IN-BOX DIRECT SIMPLIFIES DELIVERY OF WEB PAGES.Byline: Dan Keating This article is about a recently deceased person. Some information, such as the circumstances of the person's death and surrounding events, may change rapidly as more facts become known. Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire The white-hot Internet provides the setting for an incredible stream of bold new technologies. New ways to scroll stock quotes across a computer screen, faster ways to ship graphics or animations across the network. Video-teleconferencing, television on demand, audio flowing without breaks or hesitations, interactive magazines and publications of all sorts. Games. Information. Electronic commerce. Breakthroughs. While most of the efforts are noteworthy for achieving some sort of technological wizardry wiz·ard·ry n. pl. wiz·ard·ries 1. The art, skill, or practice of a wizard; sorcery. 2. a. A power or effect that appears magical by its capacity to transform: , many disappear under the tidal wave tidal wave, term properly applied to the crest of a tide as it moves around the earth. The wavelike upstream rush of water caused by the incoming tide in some locations is known as a tidal bore. of progress. When I find an innovation that really works for me, I get excited. That's how I feel about an innovation from Netscape called In-Box Direct, available when using its latest product, Netscape Navigator An earlier Web browser for Windows, Macintosh and X Windows from Netscape that provided secure transmission over the Internet. Soon after its introduction in 1994, Navigator, or just "Netscape," as it was commonly called, quickly became the leading browser on the Web. 3.0 and its built-in e-mail reader See e-mail program. . It lets World Wide Web publishers send Web pages directly to your e-mailbox. While Netscape has pioneered this move and has already signed up more than 20 information providers, the technology is sufficiently straightforward that I'm sure Netscape's biggest competitor, Microsoft, will soon follow suit. And I think there will be countless publishers, as the In-Box Direct idea opens new doors for delivering information. In-Box Direct merges the visual and creative power of the graphical World Wide Web, with the simple delivery of e-mail. In-Box Direct is the equivalent of the first magazine publisher to say, ``Hey, wait. Our readers don't have to buy every issue of the magazine at the newsstand. We could have the magazines delivered right to people's homes!'' The technology behind it isn't mesmerizing mes·mer·ize tr.v. mes·mer·ized, mes·mer·iz·ing, mes·mer·iz·es 1. To spellbind; enthrall: "He could mesmerize an audience by the sheer force of his presence" . World Wide Web pages are made up of two components. The first is a simple text file that has the words for the page, and also has instructions that control how things are arranged on the page and what parts of the page will be hypertext links. The text also names the other component of pages: special files to be inserted into the text. When the Web started, the special files were graphical images to brighten bright·en tr. & intr.v. bright·ened, bright·en·ing, bright·ens To make or become bright or brighter. bright up pages. Now they can also include video clips, sound, animations, little interactive programs, scrolling banners and more. The complexity of pages has increased tenfold tenfold Adjective 1. having ten times as many or as much 2. composed of ten parts Adverb by ten times as many or as much Adj. 1. over the past year. But pages are still made up of the two components: the text file with words and instructions, and the special add-in files named in the text file. When your World Wide Web browsing software reads the text file of a page you've asked to see, the software reads the instructions and the names of the other files needed to build the page. It then automatically requests those other files (the pictures, etc.) from wherever they reside on the worldwide network. Your browser follows the instructions and assembles the parts into the page that you see on your computer screen. In-Box Direct uses this technology. But it just makes it easier by sending the text file to you as e-mail. Netscape's e-mail reader can decipher Same as decrypt. the instructions used to build World Wide Web pages. As it reads the text, it creates the page, and summons the other elements needed from wherever they are on the Internet. All of a sudden, you've got World Wide Web pages delivered right to your computer. The Web page has all the advantages of normal Web pages. You can click on hyper-linked words to jump to somewhere else. You can see pictures. The page can have moving animations. So an on-line publisher can send you the front page of every issue, or the table of contents. By taking a hypertext link from the Web page in the e-mail, you will be instantly connected to that issue of the publication. You don't have to go out looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. it anymore. Many of the In-Box Direct information providers are combining this ease of delivery with personalized per·son·al·ize tr.v. per·son·al·ized, per·son·al·iz·ing, per·son·al·iz·es 1. To take (a general remark or characterization) in a personal manner. 2. To attribute human or personal qualities to; personify. systems. Yahoo's My Yahoo lets you pick specific stock quotes, sports teams and news topics that interest you. It delivers an ``updates'' sheet to your computer every day. The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times Direct will send the newspaper's front page, or another page if you prefer, to your e-mail box daily. HotWired, the on-line version of Wired magazine, delivers a colorful page with catchy descriptions of its big stories each day. You might wonder how companies can afford to deliver personalized information. The In-Box Direct tools are free, for now, but some might start charging a subscription price. Also, advertisements are part of the automatically delivered e-mail Web page. I have some fear that this might increase the flow of junk e-mail See spam. . But deleting unwanted e-mail is not difficult, and reputable e-mailers give you the option to ask them to desist. The technological advance needed to make In-Box Direct possible was having an e-mail reader that could decipher World Wide Web instructions. That was easy for Netscape, since its specialty is the Netscape Navigator Web browsing software. It's not easy to pinpoint the jewels in the rocky heaps of new technology flying at us, but if you check it out, I think you'll agree that In-Box Direct will be with us for a long time. If you want to use In-Box Direct, you need Netscape Navigator 3.0 software. You can download the software from http://home.netscape.com You can also find the In-Box Direct information and sign up at that location. |
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