America Online and the Knot Globally Expand Relationship; The Knot Will be Premier Wedding Content and Gift Registry Provider Across AOL International Services Worldwide.

Business Editors

NEW YORK and DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 3, 2000

The Knot (NASDAQ: KNOT), the leading online wedding resource, and America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL), the world's leading interactive services company, today announced they would expand their long-term relationship internationally, making The Knot the premier wedding content provider across AOL International services worldwide through the year 2003.

Under the new agreement, The Knot (www.theknot.com; AOL keyword: weddings) will have a premier presence in weddings areas across the AOL International online services including those in Brazil, the UK, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and Canada, as well as some of AOL's other international brands.

The Knot provides in-depth wedding planning information, tools, and community for engaged couples among AOL's more than 22 million members.

AOL International and its joint venture affiliates operate the localized AOL and CompuServe branded Internet online services in 14 countries and in seven languages. Their non-U.S. membership has surpassed 4.4 million, making AOL the #1 global Internet online service.

The Knot launched in September 1996 as AOL's premier wedding content provider and extended its agreement with America Online in 1999 to be the primary wedding content provider domestically across AOL, CompuServe, AOL.COM, and Netscape Netcenter.

"The Knot has been providing AOL's audience in America with best-in-class wedding planning services for the past four years. We are very pleased to be expanding our relationship with The Knot globally," said Michael Lynton, President of AOL International. "The Knot is known for its wide range of innovative and easy-to-use features. Through this agreement, we'll be extending the convenience of online wedding planning tools to consumers around the world."

"We are dedicated to bringing the same brand of success to the AOL international community that we have established with AOL in America," said David Liu, CEO of The Knot. "The Knot is thrilled to expand our relationship with AOL to bring wedding planning advice and tools to brides across the globe. The expansion of our relationship with AOL into international markets is a natural step for us as part of our strategy to be the dominant wedding brand worldwide."

About The Knot

The Knot (www.theknot.com; AOL keyword: weddings) is the leading online wedding destination and the premier wedding content provider on America Online and several other of AOL's leading brands. Combining comprehensive content and an active online community with wedding-related commerce, the Company's online sites provide extensive resources to help couples plan their wedding and future lives together as a couple.

The Knot also provides certain offline services to the wedding market such as a series of books with Random House's Broadway Books, a semiannual gown magazine called Wedding Gowns, and Weddingpages, regional wedding magazines in over 50 U.S. markets. Internationally, The Knot has a joint venture with luxury goods retailer H. Stern to launch a Portuguese-language wedding website and gift registry that will target the to-be-wed market in Brazil.

Based in New York, The Knot (NASDAQ: KNOT) is backed by AOL, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, and Interactive Technology Holdings LLC (formerly known as QVC).

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

About AOL, Inc.

Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc., based in Dulles, Virginia, is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies, and e-commerce services. America Online, Inc. operates: two worldwide Internet services, America Online, with more than 22 million members, and CompuServe, with more than 2.7 million members; several leading Internet brands including ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger and Digital City, Inc.; the Netscape Netcenter and AOL.COM portals; Netscape 6 and the Netscape Navigator and Communicator browsers; AOL MovieFone, the nation's #1 movie listing guide and ticketing service; and Spinner.com and NullSoft's Winamp, leaders in Internet music. Through its strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems, the company develops and offers easy-to-deploy, end-to-end e-commerce and enterprise solutions for companies operating in the Net Economy.

This release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Among the important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are (i) the Company's unproven business model and limited operating history, (ii) the Company's history of losses and expectation of significant losses for the foreseeable future, (iii) the Company's lack of significant revenues and the risk that it may be unable to adjust spending quickly enough to offset any unexpected revenue shortfall, (iv) the significant fluctuation to which the Company's quarterly revenues and operating results are subject, (v) the Company's reliance on AOL, QVC and a small number of sponsors and advertisers, (vi) the seasonality of the wedding industry and (vi) other factors detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q. Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.