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the cards and like many I am furious
that such a famous marque is to be lost into oblivion as a result of
incompetency that lay at the door of Time Warner and AOL Directors. I
knew then in 1999 when they bought Netscape it did not
make sense and could not believe then it would be re-branded into the
AOL scheme of things. It made no sense, AOL was as popular on the web
as a bad rash with it's irritating pop up ads to such a point many
other ISP's black listed AOL servers that dished them up including
yours sincerely. And as each year went past it further affirmed to me
that they did not know what to do with such a monster.
As in the Comedy film "The Life of Brian" when John
Cleese and the Monty Python gang were having a meeting asking, "What
did the Roman's ever do for us" and as the meeting progressed a long
list of examples materialized. Perhaps it's time to take stock, look
back and reflect on the Netscape era. For only understanding the past
can you determine the future and the signs at present do not look good
for our industry.
For many on the web today, and who use social networking have probably
never heard of Netscape, or if they have, it's just a name. But being
at the front end myself in the past, Netscape does really stand for the
World Wide Web as we know it today. I have great respect for my peers
especially Tim Berners Lee a fellow brit who in effect whilst at CERN
in Switzerland created the world wide web for it to function in the
architectural sense of developing a http, url and html framework for
the World wide web to function across the World's PC's and Servers. But
the vision and enthusiasm to unleash to all around the world a
networking community that could be viewed, used and developed lays at
the door of thanks to Marc, Bina and the Gang at the National Super
Computing Centre at Illinois in the United States of America. Whilst
there, Marc Andreessen and Bina, found a way to programme, for
the first time ever, where graphics and text could be viewed in one
programme. Prior to their efforts, it was believed to be an impossible
task.
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Today, we take our web browser for granted and
everything we view and
interact with it. But then, it was a mighty effort and left to a
handful of visionaries and believers, a team mainly baptised into the
dream by
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Marc Andreessen , with his remarkable marketing,
communication skills and talents. I believe, had it of not been for
Marc's determination, to break out free from the purist line of
convention. The Internet, or World Wide Web, would not of been,
as it is today! When the Mosaic browser was first being developed at
NCSA through hard work and dedication, once the first few beta builds
were successfully built and released, the management decided to
intervene. At one point, it looked as if the Netscape dream would not
happen and it wasn't as is lead to believe an overnight and smooth
transitional progression. There was a time, that I would describe
for Marc and his team, as the wilderness period. When he worked in
Silicon Valley away from his close friends, after leaving NCSA. As like
and is the case with all good creations. Sadly, money is an essential
and determining factor in the success of many wonderful inventions and
the Netscape dream was no different.
At NCSA, the administration staff of the University. Tried to take over
and manage the Mosaic Browser project as mentioned above. This resulted
in Marc and the others team members departure from the University. By
chance, and fortunately for him, he came across a visionary in his
industry, whilst working in Silicon Valley. A man called Jim Clark! In
the technology industry then, Jim Clark's business was as powerful and
as Mighty as Microsoft is today, that is controlled by William Gates.
But for Jim as a result of his success and increasing size of the
business with new management to carry out many of the tasks he had
performed in the past. He decided it was time to look for another
challenge. As the years go by with us older souls, we tend to have more
time for the young and innocent. Jim Clark was a great believer in
dynamic youth and creativity, no doubt Marc found not only a partner,
but a very close friend in Jim Clark.
Once Jim was on board, I guess to many the rest is history. We saw the
Browser wars come and go. We then saw one of the largest purchases in
corporate history take place, in relation to Netscape Communications
being sold to AOL and that was the end of Netscape, not from the
browser wars.
As I believed then and still believe now. There were enough of us
around the globe that cared and would of slung our hats in for free to
help develop better software, products, projects and features for
Netscape to survive the Microsoft competition and onslaught. As I say,
my opinion has never changed to this day. The biggest mistake Time
Warner made was to retain AOL, rather than immerse AOL into Netscape
Communications.
Between 1999 and even to many today, AOL was hated. This is no
exaggeration, when I use to discuss the web and it's future with
others. AOL, would invariably come up in relation to ISP accounts and
POP up advertising. I would see people actually go red in the face,
with real rage and anger. It is very clear to any in the industry that
some fundamental errors in judgement were made in relation to what
brand to retain. AOL's future is still unclear and unsure, but in
saying that, many believe a deal has already been done and AOL is being
bundled and packaged for a takeover. This will be to the relief of Time
Warner, as they try to concentrate all their efforts with regards to
the entertainments industry. The sale I believe will come sooner rather
than later, with the present climate, technology markets will be
affected by the current dip and certain recession. Speculation and the
gambling in the Technology industry by investors will diminish, and
more traditional forms of investment will be made in the Gold and food
industry. Keep coming back and watch this space, we will keep you
posted. If you would like to join us here with your articles, views and
news? We would love to hear from you, why not start now by using our Squawk Box Interactive
service now here!
Internet Security - Geocities Take A Hit
From Yahoo Management Over Spam Emails!
Yahoo
Starts To Target Irresponsible Geocities Spamsters Which Is For The
Good Of The Web, As Spam Reaches Epidemic Proportion.
Over the holiday period it
was becoming ever increasingly more intolerable with the constant spam
emails to web community user in boxes. One of the biggest culprits was
Yahoo Geocities free web site services. It pleases me no end to be able
to tell you that as soon as the Senior Management team of Yahoo were
aware of the situation they acted. Just overnight the offenders
were detected and were stopped from sending out their garbage.
I do not understand the
mentality of these offenders, do they honestly believe that their one
and two line pieces of offensive content is ever read or clicked upon.
The emails sent is just another opportunist scam in relation to selling
an email data base. Businesses need to be aware, that the purchasing of
email Data Bases is a waste of time and money. It could also cost you
far more than that with the eventual black listing of your web site as
a known offending sender of unsolicited emails.
There are many ways to
market successfully on the Internet, but the Email data base scams is
certainly not one of them.
If you would like to join us here with your
articles, views and news?
We would love to hear from you, why not start now by using our Squawk Box Interactive
service now here!
Until the next time, safe surfing!
Written by
Alastair Agutter
2007-10-31
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