Wall Street Journal article:
Netscape Uses Its Browser
To Beef Up Web Business
By KARA SWISHER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Netscape Communications Corp., taking a page out of the playbook of rival Microsoft Corp., is using the popularity of its software to help build another business.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company on Monday will unveil a major revamping of its Web site, which exploits a series of new links to Netscape's browser. The software is being upgraded to include special buttons that move users more quickly to features of its Netcenter site, and allows them to configure the browser and service to work more like an integrated computer desktop.
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Further underscoring the link between software and services, Netscape also will announce that it's merging its browser division into the Web-site division, led by Mike Homer, an executive vice president who recently took over responsibility for Netcenter.
"Our goal is to turn the 70 million users of our software into the world's biggest media network," said Mr. Homer. "Being able to leverage our browser, so that features of it link into the Web site seamlessly, is a great differentiation for us over our competitors."
Netscape's Web site has become critically important to the company, which has been struggling financially because of competition from Microsoft. To match Microsoft, Netscape this year began giving away its browser, dropping what was once the company's biggest source of revenue.
But other companies, including Yahoo! Inc., America Online Inc. and Microsoft, are vying with Netscape to create so-called portal sites on the Web. Netscape has already added several features to beef up Netcenter, including free electronic mail, additional information services and a search capability being developed with Excite Inc.
The new software links are in a new version of the browser that will be available in the next two weeks. They include what Netscape calls "smart browsing," which embeds capabilities, such as keyword searches, directly into the browser. Another, called "smart" updating, adds a button in the browser that shortens the process of downloading software upgrades. A feature formerly code-named Manhattan and now called "My Netscape," which lets users personalize the Netcenter home page, will be accessible from a button on the browser.
Netscape's moves are somewhat ironic, since it has been the most vocal critic of the integration techniques of Microsoft that are at issue in the current government antitrust suits against the software giant. Microsoft's Windows 98 software tightly integrates its Web-browsing capabilities, and offers links to Internet-service providers and information services. The difference, argues Netscape's Mr. Homer, is that his company doesn't wield monopoly power in the browser market.
"We think the relationship is fine and legal," he said. "We are not a monopoly. We are simply making two of our products work together."
Some analysts think Netscape's integration strategy makes sense. "When they tweak their browser and site to work together easily, they can really turn themselves from a landing site into a destination," argued Alan Braverman, analyst at New York-based CS First Boston.
But Netscape's move could anger competing Web services, many of whom maintain links to Netcenter. "Netscape has to dance a careful dance because they cannot seem as if their browser only favors them," said Rob Enderle, an analyst with Giga Information Group, a Cambridge, Mass. research firm. "It has to work well with all sites or they might band together and decide to recommend someone else's browser."
Netscape's Mr. Homer said Netscape's browser will continue to work with other sites, and that Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser will operate smoothly on Netcenter. Separately, Eric Hahn, Netscape's chief technology officer, disclosed that he will leave the company this week to work with early-stage companies as an investor.
Mr. Hahn, once one of the company's most prominent executives, came to Netscape after it purchased Collabra Software in 1995. He was appointed to his current post in October, succeeding Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, who has since been in charge of the company's products division. No one will succeed Mr. Hahn, said company officials, and it is more likely that product development divisions under Mr. Andreessen will have individual technology heads.
In an interview, Mr. Hahn said his departure wasn't related to Netscape's recent financial problems or organizational changes. "Mentoring start-ups is my first love," he said. |
