Firefly -- the Web's personal entertainment source -- adds movie recommendations.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 12, 1996--Agents Inc. today announced major enhancements to its Firefly personalized entertainment service (www.ffly.com), including the addition of movie information, targeted advertising and a more dynamic and easy-to-use interface.

Also, in the first week of Firefly 2.0's availability, more than 15 leading marketers, from AT&T to Saturn, have signed on as charter Firefly advertisers.

Firefly 2.0 offers its members a free intelligent agent that they can teach to provide them with personalized recommendations on music and movies based on their likes or dislikes. Members can also use their agent to find others in the Firefly community with similar tastes, making Firefly the first and only dynamic community on the World Wide Web.

The new movie area of Firefly 2.0 draws from The All Movie Guide, a definitive reference guide with reviews of thousands of movies. The movie area features movie reviews, plot synopses, cast links and links to actors containing filmography, biographies and movie facts. Members can rate and review movies just as they rate music on Firefly today. The more a member rates albums and movies, the more personalized Firefly's recommendations become. Additionally, members have one-button access to easily see all of their own ratings and can make any desired changes as their tastes change.

"Our unique intelligent agent technology has already made Firefly a groundbreaking site on the Web," said Nick Grouf, CEO of Agents Inc. "With the combination of movies and music, Firefly members will be able to experience an even richer sense of personalization and community on the Web. The addition of movies four weeks after our initial launch is the model for how we will leverage our proprietary agent technology into even more areas -- including books, Web sites, financial services and travel -- and enable our partners to offer a more personalized experience for their customers."

New Features to Customize the Firefly Experience

Firefly now supports Netscape frames which enables the display of multiple, independently scrollable panels on a single screen. As a result, Firefly now has a navigational bar available from anywhere on the site. This allows members to easily reach any of Firefly's main areas: Movies, Music, People, Buzz and Home. Firefly also now automatically displays a member's last five places visited within Firefly, making navigation between the areas easier.

Firefly's Buzz page, featuring open and private chat rooms for members to communicate with each other, now automatically refreshes when members submit new messages, facilitating real-time conversation. Members can talk to each other in the chat rooms or exchange private messages or "whispers" with another member anywhere on the site. Members can leverage their intelligent agent to find other people within the Firefly community who have shared tastes and to whom they can communicate through real-time chat or one-to-one messaging.

Firefly's Notification feature lets members know when other previously-specified members come on to the site. It also notifies members when a new movie or music review by a specified Firefly member is available. Additionally, Firefly can let a member know when others are visiting the same page, so that members can immediately discuss and share their interests.

With new "predicted ratings" members can ask their agent whether or not they will like a particular artist, album, actor or movie based on their past ratings. For example, if a member comes across an album or movie they are not familiar with, they can ask their agent what it believes their opinion might be.

Each member's personal Home page now includes a "hot list" of and links to favorite Web sites. Unlike other Web sites, when a Firefly member links to another site on the Internet, the Firefly navigation bar remains on-screen at all times. This makes it easy for members to still take advantage of Firefly's community and communication capability even when surfing on another site on the Internet.

Firefly takes members through the complete buying process, from product interest to secure purchase. Firefly features a convenient "shopping cart" button for members who want to purchase music their agent and other members of the community have recommended to them. Currently, members can securely purchase more than 100,000 CDs, albums and singles of almost any musical artist, including imports. Agents Inc. plans to offer the ability to purchase movies in the near future.

Marketers Can Reach Consumers With Personalized, `One-to-One' Messages

Firefly finally delivers on the promise of "pointcasting" on the World Wide Web -- the ability to deliver relevant information to each member on a personal basis and to measure the message's effectiveness. In less than one week, Agents Inc. has signed more than 15 leading international marketers as Firefly advertisers, including AT&T, Sprint, MCI's 1-800 Music Now, Bantam Doubleday Dell, BMG, Columbia Records, Duracell, IBM, Master Card, Saturn, Sun Microsystems, Stolichnaya Vodka, US Satellite Broadcasting, Site Specific, an Internet advertising agency; and N2K Inc., a provider of on-line music shopping through Music Boulevard.

Firefly's intelligent agent technology ensurers marketers' messages are delivered to the appropriate individuals. Marketers can target members by entertainment preferences (i.e., music and movie tastes), age, gender, zip codes, country information, domain, computing platform and Internet browser type. By not asking for members' names or addresses, Firefly guarantees to maintain the privacy and integrity of information about its membership.

In the spirit of its community and as a service to advertisers, Firefly now offers members the opportunity to communicate directly with the companies that want to market to them. Members can review advertising banners according to how successful marketers have been in creatively targeting their messages and rate each advertiser's message based on its relevance, similar to the way they rate an album or movie on the site.

"Music, movies and advertising are universal topics of conversation," said Grouf. "With Firefly, we have created a truly interactive space on the Web that not only brings people together in a global community but also gives them a voice to express their opinions on these topics."

Since its debut earlier this year, Firefly has established itself as a destination site for Internet users looking for personalized music recommendations. In addition to ratings, recommendations and reviews, Firefly offers many other features, including audio samples of albums, personal home pages and Flypaper, an on-line magazine. Flypaper will soon feature real-time chat with a variety of local and international bands.

Originating from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's world-renowned Media Lab, Agents Inc. with headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. is a privately held company. The company's investment partners include Atlas Venture, an international venture capital firm based in Boston, focusing on information technology and life sciences investments; and Merrill Lynch, a leading financial management and advisory company based in New York.

CONTACT: Agents Inc.

Saul Klein, 617/234-5426

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Cunningham Communication Inc.

Susan Earabino, 617/494-8202 ext. 248

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