CHAPTER 2

2 . 2 Netscape 2 and Beyond

Netscape, the Web company to watch, seems to be run by a bunch of kids snatched right out of their college cradles into instant entrepreneurial stardom. Started by Marc Andresson and most of the other original creators of Mosaic, with the able assistance of Jim Clark, who started Silicon Graphics, Netscape has recently announced a flurry of new products packed with new features. Actually Netscape is almost constantly introducing new features as it tries to remain ahead of Microsoft in "The Browser War."
Reportedly, Netscape has captured 70-85% of the Web browser business. It certainly seem to get enough hits on its site: in Feb. 1996 they were claiming to get 40 million hits per day, and by April 1996 50 million hits per day! Netscape 2.0 will solidify that margin if its new features are used. Authors will be able to create compelling new content that will only be viewable on the Netscape browser. Other browsers makers will probably either follow Netscape's lead or start screaming for more adherence to standards. Only time will tell.
Let's look at the technical changes new to Netscape 2.0. The two major items are the incorporation of a Java interpreter and the capability of adding "plug-ins." Plug-ins enable third-party vendors to write code that cooperates with Netscape through a clearly defined Application Program Interface (API). For example Adobe has created an Acrobat API that enables Netscape to display Acrobat PDF files in-line; it's called Amber. Other plug-ins under development include Apple's QuickTime for digital video and Macromedia Director Player, called Shockwave, for full multimedia interaction. All these media types are presented to the user in-line on the Web page. The inclusion of a Java interpreter allows for dynamic elements such as animations and live information updating to also appear in-line. (See Section 2.1 Java/HotJava for more details.) These dynamic elements are possible through the inclusion of Java applets (mini programs) right in the HTML document.
In addition to these major technical and architectural changes described, Netscape 2.0 adds a feature called Frames. Frames are primarily a graphic design and user interaction enhancement. A page can have multiple frames; each frame refers to a separate URL. These multiple rectangular page areas can be scrolled independently and can also independently submit queries and display results.
Static areas for such things as button bars and tables of contents are called Ledges. As you can imagine Frames and Ledges may lead to a lot of "graphic abuse" on the Web. Ledges can also solve an interesting problem faced by Web advertisers. You are probably familiar with those oftenannoying rectangular graphic ads on the tops and bottoms of web pages. A Web site can place an ad in a Ledge and it will just sit there, not interfering with the rest of the everchanging document. Infoseek and Web searching service has begun to do this.
As this book was nearing completion, new versions of Netscape were being betatested. The next version, Netscape 3.0, also called the "Atlas" version, continues the frenzied pace of change. Atlas fixes the annoying "Back" behavior introduced by Frames. In version 2, the Back button does not now take you "back" a Frame if only the frame changed; you must use a menu item for that. The previous Back behavior was an annoying user interface change. However, never let it be said that the Netscape folks don't admit to mistakes and learn from them.
The mail facility is more robust and adds some drag and drop capabilities. Continuing the dreadful trend of HTML "enhancements," Netscape 3 now allows individual table cells to have different background colors.
On the plug-in front, a streaming audio plug-in is included with the Live3D (formerly WebFX) VRML browser and an AVI digital movie player. The most interesting software included with the release is CoolTalk.
CoolTalk is a suite of software for collaborative computing. It includes a realtime audio tool to literally talk to other users, much like Internet phonetype products. More significantly it includes a full-featured white board that people can share. While the audio is nice it's unclear how useful it is due to the bandwidth limitations of modems.
However, the white board is clearly a big winner. The first time I tried it I connected to some chap I first thought was in another state. It turned out that he was across the globe in Israel. We shared drawings and chatted (yes, there is also a chat tool), and it really worked! This type of facility used to cost many thousands of dollars and a significant workstation. CoolTalk is by InSoft Inc. You can visit them at: http://ice.insoft.com.

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