Internet Outlook with Richard Wiggins | 78

EXTRA! Highlights from Internet World Summer Show

By Richard Wiggins

Microsoft Alliance Leads to Free RealAudio / RealVideo Servers

Paul Thelen, Progressive's marketing manager for RealVideo, told me that Microsoft also will install RealAudio and RealVideo server capability into its new Site Server releases. At the same time, Progressive announced that its streaming server will now be available for free for low-volume applications: any company can use one 60-stream server license without charge.

Finally, Microsoft will bundle RealVideo player software in all distributions of Internet Explorer -- including when the Explorer is pre-installed on PCs for retail sale. Thelen says some users complain about the overhead of having to install Real players, "and this means ubiquitous player distribution."

Progressive thus enhances its role as market leader on both the server side and the desktop. On the server side, any customer using Microsoft server software already has Progressive's technology ready to use. Any low volume site, which previously may have relied on the inferior alternative of pseudo-streaming, now serves for free. And on the desktop side, users can tap into Real formats without downloading and configuring a plugin. The net effect of Microsoft's moves solidifies Progressive's already formidable position as leader in the streaming multimedia arena.

A Rival to CU-SeeMe?

Dorcey accepted the challenge. Even though CU-SeeMe was his first serious programming effort, it became wildly popular. Eventually a Windows version was offered, and Cornell commercialized CU-SeeMe through White Pine Software.

Now, Dorcey comes forth with iVisit, marketed by a California firm, Boxtop. Dorcey says his second generation Internet video conferencing product is far better tuned to the Internet. In an interview he touted the fact that iVisit does not require reflectors for groups to set up a conference; he's developed a relay architecture that forwards audio and video bitstreams efficiently around a virtual circle of participants. This would make it easy for anyone to form a group of participants without having to install reflector software.

Dorcey also says he's made the problem of finding groups of people to communicate with "much more like the ways in which people meet people in real life." With CU-SeeMe, finding people is accomplished primarily through non-CU-SeeMe channels, such as Web pages, Usenet postings, and the Four11 service. If Dorcey's claims are true, a product that performs better than CU-SeeMe, that doesn't require reflectors, and solves the problem of finding people and affinity groups will prove formidable competition for CU-SeeMe.

Alexa: Merging Web Searching and Group Experiences

Alexa is service that allows the Web surfing experiences of many users to be tracked centrally. The Alexa search engine takes into account how popular sites are when weighting results of searches to present to users. In order to use Alexa, you must download the Alexa client program, which works in conjunction with your Web browser. Kahle told me they experimented with Java for this function, but found they couldn't build an applet that performed as well as compiled client code.

The product was announced this month but client programs are being distributed on controlled release while the Alexa staff adds robustness to the service. Kahle demonstrated Alexa for me showing how individuals' surfing habits are added to the central Alexa database. Kahle emphasized that personal information is not gathered by the Alexa service: "We couldn't even honor a court order to reveal what your favorite sites are because we don't gather that data. We gather aggregate data, not individual data."

Alexa ties into another Kahle venture, the Internet Archive. This non-profit undertaking seeks to build an archive of all of the content on the Web (and on Usenet) on a regular basis. Kahle told me his motivation is "capturing our digital heritage for future generations." He says they now have several terabytes of data in the Archive. In general, the Archive is not open for mass exploration; however, a few scholars are already examining its contents.

Sometimes Web sites experience meltdowns of one sort or another. For instance, when the Heaven's Gate mass suicide became known, the cult's Web site was so overloaded that pages were inaccessible. In other cases, pages or entire sites may go offline permanently. Alexa will have access to the Internet Archive. Kahle says the Alexa user will not see the dreaded Error 404 for a page that's no longer accessible; instead, he or she will see a copy from the Internet Archive.

The group surfing concept is a fascinating one. It's been discussed in various forms for as long as we've had a Web, but to my knowledge this is the first serious attempt at implementing the concept. I fear that there may be significant obstacles for Alexa to overcome: people don't want to install yet another client, and people will need a compelling reason to try yet another search engine. But if Alexa delivers on the promise of getting people the content they really want or need, its future is bright.

Digex: A Regional ISP Steps Up to the National Stage

I chatted with Clyde Heitzelman, president of Digex' Business Internet Connectivity Group, about the role of ISPs in the future. Specifically I asked if telephone companies won't eventually wipe out a lot of ISPs, once they figure out how to offer good Internet services, simply because they own the phone lines. Heitzelman, whose worked many years for major telephone players, said that regulators will require phone companies to offer bandwidth to their Internet business units at the same prices external ISPs pay, and that external ISPs like Digex will be able to compete effectively.

Are Internet Trade Shows Changing?

The feel of this show was different than past Internet Worlds. Past shows would appeal equally to consumers, to Internet newbies, and to businesses. Here, electronic commerce seemed to be the biggest focus, with major technology firms such IBM, Sun, HP, and Oracle emphasizing tools for doing business over the Internet. Companies in the Internet business feel they will make money from other businesses, not from end consumers.

Turnstile counts at trade shows are as unreliable as police crowd estimates at riots, but Internet World claims to attract up to 50,000 attendees at each of its shows. With several shows in the US and around the world, more people may physically attend an Internet World show than the 300,000 who subscribe to the magazine of the same name. It seems neither a glossy magazine nor all the content on the Web can compete with the old fashioned face to face convention.