MOSAIC
References Information Case (Last Item)
SEPTEMBER 23, 1994
Mosaic software - first used by researchers and scientists to organize data on the Internet - is catching on with companies as a tool to sell their goods and services on the global computer network.
Mosaic is what is known as a "browser" on the World Wide Web, a system of computers around the world that exchange information with one another. The Mosaic software allows users to view snazzy typefaces, and even video and sound, similar to the feel of Windows or Macintosh operating systems.
Using Mosaic - and other programs like it-consumers and business users can click a mouse for information as easily as turning the pages of a book. In addition to its friendly appearance, Mosaic works hard, sending directions out to distant computers to send and display information without the user having to remember and type arcane commands.
Mosaic has some drawbacks. While it makes Internet travel easy and can be downloaded free, its installation often requires other Internet software that can be difficult to install. Industry developers also complain that too many incompatible versions of it may someday flood the market, making it less useful.
Still, network computers loaded with Mosaic are helping a growing band of companies establish their on-line identities. And specialty software producers are already massaging Mosaic into new easier-to-load programs and adding such functions as the ability to pass credit-card numbers safely over the Internet.
Easy credit card access is crucial because current purchases via the Internet can be awkward. For example, Santa Cruz, Calif., residents call order pies from Pizza Hut on the network but they can't pay for them online. Instead, they pay on delivery. Most merchants such as Lens Express Inc. and NordicTrak, require users to phone in their credit-card numbers.
But technical obstacles haven't halted commerce. Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp. computers loaded with Mosaic let customers at PCs find the company's nearest outlet. The Rolling Stones use the system to give fans concert-tour information. Later this year, they'll allow cyberfans inside a Stones concert, live: "See . . . the boys whooping it up in stadiums across the country without ever leaving the radioactive glow of your workstation," says the Stones' electronic brochure.
In the past two years, Mosaic has become "the single most important factor in commercialization of the Internet" next to the development of the so-called World Wide Web of computer databases, says Vinton Cerf, an MCI Communications Corp. executive and one of the Internet's original architects. Robert Hertzberg, editor of the Internet Business Report, says traffic growth shows that Internet commerce "could easily hit more than $100 million" by the end of 1995.
Since its introduction in January 1993, Mosaic has grown to about one million users, and more than 10 companies are licensed to develop commercial versions of it.
The original Mosaic was written at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Ill. The program allowed easy access to information on the World Wide Web of remote computers. Data on the Web are organized using "hypertext," a programming language that links a highlighted phrase in a document to related information on computers around the world.
A computer with Mosaic will automatically retrieve a "page" of data from a distant computer by seeking out information arranged in hypertext. Using a PC, a user may connect, for example, to an NCSA computer and see on the screen the words "What's New." A click of the mouse then lists Internet databases, such as "Hang Gliding." A second click will instantly link the user with a computer at Stanford University for information on hang-gliding manufacturers and events. Click again on the word "Weather" for "soaring'' conditions, and a computer in Michigan sends satellite weather photos. Mosaic ties all of this together.
Physicists had used other software programs called "browsers" to retrieve Web data, but they were cumbersome and didn't have multimedia capabilities. Then Marc Andreessen and a small team at NCSA wrote Mosaic to simplify browsing and incorporate multimedia features. Mr. Andreessen has since left NCSA to start his own company with John Clark, founder of Silicon Graphics Inc. His products, along with those of a host of other companies developing new versions of Mosaic, will compete with other similar products not based directly on the software.
Meanwhile, businesses such as International Business Machines Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. are using the software to improve customer service and market products. A BankAmerica Corp. exhibit shows how customers will someday bank on line.
And Mosaic is expanding the reach of smaller companies with few resources. Art galleries, travel agencies and real estate brokers are popping up all over the Internet, and they are already accessible using Mosaic and other web browsers.
In fact, rope sandals may make a comeback thanks to Mosaic. Rick Degelsmith's tiny company, Sandal Dudes hawks its air-conditioned footwear on line and has attracted Internet window shoppers from 35 countries. Mr. Degelsmith says.
He's also branching out. He now leases space on his computer for roughly $50 a month so that other companies can set up their own Mosaic-based electronic store-fronts.