The contrasts between Internet World 95 and 96 are amazing. It is incredible to see the massive changes and developments with the Internet in just one year. The secret of the Internet's newfound success: The Intranet.
Towards the end of 1995, the word Intranet began to find its way into the press and the vocabulary of business people. The concept taking the business world by storm is that the Internet and related technologies can be used as a business tool. This means that businesses can use the technology to cut down expenses, save time, and make money, with a technology that most had considered as another form of entertainment.
This year's Internet World was a direct reflection of the interest of business use of the Internet. Last year the show was an even split between individual users and business users. This year the individual user could hardly be found, and businesses catering to the individual users like America Online, Compuserve and Netcom found their booths to be noticeably empty of people. The crowds were at booths with time saving products like Point Cast (with their news service Point Cast Network) and Ziff Davis (with their joint venture with Yahoo called Yahoo Computing ).
With business as the focus, the battle lines between rivals Netscape and Microsoft were clear. Even though the battle is still raging, this show proved why the smart money is on Microsoft . In his keynote address, Bill Gates called the Internet the "biggest development since the PC", and showed how Microsoft plans to integrate the Internet with the PC. Throughout his address, Gates emphasized that not only is Microsoft striving for the most successful products, they are going to try to set the standards. Microsoft's motto for the show: Speak softly and carry a big stick. In their case, Microsoft's big stick is their operating system.
Bill Joy, Chief Technical Officer of Sun Microsystems, echoed the role of the operating system in the Internet with his announcement that Java is being licensed and included with all the major operating systems (Microsoft, IBM, Apple , and Hewlett Packard ). With this announcement, Sun helps Java to be one of the next major tools for Internet development, and illustrates that they've learned from Apple's mistakes.
If last year's big attraction was browsers, this year it was Web authoring tools. Making a big push, Macromedia, Corel and Microsoft all showed off their new WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) Web page editors. The Web editors all came from companies acquired by Macromedia, Corel and Microsoft in the last few months. Of the three, Microsoft showed its clear dominance with the announcement by AT&T to license Front Page as their exclusive web authoring tool.
The authoring craze did not end with Web page editors. Everyone was a-buzz about tools that integrate databases with Web pages. In his keynote, Steve Jobs, founder of Next Computers , spoke about the ability to create custom Web pages on-the-fly based on an individual's selections . Jobs presented Next's Web Objects as the solution, but success seems to be more and more dependent on the ability to run on Microsoft's NT server, which Web Objects doesn't.
Everyone seemed to be searching for the best search engine, and there were no shortage of candidates. Winning the "Best Service of the Show" award, Digital Computers showed why Altavista is number one. Not to be out done, Infoseek announced that in June it will be releasing Ultraseek, a service designed to go toe to toe with Altavista . Yahoo and Ziff Davis presented the notion that people want more than the ability to just find something as they announced their joint venture, Yahoo Computing. Yahoo Computing provides more than just a set of links, it creates a users community with reviews, message areas, chats and relevant columns. With Yahoo Computing, Yahoo shows that it can still be an innovator when it comes to searching.
The fastest growing area when it comes to searching has to be Internet Yellow Pages. With companies like GTE getting into the ring, the race for the definitive Yellow Pages has begun. Entrants in the race include the much talked about Big Book, GTEsuperpages, and Yellow Pages Online (which was presented with a plaque of appreciation from Microsoft for converting from Netscape's Server to Microsoft's Internet Information Server).
The searching boom has created a new field of time saving products called Agents, a technology which allows you to customize the way you interact with the Internet. A few companies provided a peek of some of the things to come. First Floor demonstrated Smart Marks, which lets you know when a site you have bookmarked has been updated. Hitachi's computing division showed off Zoo Works, which lets you search through the sites you've visited by keywords. The best of the Agents had to be Point Cast Network , which allows you to select the news, stocks, and information you want to see, and then delivers them free right to your desktop.
Electronic commerce got a facelift at the show with the notion that encrypting credit cards is only the first step, and that the real key lies in automating the entire sales process. The real losers in this category are the already struggling "cybercash" companies trying to effectively reinvent the commerce wheel. Again, the real winner here is Microsoft , whose partnership with Visa and MasterCard called SET (Secure Electronic Transmission) is poised to be the defacto standard of doing business over the Internet.
With Intranet as the new mantra of the Internet, the real winners of the next year will be the companies that can help businesses leverage the Internet as a business tool. Companies that will still be around for next year's mega show (which had to be moved to Los Angeles to accommodate its size), will be the ones that innovate and integrate, with the smart money on the companies that focus on putting out great products, not just quick products.
Related Links
Altavista http://altavista.digital.com
Big Book http://www.bigbook.com
Corel http://www.corel.com
First Floor http://www.firstfloor.com
GTE http://www.gte.com
Infoseek http://www.infoseek.com
Macromedia http://www.macromedia.com
Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com
Netscape htttp://www.netscape.com
Next http://www.next.com
Point Cast http://www.pointcast.com
Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com
Yahoo Computing http://www.yahoocomputing.com
Yellow Pages Online http://www.ypo.com
Zooworks http://www.zoosoft.com
Ziff Davis http://www.zdnet.com
Please e-mail your questions and comments to [email protected]
Copyright 1998 by Geoffrey Kleinman, All Rights Reserved