Related Web Works

Netscape Communications Corp. is raising the stakes in its war with Microsoft Corp. to win the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of Internet users.

Computer industry watchers said the Mountain View company plans to chip away at the software juggernaut's stranglehold on business applications by developing technology that would let users download word-processing and spreadsheet software in future versions of Navigator, its popular Web browser.

Test copies of Navigator 4.0, which should be available in early fall, could offer a beefed-up version of the program's e-mail functions so that users can create Web pages, design complex documents with spreadsheets and charts, and build their own customized applications -- all from within the browser.

Users now must buy word-processing and spreadsheet programs to accomplish such tasks.

Netscape makes no secret of its plans: An outline of its online strategy posted last month (www.netscape.com) explains that Galileo, a next-generation version of Netscape Navigator, will go a long way in its efforts to woo corporate and desktop users from Microsoft and Lotus Development Corp.

Corporate sites that internally use the Internet, dubbed the Intranet, are of particular interest to Netscape, which derives about 80 percent of its revenues from that market, computer analysts said.

Netscape isn't going after Microsoft's bread-and-butter markets alone. Several companies are independently designing versions of their business software specifically for use on the Net.

One potential ally is Corel Corp., the Ottawa company that is developing "Internet-ready" versions of its Quattro Pro spreadsheet and WordPerfect word-processor that Netscape users could peruse.

Meanwhile, Netscape is turning up the heat in its efforts against the Microsoft marketing machine.

The company has created two development teams to work simultaneously on future versions of Netscape so the company can conceivably release new versions every six months, industry analysts said.

After a belated entry into the Internet market, Microsoft appears to have erased much of Netscape's once overwhelming lead in technology for browsing the Web.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company has unveiled a new version of its Internet Explorer browser that it claims will be superior to Navigator. The Microsoft browser incorporates many of the features created by Netscape and adds some twists of its own in a slick package.

Although analysts such as Scott McAdams of Ragen Makenzie in Seattle predict Netscape's browser may have 20 million users by year-end -- or about twice as many as Microsoft -- Bill Gates & Co. could narrow the gap with online alliances and its strategy of bundling the Internet Explorer with Windows 95 software.

Regardless of who wins the online battle, consumers are likely to prosper as both companies offer more features at lower prices, industry observers said.

"The more they compete, the better the programs are for consumers," said James Staten, an associate editor at MacWEEK, a San Francisco computer magazine.

"Netscape doesn't look at Navigator as strictly a browser, but as an entire Internet platform and operating system."

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