Actioneer, Inc. Signs CVS.com as a Preferred Provider; PalmGear H.Q. and RetailCanada.com also join the Actioneer Preferred Provider Program.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 23, 1999--

Actioneer, Inc. today announced that CVS.com, PalmGear H.Q.com, and RetailCanada.com have signed as Preferred Providers, under a partnership program for the Actioneer(R) Smart Portal(TM) service, an easier, faster way to access frequently visited Web services.

The Actioneer Smart Portal service is available for free download from www.actioneer.com.

CVS customers now can use Actioneer's unique 'unbrowser' to conduct searches, and in a couple of keystrokes make purchases, from CVS.com, the online subsidiary of CVS/pharmacy, the nation's No. 1 pharmacy chain.

Similarly, by typing short action messages into the Smart Portal window, Actioneer users can search for hardware and software items for their Palm connected organizers from PalmGear H.Q., and the PalmGear store on Handspring's Web site. In addition, Actioneer users can find virtually anything Canadian, via the extensive network provided by RetailCanada.com. Actioneer's patented approach to accessing Web services bypasses the time-consuming point-and-click navigation that is usually required to access these sites using conventional Web browsers.

"Actioneer is a great front-end tool, giving our customers quicker access to CVS.com," said Mike Hartmann, Vice President of Marketing of CVS.com. "Actioneer eases the buying process by giving our customers a new method for quickly finding products and services on our site."

As part of its Preferred Program, Actioneer will include connectors to the CVS.com, PalmGear H.Q.com, and RetailCanada.com Web sites in its default connector set, which is made available to every Actioneer Smart Portal service user. In return, CVS.com, PalmGearHQ.com, and RetailCanada.com will promote Actioneer to their customers via their Web sites and various co-marketing efforts.

The Actioneer Smart Portal service is the first new method for accessing the Web since the browser. Users can quickly and easily access selected Web services such as online retail stores, search engines, travel sites, and more. With Actioneer's growing set of connectors, users can access information such as stock quotes, movie times, TV listings, news headlines, and weather, as well as services such as ticket agencies, book and CD merchants, and toy stores.

To access their favorite Web service, users don't need to open their browsers -- Actioneer detects user-defined keywords in the messages to dispatch an agent that automatically drills down to the proper results page at the desired Web destination.

"We welcome CVS.com, PalmGear H.Q., and RetailCanada to the Smart Portal service's catalog of connectors," said Tom Hagan, chief executive officer of Actioneer. "Since Actioneer is the simplest method for accessing Web services, our goal is to provide access to as many Web services as possible. We are pleased to add connectors to these three leading Web services."

"We are excited to work with Actioneer to increase our reach not only to Palm Connected Organizer users but to Web users as a whole," said Kenny West, president of PalmGear H.Q. "Having worked with Actioneer since the introduction of the original Pilot devices, we are confident that the implementation will be at the same high quality level Actioneer is known for."

Dozens of connectors to e-services are included within the Actioneer Smart Portal software when downloaded for installation on the desktop. The company maintains a growing catalog of Actioneer connectors to services of all kinds. New connectors are automatically sent to users on a regular basis via Actioneer's auto-update feature.

The Actioneer Smart Portal provides enhanced access to the Calendar and To Do functions of popular electronic organizers, including Lotus Notes 4.5, 4.6 and R5, Microsoft Outlook and Palm Desktop. To capture an item for entry into the Lotus Notes Calendar, for instance, a user simply clicks open the Actioneer window and types "Sales meeting Fri 4 pm". Actioneer automatically interprets the text and presents for verification a display showing that the action message is to be sent to the Friday Calendar page as a 4:00 P.M. appointment. One click then saves the information into the Notes Calendar, whether Notes is open or not.

Actioneer is bundled with Lotus Notes R5, and with various IBM and Palm Computing Platform products. The company also provides the award-winning Actioneer for Palm handhelds.

Not all Smart Portal connectors will be free. Actioneer plans a future release of Actioneer Pro for Lotus Notes, Palm Desktop and Microsoft Outlook users, which will include a connector set with enhanced Calendar, To Do List, and messaging functionality. The cost for Actioneer Pro is expected to be below $30.

Actioneer was chosen as the top-rated product for the Palm Platform by PC Magazine, Fast Company, Fortune, ZDNet, and others. Red Herring and Upside Magazine have listed Actioneer as one of the top private Internet companies, and ComputerWorld chose Actioneer as one of its "100 Hot Emerging Companies". Actioneer, Inc. has offices in San Francisco and Cambridge, Mass.

About CVS.com

CVS.com is the nation's first complete Internet pharmacy. Launched in January 1999 as soma.com, CVS.com provides 24-hour-a-day access to registered pharmacists via the Internet or toll-free telephone number. CVS.com also offers standard or next-day delivery of quality prescriptions, over-the-counter medications, and health and beauty products. CVS.com is an online destination for health-related purchases and information on health conditions and issues authored by leading medical authorities. CVS.com provides customers the best-of-both-worlds convenience of online and offline pharmacy shopping. CVS.com accepts thousands of third-party plans and offers thousands of over-the-counter items at highly competitive prices, online or telephone ordering, in-store pick-up or home delivery of prescriptions, and direct toll-free access to CVS.com pharmacists at 888/607-4CVS. A CVS.com online media kit is available at http://www.businesswire.com/cnn/cvs.shtml.

About PalmGear H.Q.

PalmGear H.Q., a privately owned company, is the leading web site for Palm OS software, hardware, accessories and news. The site has won awards from or been featured in PC Magazine, ZDNet, Netscape, Yahoo!, Wired Magazine and many others by providing the web's most successful portal for bringing shareware developers and users together to promote the PalmOS community. PalmGear H.Q. is a development partner of Palm Computing and Handspring. For more information, visit PalmGear on the Web at www.palmgear.com.

About Retail Canada

RetailCanada.com is Canada's No. 1 shopping portal, enabling shoppers to easily and quickly find Canadian companies that supply products and services for their specific areas. It also enables computer users everywhere to take advantage of Canada's favorable currency exchange rate. Retail Canada can be reached at www.retailcanada.com.

Note to Editors: Actioneer is a registered trademark and Smart Portal is a trademark of Actioneer, Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective holders.