In pages that have links within the pages themselves rather than on another page, it is nice to be able to click on "back" to take you to the previous link within the same page. For example, in the WWW version of this newsletter (http://www.clark.net:80/pub/robert/current.html) if you click on one of the headlines at the top of the newsletter, it takes you to that section of the newsletter. Using the Netscape browser, clicking the "back" button would take you back to the list of headlines. With the Prodigy browser, clicking back would take you to the page you were on before. Not a major deal though. Prodigy wins the Online Services race to the WWW. We'll have to see what CompuServe and America Online serve up next. Prodigy has set the standard to shoot for in the online services industry. AT&T's Interchange Will Serve Up Some Real Competition ====================================================== After months of using this newsletter as a vehicle to whine and gripe about not being on the Interchange beta, with a little help from some friends of the newsletter, I finally got on. I need to preface this review in a couple of ways. First, since the service is in beta, I will not cover any performance topics. If the service has performance issues once it is released, I'll be the first person to write about them. Secondly, I wanted to hate Interchange. Yep, I wanted it to suck very badly! Why? Because I write this newsletter for free and it takes time. If Interchange were to suck, I could just say that it was a piece of crap and move on and not have to dedicate any time to it on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, for me, it doesn't suck. Fortunately for me, the time that it saves me, that's right, SAVES me, more than offsets the amount of time that it has taken to investigate Interchange. Interchange appears to be very much like Microsoft Network, only much further along. In structure and organization, there are many similarities. Interchange is light in content during the beta, but still has more to offer than MSN is currently providing. While there isn't much content there currently, for me the content that is there is excellent. Eight of Ziff Davis' best computer publications, including PC Week, are there. Also included is Coop's Corner, a daily column from Charles Cooper that covers the latest and greatest happenings in the computer industry. So you say, "What's the big deal about 8 computer publications?". Well, if you like to read this newsletter, many of the columns and features covered in the suite of 8 magazines would appeal to you. For me though, the extra special bonus is The Washington Post Extra, an electronic version of The Washington Post created by the Post subsidiary Digital Ink. My hat is off to Digital Ink for a job well done. While I'm enamored with this content and think that Digital Ink has done an exceptional job in creating an interactive Newspaper, I do realize that the appeal is regional. Built into Interchange is some very basic smart agent technology. It is so basic that an elitist might call it dumb smart agent technology. But what they have works well. The reason this doesn't get more raves from me is because it puts the responsibility on the user to surf the system and find out what content is there. As you're surfing, you can mark items that interest you and choose the "keep updated" feature. If the item has sub items under it, you can choose to automatically keep those updated too. Interchange users can set up Interchange to automatically pull the items that interest you. Each area and most sub areas are broken down into logical topical content areas. For example, the Washington Post has the Sports page and it is broken out into several areas like NFL Football, NBA Basketball, NHL Hockey, etc. I can set Interchange up to go pull the entire Newspaper, or an entire section, or just a sub section I want like NFL Football or Tony Kornheiser's column. Then I can read the information off-line and not in plain ASCII text either. The same can be done with all the areas on Interchange. Interchange has an elegant Interface and there are a couple of ways to navigate it. There is the main directory which allows one to jump off to areas. You can even create your own "custom" area that contains only the information you want. Or, if you pull all the information you want from your computer you can manage it from the Interchange "inbox", which is a very nice folder based mail/document client. You can create and read mail there too; whether you're online or not. Internet access? They already have Internet e-mail, plus more direct connections to CompuServe and MCI Mail (I'd look them to add AT&T mail to the list REAL soon), and they plan to add newsgroups, WWW, etc. and allow inbound access to Interchange via a TCP/IP as well; "...in fact we'll apply many of the unique features of Interchange -- online/off-line use, "Keep Updated", our discussion browsers, etc. -- to significantly advance the state of the art in Internet browsing," according to Interchange President, Michael Kolowich. This would definitely make my reading of the newsgroups easier. The capability to create documents, including pictures and eventually sound exists. Already users can use standard word processing features in their e-mail and messages such as bolding, underlining and changing colors. Also, users can imbed links (icons) within other documents. For example, if I wanted to post a message to