FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
David Bottoms
(650) 937-4390
dbottoms@netscape.com
NETSCAPE SIMPLIFIES THE WEB EXPERIENCE THROUGH COMBINATION OF NEW NETCENTER
SERVICES AND NETSCAPE COMMUNICATOR 4.5
Netscape Makes it Fast and Easy to Find People and Web sites, Access Email
and Bookmarks From Anywhere, and Sign Up for Free Netcenter Services
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (July 16, 1998) — Netscape Communications
Corporation (NASDAQ:NSCP) today announced a series of new Netscape
Netcenter services that leverage ease-of-use technology advances in the
latest release of Netscape Communicator client software. The new Netcenter
services help consumers find people and Web sites quickly and easily.
Netcenter will also provide access to personal email, bookmarks and address
books from any computer on the Internet. In addition, Netscape Communicator
4.5 provides an easy way for consumers to sign up for Netcenter and be
universally registered for any and all of the free Netcenter services now
available.
“By making it faster and easier for millions of users to find people and
Web sites on the Net, the combination of these new Netcenter services and
Netscape Communicator 4.5 marks a significant new direction in the
evolution of online services,” said Mike Homer, executive vice president
and general manager of Netscapes Netcenter division. “As Netscape
aggressively builds Netcenter into a leading Internet portal site, we will
continue to forge new partnerships with content and service providers and
increasingly leverage our market-leading Netscape Communicator client
software to greatly improve the Internet experience for consumers and
business users.”
To make it easier to find and communicate with people on the Net, Netscape
has integrated the Netcenter Member Directory, an online membership
directory, with Communicator 4.5 to create a new service, called Smart
Addressing. Smart Addressing allows Netcenter members to find contact
information by searching against the Member Directory from within their
Communicator address book. When composing an email message, users can also
quickly and accurately auto-complete member email addresses from the
Netcenter Member Directory.
Another new Netcenter service tightly integrated with Netscape Communicator
4.5 is the ability to access personal information, such as bookmarks,
email, and address books, from virtually anywhere on the Net using just a
browser. For instance, consumers and business users can store, manage and
access Netcenter bookmarks and Netcenter address books via the site, as
well as synchronize the Netcenter-based versions with those stored locally
by Communicator on their PC. This ensures Netcenter members a personal,
consistent Internet experience regardless of whether they are at home, at
work, or traveling across the countrywherever they access the Internet,
their Netcenter-based bookmarks, email and address books are at their
fingertips.
To make it easier to find Web sites on the Net, Netscape Communicator 4.5
uses an innovative combination of Navigator features and Netcenter services
known collectively as Smart Browsing. A concept announced as part of the
Netscape Netcenter 2.0 launch, this first generation of Smart Browsing
include Internet Keywords, Whats Related, and NetWatch. Internet Keywords,
for example, is designed to free people from typing
“http://www.anysite.com” and allowing them to go to Web sites using real
words or simple phrases instead of complicated Internet addresses (URLs).
Today users can even take advantage of Internet Keywords to find help files
and FAQs for Netscape products and services. Simply type “Help Navigator”
or “Help Webmail” to jump to the Netcenter “Help” pages that describe the
products or services.
The database behind Internet Keywords currently holds more than 1.5 million
unique keywords and will continue to be refined over time. By fall, the
number of unique words in the Internet Keywords database is expected to
double, including foreign languages, such as French, German, Japanese and
Spanish words. Similarly, What’s Related provides users with a dynamically
generated list of links to information about companies, services and
products that relate to the same subject matter as the site the user is
visiting. The database behind Whats Related currently includes more than
12 million Web addresses and is expected to grow to exceed 20 million
addresses by fall.
Netscape also plans to make it easier for consumers to enroll in Netscape
Netcenter. Upon installation of Netscape Communicator 4.5, consumer users
will be presented with an easy, one-stop set-up process to automatically
register as a Netcenter member. Once enrolled in Netcenter, members gain
universal access to all the free Netcenter services, such as Member
Directory, Webmail, My Netscape, Smart Update, and the Netcenter-based
services such as personal bookmarks, email, address books previously
mentioned. And with new refinements to Smart Update in Communicator 4.5,
future software updates will be smaller and more efficient, substantially
reducing download time for people with 28.8k modem connections.
Netscape Netcenter is Netscape’s leading portal site that provides users
with a home base on the Internet. From Netcenter, users can navigate the
Internet, access a broad range of consumer and business content and
services and communicate with others online. Netscape recently launched
“Netscape Netcenter 2.0” that includes seventeen content channels, and
leading-edge services including new Netscape-branded Search, Software
Download, WebMail and Member Directory. The site includes directory
services such as What’s New, What’s Cool and Yellow Pages and White Pages
by InfoSpace. The new home page features horoscopes, weather, stock quotes,
and news headlines from ABCNEWS.com in an integrated navigation scheme that
makes the site easy to use.
Netscape Communications Corporation is a leading provider of open software
and services for linking people and information over enterprise networks
and the Internet. The company offers a full line of clients, servers,
development tools, commercial applications and professional services to
create a complete platform for next-generation, online applications. Traded
on NASDAQ under the symbol NSCP, Netscape Communications Corporation is
based in Mountain View, California.
Additional information on Netscape Communications Corporation is available
on the Internet at http://home.netscape.com, by sending email to
info@netscape.com or by calling 650/937-2555 (corporations) or 650/937-3777
(individuals).