LinkStar Announces Site Launcher: The First Solution for Publishing Web Sites Instantly And Promoting Their Content to Search Engines.

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 26, 1996--LinkStar Communications Corporation today introduced LinkStar Site Launcher(TM), the first World Wide Web publishing software application that provides Internet novices and experts alike with a simple, automated, and cost-effective way to publish and promote content on the Internet. With the click of a mouse, the free software uploads Web pages from any PC to LinkStar's or a licensee's Web server, where they are automatically added to the LinkStar Internet Directory and submitted to other popular Internet search engines.

LinkStar Communications will demonstrate the new software at Seybold Seminars Boston 96 (Booth No. 1015), held February 28-March 1, 1996 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

"LinkStar Site Launcher enables millions of Internet users to become instant, on-line publishers by eliminating the need to learn and use complex computer codes and network protocols or hire a consultant to upload a Web page onto an operating server. It also eliminates the need to purchase their own server and hire personnel to run it," said Stewart Padveen, president of LinkStar Communications.

LinkStar Site Launcher software will be available for free downloading from the LinkStar Web site (http://www.linkstar.com) in mid-March. The new software will be integrated into some of the Internet's most popular authoring tools -- including Brooklyn North Software Work's HTML Assistant and HTML Assistant Pro, Kenn Nesbitt's WebEdit, and Tashcom's TC-DIRECTOR -- is expected to soon be shipped with Boca Research, Inc.'s high-speed modems, and is being licensed to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as CyberGate, Inc., Florida's largest access provider.

The software is designed to help make Web publishing easy for everybody, especially for individuals and the estimated 13.9 million businesses with less than 50 employees. Currently less than one quarter of one percent of these businesses have Web sites, primarily due to limited budgets, according to research by The Yankee Group, a Boston-based market research firm.

"LinkStar's Site Launcher opens the door for individuals and businesses with limited budgets to focus their resources on building content, while completely automating the most critical process in the creation of a Web site," said Steve Franco, program manager for The Yankee Group's Interactive Commerce Research and Consulting practice. "The complexity of uploading files to an Internet host has been reduced to a mere button click."

Site Launcher is the first commercially available software based on the industry-standard hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) to completely replace the complex file transfer protocol (FTP) normally used when uploading files to a Web server. LinkStar has applied for a patent on this Simple Web Update Protocol (SWUP (TM)) client/server technology.

"LinkStar Site Launcher software is designed to be extremely easy-to-use," explained Dirk Herr-Hoyman, vice president of technology at LinkStar. "This product removes virtually all technical and economic barriers to on-line publishing." The new software may be used with any HTML authoring tool, word processor, or other Web authoring system -- it even supports complex Web sites created with Java.

LinkStar Site Launcher software runs on Windows 3.1, Windows 95, or Windows NT and requires 4 MB of RAM. Users require only a standard Winsock-TCP/IP connection to the Internet available through any Internet access provider worldwide. A Macintosh version, running on System 7 or higher and requiring 4 MB of RAM, will be available in the third quarter of 1996.

Creates Robust Web Sites Instantly

LinkStar Site Launcher software is designed to automatically upload content developed with any Web authoring software from a PC to LinkStar's or a licensee's server. Web sites created with Site Launcher software can include text, graphics, audio, and video -- incorporating advanced HTML features including image maps and order and feedback forms. It supports complex Web sites created in Java or featuring Java applications.

Users simply connect to the Internet, select the appropriate HTML and related files, click a mouse button, and their files are instantly sent to LinkStar's servers -- where their Web site is automatically created and incorporated into the LinkStar Internet Directory and submitted to other popular Internet search engines such as WebCrawler, Lycos, Alta Vista, InfoSeek, Excite, Open Text Index, World Wide Web Worm, and Inktomi.

Users instantly receive a URL (http://pages.linkstar.com/NAME), and have the option of registering and using their own domain name. Once their files are uploaded, users receive an on-screen message confirming the Web site's existence and exact URL. LinkStar Site Launcher software allows users to create or edit a Web site 24 hours a days, seven days a week.