one of The Washington Post Extra's discussion threads about the latest Tony Kornheiser article, I could copy the link to the column right into the message. Readers of the message could click on the link, and the Kornheiser column would pop up. If the user was off-line at the time, clicking on the Link would give the user the opportunity to sign on to the service to pull the column, or to add it to the Inbox to be retrieved later. The message forums are very very usable. They've come up with a simplistic way to create threaded message forums. Threads and sub-threads (they call them branches) are easy to add and navigate. While there are a couple of tools that could be added to make navigation even easier, they're off to a good start. I asked Mr. Kolowich what else we might expect to see in the way of multimedia. "The idea is to get the basic information in, and start enhancing it," according to Kolowich. "We're working, for example, on the more powerful loaders which will enable us to automatically load in all the infographics from PC Magazine reviews," Kolowich adds. Noticeably missing in Beta are any type of chat or instant messaging features. I asked Mr. Kolowich what Interchange users could expect in the way of these services in comparison to services offered on America Online and Prodigy. "...to simply imitate their chat methods would be pretty ridiculous. As we did in discussions, we wanted to critique what they did, and come up with a next-generation chat/conferencing facility. That's under design, and will be released sometime around the middle of the year," replied Kolowich. Mr. Kolowich expects Interchange to be released to the general public sometime in the next 3-4 months. Many of the content providers that have already been signed do not have their services up and running in Beta. Kolowich points out that Interchange is a network of independent publishers rather than a general purpose online service. While many of the basics will be there (news, weather sports, etc.) and will be priced very competitively, much of the content on Interchange will be add on services such as The Washington Post Extra. This will work similar to the way the LA Times is available on Prodigy. Users may sign up for TimesLink directly without using the Prodigy service, or they may sign up for Prodigy and add on TimesLink. The individual publishers will set the price for the add on services. Interchange bills itself as the "next generation of online services". In terms of the client software, it lives up to it's billing. For the computer set, there is a good shot that Interchange will quickly turn into the service of choice (though they have Mac publications, there is no software for the Mac platform yet). As for the non-computer set, expanded content is a must. More content and additional software tools position Interchange as legitimate competition for CompuServe, America Online, Prodigy and even Microsoft. Here's a short piece from "In, Around and Online" reader and Interchange beta tester, Scott Magoon. Scott brings up some interesting viewpoints... Additional Interchange Online Network Commentary- By Scott Magoon ================================================================= The Interchange Online Network or Do you continue to work while your online service gathers information in the background? ... You Will In many ways the Interchange Online Network appears to be a cross between Ziff-Davis' long-running Ziffnet on CompuServe and the "graphical text" orientation of America Online. ION features shareware, utilities, demos, and other files of the day on the opening screen. There is a useful object orientation in that icons representative of files, documents, and conversation threads can be cut and pasted into messages (e.g. "for more information check out this ... ") or your personal inbox. The inbox itself is an automating feature. Pasted links can be designated as "keep updated," and "keep contents updated." So for example, I have the Interchange Wish List message thread from the beta forum in my inbox. I also have Newsbytes and today's top stories all updated in my inbox at logon so I can read them offline. A status bar in the lower right corner shows progress and how many tasks completed. All of this functions as a background task and is not supposed to affect performance - it's too early to tell on that one. The most compelling reason to use any online service is, of course, content. And here ION has an uphill battle. The Washington Post implementation looks and feels very much like an online newspaper should. There are links to related articles. The text columns scroll, but the title and index stay put. And there are links to discussions of the top stories, making this the most interactive newspaper I've seen yet. While there are still many newspapers from which to chose, they have a geographically limited appeal. Magazines have the relevant content and digestibility that works well online, but the field is narrowing. Newsweek on Prodigy, and Time on AOL and the web, are setting the pace for interactive magazines. The big names are going online quickly but there are still a few to choose from. I think that Forbes would be a good fit. Where ION will ultimately shine is in synergy. The kind of synergy that Microsoft hopes to use to take the online world by storm. In a message thread on the purchase of Interchange by AT&T, Interchange president Michael Kolowich responded to a question regarding