RealNames Internet Keywords Help Consumers Avoid Confusion as New Web Addresses are Introduced.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 16, 2000

Dot Com, Dot Retail, Dot Whatever -- With Internet Keywords,

A Web Address Is Simply a Brand Name

The ICANN Board (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is about to name new top-level domains (TLDs), those extensions on the end of Web addresses like dot com, dot org, and dot net. The new TLDs have been created to ease the shortage of dot com Web addresses, but in fact will likely increase the confusion for Web surfers seeking to find sites. There will be no easy way to know whether a Web site ends in dot com, dot net or dot something else. Meanwhile, RealNames Corporation is offering a solution that works with the current system but eases the resulting confusion over the new extensions. Unlike the current domain name system, which requires people to remember long, complicated Web addresses to go to the sites they seek, RealNames Internet Keywords offer a better Web addressing system that is intuitive, user-friendly, and based on common names.

In response to the anticipated new Web address extensions, RealNames CEO and founder Keith Teare said, "The Internet needs a modernized addressing system that is easy for consumers to use and remember and will protect a company's brand online. RealNames Keywords work on Internet-enabled devices as well as desktop systems, in a user's own language and alphabet, and are awarded to a company or person based on what users expect to find when the name is entered, instead of to the first person who registers it. And Keywords are intuitive -- if you know a brand or product name, you already know how to find it online."

With Internet Keywords, end users can access information about specific products, people, organizations, or businesses directly by typing in the name. For instance, to find information about the Panasonic DVD player, Internet users simply enter "Panasonic DVD" into the address bar of the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser or into leading search and portal sites to go directly to the page about that particular product. Without Internet Keywords, a consumer is forced to remember a long, arcane string of "www," backslashes, hyphens, dot com, dot org, dot gov, etc. Or, the user must click through numerous levels of Web pages before, hopefully, finding the right destination. How many people would think to type in http://www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/dvd/index.htm to find information about a Panasonic DVD player?

The current domain name system is difficult to use and becoming more complex with the addition of new TLDs. It isn't set-up for familiar identities of people, organizations, brands, or companies. Not only does the current system require a special syntax to access Web sites, it was never intended to support the explosive number of global users. Internet Keywords are able to scale for global needs and don't require people to use the English alphabet and numerals in the address bar. For the first time, people can navigate the Web using their native language and character sets including Kanji, Chinese, Korean, and Arabic. Internet Keywords are platform agnostic, expanding beyond the desktop to set-tops, handhelds, wireless devices, and in the future even voice-activated applications, where long URLs are even more unwieldy and ineffective. While the current Web addressing system is slowly being transformed to meet the present-day challenges of the Web, the RealNames Internet Keyword system is already in place and easing consumer frustrations.

"RealNames Keyword technology can help improve the current architecture by making it more extensible, scaleable, and global," said Teare. "The Internet Keyword interface, which rides on top of the Domain Name System, DNS, is more user-friendly and enables an improved Web experience in a user's own language across all types of devices."

About RealNames Corporation

RealNames Corporation, a market leader in Internet Keyword navigation, develops and markets products and services that simplify Web navigation and enable media convergence. Major brands can use RealNames products and services to help improve their return on total advertising spending by unifying their identity online and offline. 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 infrastructure to improve directory look-up and search results. Founded in 1996, RealNames is based in Redwood City, Calif. with offices in New York City, London, Hamburg, Tokyo and Seoul. For more information, please use Internet Keyword: RealNames to visit our Web site.

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