Internet Pundit Bob Metcalfe Calls for New Web Addressing System As Part of his Agenda for 2001; RealNames Well-Positioned to Drive Change with Internet Keywords.

Business Editors

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 25, 2000

Respected technology pundit Bob Metcalfe recently acknowledged the critical need for a new Web addressing system, or naming layer, to reside atop the existing Domain Naming System (DNS) in the Internet architecture. Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet and founder of 3Com, noted the growing consensus among computer technology executives that the current DNS system - with its sometimes arcane and often long "www's," slashes, symbols and ".com," ".net," or ".org" endings - is cumbersome to use and isn't set up for brand or company names, or other familiar identities.

The call for a better naming service came during Metcalfe's annual summation last week at the Agenda 2001 conference, in which he proposed an industry agenda for the coming year. The directive occurred as a result of conference discussion among attendees and speakers who examined where the Internet is going in a global sense, including what it will look like in 10 years and how it will translate to new devices and platforms.

"The Internet is going through an identity crisis," said Bob Metcalfe. "DNS was never intended for today's purposes - it's a simple address intended to lighten the administrative burdens of finding things on the Internet. Higher-level locating and searching, based on content, subject or company names should have long ago mooted the DNS system."

Metcalfe's comments were made during a panel discussion featuring Ed Zander, President and COO of Sun Microsystems, Mike Capellas, President and CEO of Compaq, and Ellen Hancock, Chairman and CEO of Exodus Communications, and again later in a discussion with Steve Ballmer, President and CEO of Microsoft Corporation. These and other technology industry leaders joined Metcalfe in declaring DNS an outdated system incapable of modernization because of its inability to provide the user-friendly interface that should greet consumers, as well as the problems it poses for new platforms and current business processes.

"To get endorsement of the need for a new naming system from such a well-known technology leader as Bob Metcalfe suggests that the industry is ready to discuss what comes next, after DNS, and opens the door for widespread consideration and adoption of alternatives," said Keith Teare, CEO and founder of RealNames Corporation. "DNS is not extensible, scaleable, or global. These are major limitations for the naming backbone of the future Internet. We believe we have the perfect solution here at RealNames with Internet Keywords, our open, standards-based extension to Internet naming, which stands above DNS and interfaces more directly and intuitively with users."

Consumer Benefits of the Internet Keyword Naming System

The RealNames Internet Keyword system allows users of Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 3.0 and higher), as well as search engines and portals such as MSN, AltaVista, Inktomi, Google, Go2Net, the GO Network, and others, to type in the name of a company or product to go directly to the official site, without having to enter a long and cumbersome URL.

Beginning last Spring, Microsoft Internet Explorer added native support for RealNames Internet Keywords Extensions, so users can now go directly to a very specific page within a Web site. "Panasonic DVD" can be typed right into the address bar on the browser, without having to type the entire URL or link from the home page. For example, typing "Panasonic DVD" would take a user to http://www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/dvd/index.htm on the DVD page of the Panasonic USA Web site.

International users also benefit greatly from RealNames Internet Keywords because, until now, there hasn't been a way for users to directly navigate the Internet using anything but the English alphabet. URLs are restricted to a relatively small number of characters and do not recognize spaces, accents and other language character sets such as Kanji, Chinese, Korean or Arabic.

About RealNames Corporation

RealNames Corporation, an Internet infrastructure company and market leader in Internet Keyword navigation, develops and markets products and services that simplify Web navigation and transform brands into interactive response vehicles. Major brands use RealNames products and services to help improve their return on total advertising spending by unifying their identity across platforms and media. Internet Keywords have been integrated into Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, and are used by leading search and portal sites such as MSN, AltaVista, Inktomi, Google, Go2Net, and the GO Network as part of their infrastructures to improve directory look-up and search results. A privately held company founded in 1997, RealNames counts Microsoft and VeriSign as stockholders. The company is based in Redwood City, California with offices in New York City, London, Hamburg, Tokyo and Seoul. For more information, please use Internet Keyword: RealNames to visit our Web site.

RealNames, RealNames System, RealNames Service, Real Name Service and RNS are either service marks or registered service marks of RealNames Corporation.

To access the RealNames press center go to: Internet Keyword: RealNames Press Room