20,000 Visit Virtually California on Opening Weekend.

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 21, 1995--More than 20,000 Internet surfers from around the globe visited California last weekend without leaving their homes or adding to the traffic jams. The visits were made possible by accessing the new World Wide Web (WWW) site, Virtually California, which officially opened for business last Friday.

Established by DGS Inc. and officially brought on-line last Friday, Virtually California currently allows Internet access to San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Virtually California allows Internet users to cruise through virtual shopping centers in each area, check out hotels, review restaurants and their menus, find the hot spots in each city and more in the number one retail state in the U.S. and one of the major tourist spots in the world.

Overwhelming Traffic

While company officials were confident that Virtually California would ultimately be successful, even the firm's founders were amazed at the volume of initial traffic their Web site received. Neil Greer, president of DGS (derived from the founders names: Kevin Dearing, Neil Greer and Cathy Simmons) said that having a good URL (Internet Web site) is important to ensure good Internet traffic. "Anyone who addresses virtually.com (which was trademarked and registered at the beginning of the project) will immediately come to our Internet home page," Greer commented. "It's like oceanfront property in La Jolla ... it's a prime location."

Having a good URL is one thing, giving them something they really want to look at is often another. To ensure that people actually spend some time in Virtually California, DGS enlisted the help of a strategic partner to manage their home page, which is posted on Internet Service Provider, CERFnet's Web advertising servers. "Select Hypermedia in San Diego (URL: http: / /www.selectsite.com/), is dedicated exclusively to World Wide Web publishing and specializes in custom-rendered graphics. Greer emphasized that like any city project, they will be continually adding listings of activities, events and areas of interest to the three city directories; and plan to add other cities and visitor locations in the state.

On-Line Planning

"If someone is planning a get-away weekend to San Diego," Greer explained, "they simply access Virtually San Diego and look through the hotel listings until they find the one they want. Then, they can either make their reservation over the Internet or call the hotel's 800 number. In fact," he continued, "they can plan their whole weekend by looking through the tourist sites and reviewing the restaurants and their menus. And, since most airlines and car rental companies serving the area have on-line reservation services, they can even confirm their reservations from their terminal at the same time."

DGS's founders developed Virtually California while working on their Master's Degrees at San Diego State. The company offers free access to city sites, locations and activities but sells the use of its sight to hotels, restaurants, shops, tourist sites and others interested in attracting people to their location. "The key to our success will be our ability to show potential advertisers the benefits of reaching people locally and around the globe," Greer commented. "People remember our Net location because of our name. We're really excited about the possibilities!"

CERFnet Service

Rather than purchasing and supporting their own Web server for Virtually California, which would have meant a cash outlay of nearly $30,000, DGS chose to use CERFnet's CERF n' WEB services which gives DGS its own Web site. In addition, CERFnet will eventually hotlink (allow people to go from one home page to another) Virtually California to other sites with similar interests.

Greer explained that DGS' role is to harness the resources and maximize the profits, not drain cash. They chose CERFnet's service because the company provides high-speed T3 access to the site and ensures that the site will be up round-the-clock, round-the-calendar. "When people visit a Virtually California city and send a data request, they get the information very quickly," he commented. "People are inherently impatient, especially on the Internet, and if a home page is slow, they'll go somewhere else. To us, fast access is a competitive advantage that we offer advertisers and our visitors."

Ad Sales Begin

Now that Virtually California is up and running and with a successful opening weekend under their collective belts, the company will begin selling their services in earnest. "We'll be providing our clients with monthly reports that are independently compiled by CERFnet," Greer explained. "Our customers will know exactly how many users have been to their page and even the amount of time the person spent on the page, if they want that information."

Greer, a firm believer in the Internet, WWW and Internet Providers such as CERFnet, feels that service industries are going to directly benefit from the Internet immediately but that the greatest impact will be in manufacturing and wholesale/retail sales.

"People won't have to design and print catalogs anymore," he pointed out. "Instead, they can put their information on-line in real-time and can change it any time they want. The cost of making changes is minimal. More importantly," he continued, "people can get what they want, when they want it, and in the form they want it. With Virtually California, foreign visitors can get current information and plan their entire trip at their convenience, rather than having to wait for California businesses to open or worse yet, waiting until they arrive. The same is true of anything a person needs for business or pleasure. With the Internet, it doesn't matter where you are. Everything is available to everyone, all the time."

For more information about DGS and Virtually California, visit their Internet home page at URL: http://www.virtual.com/ or call [phone].

Founded in 1989, CERFnet offers a variety of connection options that range from 14.4 Kilobits per second dialup to 45 Mbps connections using dedicated lines and leading-edge technologies such as ISDN, SMDS, Frame Relay and ATM. For more information on CERFnet services and capabilities, contact CERFnet at P.O. Box 85608, San Diego, CA 92186-9784; (800) 876-CERF (2373); [phone]; FAX [phone]; e-mail [e-mail] or URL: http://www.cerf.net/.

CONTACT: CERFnet

Pushpendra Mohta, 619/455-3908

or

DGS

Neil Greer, 619/497-5053

or

Marken Communications

Andy Marken, 408/986-0100

FAX: [phone]

Home: 408/732-9589

[e-mail]