Netscape browser to favor its maker
New feature puts Netscape content a click ahead of rivals
By Barton Crockett
MSNBC
msnbc.com
June 1 - Microsoft and Netscape have one edge in
Web publishing that no one else can match.
They set the default home pages on browsers
that most surfers maintain as their on-ramp to
the World Wide Web. On Monday, Netscape
announced a new - and potentially important
- self-promotional feature. The next version of
Navigator will give preferential treatment to
Netscape's Web content.
AND THAT COULD open a whole new front in the
fight among top Web publishers for Internet traffic.
"This is clearly a differentiator between Netscape and
other portal sites," said Vernon Keenan, senior analyst with
Zona Research Inc., using a term now applied to popular
Web sites that act as entryways to the World Wide Web.
Highlighting the integration, Netscape Monday also
disclosed an organizational change that puts control of
browser software under the same executive who oversees
content on the Web site. As part of the change, Bob
Lisbonne, senior vice president of browsing software, will
report to executive vice president Mike Homer, who
oversees Netscape's Web site. Lisbonne formerly reported
to Mark Andreessen, the Netscape co-founder who was
part of a team of programmers at the University of Illinois
that originally created Web browsing software. Andreessen
retains control of "enterprise software" that Netscape sells
to large organizations.
Netscape group manager Ken Rutsky told MSNBC
that the new promotional capability will be part of a trio of
features called Smart Browsing that Netscape plans to
include in the next release of Navigator due out in July.
With the promotional feature, the Navigator will use a
new procedure for handling standard English words typed
into the address line of the browser.
Type in a term like automobile, for instance, and the
browser will first search to see if the word matches a
category in Netscape's Web site directory. That puts
Netscape's directory, which features Netscape-developed
content, a step closer to users of the Navigator browser
than any other directory, presumably giving the company an
edge in gathering traffic and selling advertising.
If a phrase is typed into the browser address line that
doesn't come up in the Netscape directory - "Ford
Ranger," for instance - the browser will search through a
database maintained by Netscape of corporate Web sites,
and take the surfer to a matching home page.
If a term is typed in that doesn't appear in either the
directory or the database of corporate Web sites -
gobbledygook, for example - the word will automatically
be entered into a new Netscape-branded search engine that
Web navigation company Excite Inc. is preparing for
Netscape.
Currently, Netscape's content is not promoted in the
Navigator address line. Instead, the browser checks to see
if a word like "automobile" would correspond to a Web
address if a standard Web suffix, like .com, were added.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer handles English terms in a
similar manner. (Microsoft is a partner with NBC News in
MSNBC.)
The new content self-promotion will be in addition to a
search self-promotion feature Netscape has already said it
intends to begin by the end of June. At that time, the
company will give its Netscape-branded search and
Excite's search engine a total of half of the traffic from
surfers looking for a search service on Netscape's home
page or the search button on the Navigator browser.
DRIVING TRAFFIC
Analysts said that the new Netscape content promotion
feature could become a powerful driver of traffic, since
Netscape's browser is used by more than half of all surfers.
The feature could also prove popular with surfers, since it
reduces the need to type in geeky www and .com prefixes
and suffixes.
"The other portal sites will have to respond, or lose
business to them," predicted Rob Enderle, a research
director with Giga Information Group.
But Enderle said that Netscape rivals could find it
difficult to match the feature. Microsoft, for instance, could
raise antitrust questions by promoting its own content in the
address line of its Internet Explorer browser. That's
because the Justice Department and a coalition of 20 states
already allege that Microsoft has violated the law by using
its dominant Windows operating system boot-up screen to
promote its own products. A Microsoft executive was not
immediately available to comment.
Enderle said that for Yahoo! and other search services
to match the Netscape feature, they would have to develop
and distribute their own customized browsers, or browser
plug-ins. That is theoretically possible, since Netscape is
releasing the source code for its surfing software for free,
and allowing anyone to develop a custom version.
But Enderle noted that search and navigation
companies like Yahoo! could find it hard to compete with
Netscape in developing software features.
Netscape "could yank the rug out of Yahoo!," he
asserted.
(A Yahoo! spokeswoman was unable to return a call
late Friday.)
OTHER FEATURES
Other new browser and Web site features Netscape
plans to announce Monday include:
A partnership with surfing guide Alexa Internet to provide
Navigator users with a selection of 10 Web sites related to
the site they are visiting at the moment;
The incorporation of 24 other companies, including
software makers Corel and Macromedia, into Netscape's
"Smart Update" service. With this offering, surfers can more
easily download upgrades to their software.
Plans to launch a personalized home page by the end of
July called "My Netscape" that will compete with similar
offerings from Yahoo! and other navigation guides;
A new "NetWatch" feature that will help parents protect
children from objectionable Web content;
Netscape also plans to release the final list of content
for Netscape's new Netcenter Web site directory, which
the Internet company is developing in cooperation with
Excite.
Separately, a Netscape spokeswoman confirmed a
report Monday that Eric Hahn, the software company's
chief technology officer, is leaving Netscape this week.
Hahn, who will not be replaced, plans to become an
investor in start-up technology companies. |
