Netscape Netcaster Ready for Broadcasting

Netscape's Communicator 4.0 proves to be a worthy competitor to MS Internet Explorer 4.0 with an "open standards"-based push client named Netcaster. Users of Netcaster can subscribe to rich, dynamic channels; view channels and other Web sites offline; and create a Webtop or a favorite channel anchored to the desktop.

Unlike Explorer, however, it doesn't require the creators of channels to use the Channel Definition Format (CDF). It's possible for any Web site to be pushed to the user as a channel.

Netscape distinguishes Netcaster from IE 4.0's push client by saying that it is "the first push software based on open Internet standards, such as HTML, Java, and JavaScript, allowing virtually any Web site to become a 'channel' that delivers up-to-date information directly to the desktop."

CDF is a standard developed and supported by the W3 Consortium--not just Microsoft. So it's a bit unfair to play the old "open vs. propreitary standard" gambit against Microsoft on this one.

However, Netscape's version does offer a significant advantage to existing Web sites that want to push their content. All they have to do is insert some JavaScript into their existing pages and they can be viewed as a Netcaster Channel. Netscape is making a big deal out of how easy it is to turn Web sites into Netcaster channels, and is inviting everyone to submit their sites to a channel directory.

Netscape's new Channel Wizard is a development tool that quickly outputs the JavaScript that defines a channel. Developers simply cut and paste the JavaScript onto the Web page where they want to place the "Add Channel" button. (More than 500 Web sites have already deployed the button.)

On Web sites featuring the "Add Channel" button, users can click on the button and the default channel settings specified by the channel provider are added to your Netcaster. Or, users can simply point to any Web site and specify information to be pushed at regular intervals.

Initially, Netcaster features Premier channels including ABCNew.com, Wired, and others. A number of additional Marquee Channels are accessible through the Netscape Channel Finder--the guide highlighting the best channels on the Internet--as well as hundreds of other "Netcaster-Ready" channels.

Marc Andreeson, Netscape cofounder and VP for Technology, touts the fact that Netcaster was released six months ahead of schedule because it was built entirely in the Netscape ONE platform using "core Netscape ONE technologies such as Dynamic HTML, JavaScript, Java and Object Signing to provide automated polling, caching and management of content."

This development effort took advantage of the key features of Netscape's "crossware" initiative, namely, the ability to develop an application once and deploy it across all 17 platforms supported by Communicator.

Netcaster is the first component to be made available via SmartUpdate, a new Netscape technology that allows developers, IS managers, and software publishers to dynamically install applications and push changes and bug fixes to Communicator or Netcaster without requiring the user to redownload the application.

A number of third-party developers are building Netcaster-enabled solutions targeting traditional information publishers. For example, companies such as Starpoint are creating mechanisms for offline advertising tracking, while others such as Net Perceptions have focused on "content-tuning," or intelligent ways to tailor information to different individuals based on prior experience or preferences.

Lest we think that Netscape's market share is being obliterated by the advent of MSIE 4.0, a recent study by Computer Intelligence, a computer and communications market research company, Netscape maintains a 72 percent share of corporate browser use.

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