ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 13, 1996 TAG: 9608130070
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press
ON THE NEW FRONTIER - the World Wide Web - Netscape's Navigator is pitted against the new Explorer. And Microsoft says it's going to triumph.
Microsoft Corp., hoping to cut into Netscape Communication Corp.'s dominance in Internet software, on Monday rolled out the new version of its program for finding information on the World Wide Web.
Called Internet Explorer 3.0, the program catches up to many of the features in Netscape's Navigator 2.0 product and adds some new ones, including a data search service connected to the Web cataloging firm Yahoo Inc.
``It is a big stake in the ground for us,'' said Brad Chase, vice president of product development in Microsoft's operating platform group. ``We think we have a better product, finally.''
Netscape will raise the ante again next week with its Navigator 3.0, which will add a few more features while maintaining a slight edge in the speed with which it handles data. In addition, Netscape's program will also be available for more kinds of computers that Microsoft's.
The browser battle has become the swiftest-moving and most fascinating in the software industry. More is at stake than just bragging rights for one product in the huge universe of software.
Browsing programs are reducing the distinction between data that resides on an individual PC and data retrieved through the Internet, a major change in how people work with their computers.
They operate even more simply than the point-and-click graphical programs that have become common in recent years. A click on a highlighted word leads to new data, while a click on the ``back'' button goes to the previous data.
``A simple forward and back button with a full-screen view has involved more people productively in computing than anything since the PC itself,'' said analyst Stan Dolberg of Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. ``People from all educational and socioeconomic and age strata are suddenly able to do useful things with computers.''
Netscape's browser is used by 80 to 90 percent of the people who look for information on the Web. That has helped the company sell its ``server'' programs, which help companies and individuals place information on the Web.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB