Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: New angles to think about

Author:Vitor Conceicao
Posted:11/24/1998; 9:08:37 AM
Topic:AOL Acquires Netscape
Msg #:448 (In response to 444)
Prev/Next:447 / 449

I think that they have three big fronts to fight for.

The first one is the Portal Race, this is where I think they are more interested and where most analysts will be discussing. I do think that even though they have the traffic and all the means to build even more traffic, neither Netscape nor AOL have a really good portal. I still think Yahoo, Lycos and specially Excite have built a more usable and friendly portal.

But it's on the other two fronts where the fight gets interesting. The Client and the Server fronts. In the client as you said the OS is becoming less important each and every day. Most people don't want to deal with the complexity of computers, OSes, softwares and so. All they want is a device that lets them browse the web, send and receive mail and maybe write letters and manage some home chores like addresses and schedules. If they play the game right they can come up with some great consumer device and really get the masses on the Web.

Recently I read a good article about this topic on Salon href=http://www.salonmagazine.com/21st/rose/1998/11/19straight.html> http://www.salonmagazine.com/21st/rose/1998/11/19straight.html<;/A>

The last front is the server arena, where I'm not too sure if they're well positioned. I think Linux and Apache give people a better overall solution than a Sun/Netscape solution. Larry Elison is better positioned on this field with the Oracle 8i port to Linux.



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