Thursday July 16 6:01 AM ET
New Netscape suite debuts ... and blurs old lines
By Matthew Broersma, ZDNet
Netscape Communications Corp. will introduce a new version of its Communicator applications suite on Thursday that blurs
the old lines between software and the Internet.
Many of the new features are designed to closely integrate the software with Netscape's Internet hub, Netcenter.
Analysts view the integration that Netscape built into the "public beta" version of Communicator 4.5 as a crucial step in the
company's drive to grab a piece of the Internet portal market. It's also a bid by Netscape to keep pace with Microsoft, which
is erasing many of the traditional demarcations between a software document and the Internet.
At the very least, Netscape hopes the changes will influence the way users think about Internet software.
"America Online created a really simple user experience; it's easy to find things, to find people, to find information," said
Netcenter program manager Ken Hickman. "We want to bring some of those ease-of-use facets to the Internet -- to simplify
the Internet."
In practice, that means that many of the buttons and menus on the new version of Navigator, Netscape's browser, contain
content, often licensed from a third party.
For example, a feature called "What's Related" puts a pull-down menu on the browser, listing sites similar to the one the user is
currently viewing. The feature is licensed from Alexa Internet of San Francisco.
Portal plus browser "What's interesting is that the integration of the portal with the browser will have important implications for
the industry," said analyst Chris Charron of Forrester Research. "The software and the media become more closely aligned,
and that creates a whole set of issues around the selling of content and of advertising within the browser itself.
"It's less of a 'neutral' software application, and becomes the portal itself," Charron added.
In other ways Communicator ties directly into Netcenter, a strategy designed to convince more users to sign up and regularly
visit the site.
Some examples:
* Smart Browsing. This feature lets you type a common name, say, "American Airlines," into the location bar, instead of a
URL. If the browser recognizes the name, it will take you straight to the correct site. If not, it will either conduct a search over
Netcenter or deliver you to a subject-oriented page on Netcenter related to the query.
* Addresses and bookmarks. Netcenter lets you store e-mail address books and bookmarks on the site, and synchronize them
with Communicator. The idea is to let users keep the information in sync across several PCs.
* Smart Update. Netcenter contains a library of plug-ins and software patches that can automatically install themselves,
upgrading applications or adding functions without the user taking any extra steps.
Portal punch? But many observers are dubious that even integration with Netscape's browser, which holds a little over half of
the market, will make Netcenter a portal on par with those of Yahoo! Inc. and Excite Inc.
Netscape, which announced the portal strategy only a matter of weeks ago, has since added content such as Web-based
e-mail and news and information channels. The company has also begun an advertising campaign promoting the site in
partnership with Hollywood studios. The promotional drive will include advertising outside of the Internet by this fall.
"[Netscape] should use their browser strength to buttress their portal offerings, but there are a lot of things that are needed as
well," said Forrester's Charron. "They need to continue building out their consumer channels, offering tools, promoting off-line.
It's all of these things that will make it work."
The Communicator 4.5 beta is available free of charge on Netscape's Web site.
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