"One of the most compelling features of the system is the automatic, on-line promotion of a Web site," said Vince Gelormine, LinkStar's director of business development and author of "Get 'Em! How to Promote and Market Your Web Site." "LinkStar Site Launcher provides a great head start by automatically submitting a Web site's URL to the most popular Internet search engines. This unique feature addresses the frequent problem of how Web sites are found on the ever-growing Internet."

Site Launcher is a client/server technology. LinkStar's business model is to broadly distribute the client software for free and through strategic partnerships with software developers, hardware vendors and ISPs. The server side technology will be licensed to ISPs and other companies.

When using the software, people select a billing method that will automatically bill their credit cards or checking account based on the size of their Web site. LinkStar will host Web sites on its own server at these rates:

o $9.95/month for the first 100 Kb

o $19.95/month for up to 1 Mb

o $10.00/month for each additional 1 Mb

LinkStar's servers support secure Internet commerce, enabling its customers to create Web sites to conduct secure on-line transactions. There is no limit to the size of a Web site that may be created, no additional charges involved and no contracts required with LinkStar Communications.

Strategic Partners

LinkStar Communications is partnering with Internet industry leaders to provide its new LinkStar Site Launcher software to a worldwide consumer and business market. Initial strategic partners include:

o Brooklyn North Software Works, which will incorporate LinkStar Site Launcher into its popular HTML Assistant and HTML Assistant Pro authoring software;

o Kenn Nesbitt's WebEdit, which will incorporate LinkStar Web Publisher software into its widely used WebEdit software;

o Tashcom, a Netherlands-based company which will incorporate LinkStar Site Launcher software into its TC-DIRECTOR authoring software;

o SoftQuad, which is considering incorporating LinkStar Site Launcher software into its well-known HoTMetaL HTML authoring program;

o Boca Research, Inc., is expecting to ship the software with all its high-speed modem products;

o Digital Consulting, Inc. (DCI), of Andover, MA; LATCOM of Miami, FL; National Seminars Group of Shawnee Mission, KS; NetCom Expos of Boca Raton, FL, and others which will distribute the software to people attending their Internet conferences and expositions;

o CyberGate, Inc., Florida's largest Internet access provider, which will license the new LinkStar technology; and,

o InterPoint Internet Communications, Inc., another Florida- based access provider, which also will license the new LinkStar technology.

"We are actively seeking out and welcome revenue-sharing business partnerships that facilitate distribution of our LinkStar Site Launcher software and LinkStar Internet Directory," said Padveen.

LinkStar Internet Directory

LinkStar Site Launcher software and the LinkStar Internet Directory work together to provide a completely integrated, end- to-end solution for finding, publishing and promoting people and businesses on the Internet.

The LinkStar Internet Directory is a next-generation, highly accurate Internet search engine that allows anyone to have an instant, free, entry-level presence on the World Wide Web.

The heart of the LinkStar Directory is its free "e-Card" system. Any Internet user with an e-mail address can easily fill out an electronic business card -- an "e-Card" -- that is accessible and searchable by any other World Wide Web user. The e-Card includes standard business card information, as well as a variety of options which allow entrants to describe their companies' products and services, and index their description in a wide range of categories. In addition, the e-Card provides an automatic hot link from the e-Card listing to the entrant's e-mail address and/or World Wide Web home page URL.

Anybody with a home page can also create their own free, personalized version of the LinkStar Directory simply by adding some HTML code -- provided free by LinkStar -- to their Home Page.

LinkStar Communications Corporation, a privately held company based in Deerfield Beach, Florida, is developing products that will provide a complete, end-to-end solution for searching, publishing, promoting and communicating on the Internet's World Wide Web. The company's goal is to make it easy and cost-effective for individuals and businesses to productively publish on, use and conduct business on the Web. Founded in 1994, the company can be reached at http://www.linkstar.com, [e-mail], or (954) 426-LINK. -0-

LinkStar, the LinkStar Internet Directory, LinkStar Site Launcher, and SWUP are trademarks of LinkStar Communications Corporation. All other products mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Bridgette King

LinkStar Communications Corporation

Tel: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

OR

Kevin Rudden or Derek Lane

Parker, Nichols & Company, Inc.

Tel: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail] or

[e-mail]