microsoftPlan

[ Back to Index of Web Works ] part of George's Web Site

Related Web Works

[GT Online][Business Section]

GT OnLine Business News

------------------------------------------------------

Microsoft plan would meld the personal and the Net

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

ATLANTA -- If Microsoft has its way, you and your computer may soon be one with the universe. The universe of the Internet, that is.

In a plan leaked this week to The New York Times, the giant software company outlined efforts to seamlessly meld information on the Internet with that stored in personal computers. It would incorporate the Internet's sound and video technologies into everyday applications such as spreadsheets and newsletters.

Microsoft would do this by enhancing its Windows 95 operating system. Microsoft Windows is used on about 80 percent of the world's PCs.

The new Microsoft strategy, if successful, would hurt both Apple Computer and Netscape, two competitors that lead in Internet technology. Apple is the largest niche maker of computers; Netscape produces the most popular way to navigate the World Wide Web, the Internet's most popular feature.

"Microsoft has identified the Internet as the biggest source of revenue during the next several years, and they want to be number one," says Jeff Wilson, senior programming engineer at JHK & Associates.

Trying to create confusion?

Wilson says the idea behind Microsoft's strategy is a good one. But he questions how soon the company can pull it off. He sees the leak to the Times as more of a business ploy to hurt Apple and Netscape.

Indeed, Netscape's stock fell $6.50 to $46.50 on the day of the Times' story.

"Microsoft is trying to catch up, and it's a master at confusing the market," says Wilson.

Bill Ribarsky, associate director for service and computing at Georgia Tech's Scientific Visualization Laboratory, agrees. He believes that the technology -- especially the ability to include video and image clips routinely in other documents -- would strain present-day technology, including the Internet.

"We are talking a few years before the hardware is ready for all this," Ribarsky says.

At issue is what users see when they start up their computers. Currently, the reigning motif is an electronic knockoff of the old filing cabinet. Something created on a computer, whether spreadsheet, memo or newsletter, is stored as a "file." This file is stored in a "folder" that resides on the hard drive in your computer.

But information on the Internet is spread over a worldwide network of computers. It takes a connection to the Internet and special software to navigate the network and view information.

Microsoft's plan would turn this world on its head. The Internet would become the equivalent of just another hard drive on your computer. You could as easily access live stock prices on the Internet as you could a memo stored on your hard drive -- and insert the prices in the memo. Documents would become Web pages, with video clips and sounds.

Microsoft's vehicle for these changes is Internet Explorer, the Internet browser the company is giving away. Explorer would be incorporated into the next version of Windows 95.

Sun Microsystems, Netscape and Apple are all trying to make the Internet more user-friendly, and each is taking a somewhat different approach. Apple, for example, is trying to make the Internet look and work like its Macintosh computers.

All these companies are racing to set the standard for Internet access. One company's gain is another's loss.

"I think that Microsoft is taking big bites out of Apple every day now," says Ribarsky. "Undoubtedly it would be another blow for them" if the technology lives up to its billing, he said.

------------------------------------------------------ TO REACH US at the Gazette Telegraph business news department Stock market quotes Wall Street Journal's Money and Investing Update Experimental stock market data Securities and Exchange Commission filings

You can select another article in the business section and click or go back to the GT OnLine front page.

[ Back to Index of Web Works | Top ]