Exclusive agreement for Spyglass...Article: SurfWatch and Excite@Home Team to Provide Safe, High-Speed Internet AccessKeeping Porn, Violence and Drugs OFF the Family Computer And Out of Your Corner Computer Store
LOS GATOS, Calif. and REDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- SurfWatch Software, a division of Spyglass, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPYG) and Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), a global media company, today announced an agreement that names SurfWatch as the sole provider of filtering technology for Excite@Home's broadband Internet service. The SurfWatch award-winning filters will be bundled with Excite@Home's point-of-sale retail demonstrations and available for download from the @Home service to @Home subscribers.
In the home, Excite@Home provides broadband Internet service to consumers nationwide through their local cable company partners. Excite@Home broadband subscribers will be able to download and use SurfWatch filtering software free-of-charge and will also have access to content filter updates free for 90 days. Together, the software and filters allow users to block access to Web pages they may deem offensive or inappropriate, such as sexually explicit sites, violent sites, hate speech, gambling and sites that glorify the use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco. With SurfWatch, @Home subscribers will have a powerful tool to keep their kids safe online.
In retail stores, Excite@Home currently promotes their high-speed cable Internet service with point-of-sale demonstration centers in major computer and software outlets. SurfWatch filtering will be bundled in the @Home Retail Browser version 1.1 to block access to inappropriate, offensive and dangerous Internet materials for users of these retail demos -- a comfort to the dozens of CompUSA and other independent store owners who give the public access to the Internet through @Home displays. The @Home demonstration centers are a powerful subscriber acquisition tool, allowing consumers to "try out" the @Home service, and giving them the opportunity to sign up on the spot. The retail demonstrations have proven effective for promoting the @Home service and are already in use in over 100 stores nationwide.
In conjunction with SurfWatch filtering software, Excite@Home today announced the launch of the KidSafe resource channel on the broadband service. The KidSafe channel provides general information, tips, recommendations, and other resources designed to help parents make the Internet a positive and enriching experience for their children. Excite@Home is committed to providing safe, high-speed Internet service for all of its subscribers.
"We're very thrilled to be working with Excite@Home, a premiere and forward-thinking Internet partner," said Theresa Marcroft, director of SurfWatch marketing. "Bundling our patented technology with Internet access products like Excite@Home's high speed Internet service and @Home's Retail Demo Browser allows consumers to have a safe Internet experience, suitable for young children at home as well as for the general public in retail environments."
"Excite@Home is always looking for new ways to add value to our customers and enhance their @Home experience," said Dean Gilbert, senior vice president and general manager of Exicte@Home. "That's why we selected SurfWatch to provide filtering for our Internet service and Retail Browser. After carefully examining the filtering products, we chose the best and most accurate technology available, from the company that pioneered filtering."
SurfWatch products allow Internet users to screen out inappropriate content in five categories: sexually explicit materials, hate speech, gambling, sites that glorify drugs, alcohol or tobacco, and violent sites. ChatBlock(TM) enables parents to block children from accessing chat rooms -- one of the most dangerous places online for young people. SurfWatch employs cutting edge technology to continuously update its filters, which users can download daily for maximum protection against the newer sites on the Web. SurfWatch Software is also being distributed by most major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in an effort to make it more readily available in homes.
About Excite@Home
Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM) is a global media company based in Redwood City, Calif. Through the company's narrowband portal, Excite (www.excite.com), and broadband services, @Home and @Work, the company uniquely offers consumers content and interactive services across both narrowband and broadband, and advertisers highly targeted marketing solutions across all platforms of delivery. Leveraging the high-speed, always-on attributes of cable, Excite@Home empowers unique multimedia applications that go beyond current Web experiences. The company will combine the Excite brand -- one of the best- known names on the Internet with 70 percent recognition among Web users -- with @Home's broad distribution, a worldwide footprint of more than 65 million cable homes, to deliver on its vision of "All Band, All Device, All the Time."
About SurfWatch
SurfWatch invented Internet content filtering in early 1995 and is the industry leader today providing the only patented filtering software. SurfWatch allows parents, teachers and employers to screen out unwanted content, sexually explicit and other inappropriate materials from their computers -- without restricting the access rights of other Internet users. SurfWatch client products contain six core filtering categories, including chat. SurfWatch software filters the World Wide Web, Internet, FTP, Gopher and Web-based chat connections. For more information, see the SurfWatch Web site at surfwatch.com.
SOURCE SurfWatch Software
CO: SurfWatch Software; Spyglass, Inc.; Excite@Home
ST: California
IN: CPR MLM
SU: LIC
07/19/99 10:50 EDT prnewswire.com |