potential synergy with the ImagiNation Network recently purchased by AT&T. He offered a word-balloon link to an article stating that the two services were purchased by separate divisions and probably would never work together. However, Interchange and the Lotus Notes deal are both part of AT&T's Business Communications Services division. Now the pieces can fall into place. Imagine an online service, running on AT&T's network, offering Notes for the masses, with intelligent agents routing messages to your personal mobile 500 number. Home offices could be linked into small business associations with pay for use databases. All for the price of ... well nobody seems to know yet how much the service will cost. Or if AT&T can reverse its less than stellar record in the software/service industry for that matter. But they will have to think big and launch a preemptive strike on Microsoft, because if anyone is going to offer this kind of synergistic service ... They Will. Scott Magoon can be reached by e-mail at: scottmag@mindspring.com NEWSWORTHY NOTES ================ The New York Times Company will provide the first (according to the press release) text and illustrated serial drama (AKA soap opera style text/comic). Users of America Online will be able to access the weekly serial dubbed "Parallel Lives", via the @times area sometime during the first quarter of 1995. The serial will be sponsored by Nabisco. Look for the initial 3 in 1 pilot (three separate story lines) soon, but be prepared for cliffhangers! ---- A NEW SURVEY by the Information & Interactive Services Report claims that at the end of 1994 there were 6,320,650 users of online services; a 38% increase over the previous year. The Washington, DC based newsletter attributes much of the growth to a surge in AOL membership during the last three months of the year. From the press release, here's how the survey ranked subscribership: "The six largest consumer-oriented online operators at the end of 1994 are CompuServe, with 2.45 million users; America Online, with 1.5 million users; Prodigy, with 1.2 million users; Delphi, with 100,000 users; GEnie, with 75,000 users; and eWorld, with 65,000 users. Interestingly, the newsletter points out "churn" as a big issue and paints a scenario that compares well to the Long Distance telecommunications industry where users hop back and forth from service to service in order to get the best deal. ---- According to a report from Reuters, Apple Computer has made a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission informing that they're contemplating an agreement where they might "hedge certain investment risks associated with rights under warrants to purchase common shares that it holds in America Online". Apple currently holds 1 million common shares of AOL, or just over 6% of the company. As of the Reuters report, Apple had not made any final determination as to the advisability of such a transaction. ---- The Wall Street Journal reported that IBM was trying to take management control of Prodigy. The story says that there have been no talks about IBM buying out Sear's 50% stake in Prodigy. IBM just wants to streamline operations and make Prodigy profitable. A Sears Spokesperson said there have been no changes. ---- Europe Online, S.A. will license the Interchange Online Network software for it's European multimedia online service. ---- SHORT TAKES =========== CHEVROLET WILL PROVIDE "all the excitement" of the America's Cup competition by following the America(cubed) crew. On Prodigy, Jump: CHEVROLET. Look for Chevy to make the info available on the Internet soon. A NEW CAR- Well, it's only a Nissan Sentra, but somebody's finally giving a way a car on the Internet. User's can enter this contest provided by Seattle based "Dealernet" by visiting their WWW page at: http://www.dealernet.com . Or, you can e-mail wincar@dealernet.com with the message: "I want the car!" The winner will be selected at random from the pool of entrants and notified by e-mail on April 5th. ABC PRIMETIME presents an auditorium with Ted Harbert, President, ABC Entertainment on America Online. January 19 from 9:00 - 10:00 PM, EST Keyword: Odeon. FORTUNE MAGAZINE is now on CompuServe. GO: Fortune. I'll try to take a deeper look at it next week. COMEDIAN JIM GARNER has rewritten the classic fairy tales we now recognize as sexist, discriminatory, and culturally biased, so they won't offend anyone, in his book "Politically Correct Bedtime Stories." On the Prodigy Comedy BB through 1/26. WIN A TRIP on the Goodyear Blimp! To find out more, check out the Goodyear area on CompuServe, GO: GOODYEAR . FEELING LIKE A GOURMET delicacy? Well, I feel like I just got run over by a car today, but a gourmet Mediterranean Gift Basket might cheer me up. Check out Sid Wainer & Sons Specialty Foods at: http://www.ag.com/Specialty/Foods for more scrumptious eats. This page is produced by The Access Group, those wonderful guys and gals that brought us Prophylactic Pete- "The Condom Cowboy". Pete is definitely still worth a look (and a laugh!) at: http://www.ag.com/Condom/Country/ Stock Watch =========== Last This Week's Week's Company Ticker Close Close ------- ------ ------ ------ America Online AMER $53.63 $50.00 Netcom NETC $23.63 $22.25 Apple AAPL $44.88 AT&T T $48.25 $49.00 General Electric GE $50.88 $52.00 H&R Block HRB $36.88 $35.24 IBM IBM $75.13 $76.37 MCI MCIC $18.06 $18.25 Microsoft MSFT $60.63 $62.75 Sears S $47.75 $47.88 See you next week.