Netscape & future developments

[Robert Hettinga]

>
>Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 10:42:50 -0800
>From: wbarr at leland.stanford.edu (William P. Barr)
>To: apple-internet-providers at medraut.apple.com
>Subject: Netscape & future developments
>Message-ID: <v01510101ab41b9ba4234@[36.8.0.140]>
>
>Hello All,
>
>I just attended a talk given by Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape,
>and he had several interesting things to say that you all might be
>interested in.
>
>First off, Netscape plans to make the API to it's browser available to 3rd
>party developers in the near future.  With a list of over 1300 things users
>want added to the browser, he believes that other developers will be much
>more effective at filling the demand.  Could this move spawn the "Visual
>Basic" of the internet?  Perhaps ...
>
>Second, Netscape has formed some key partnerships.  Most notably, DEC and
>Sun will be redistributing Netscape server software through its channels.
>It has also created an alliance with Bank Of America and Mastercard for
>secured cash transactions.  Netscape is also providing all the servers for
>MCI's www services.
>
>Third, he said that by the end of this year, secured transactions will no
>longer be rare.  Currently the model of a transaction is:
>
>        Customer ---> Merchant ---> Card Issuer
>
>The new model will  be:
>
>        Customer ---> Card Issuer ---> Merchant
>
>This new model requires that you only have to trust your card issuer and
>the communications link from your machine to theirs.  The Card Issuer will
>then verify the credit and notify the merchant of the validity of the
>purchase.  There are two major ramifications:  First, you no longer have to
>worry about the integrity of the merchant; second, this will allow card
>issuers to change the rules for giving merchant status to businesses.  Marc
>predicted that by the end of the year, getting merchant status from several
>major card issuing banks will greatly simiplified, allowing dozens of
>businesses/services to spring up on the net, almost overnight.
>
>Finally, he said that the company is in the process of settling on a
>distributor to get the browser into the retail store-fronts.
>
>If you have any more questions, just ask.
>
>Bill
>
>*********************************************
>*William P. Barr                                        (415) 723-6632 (work)*
>*Multimedia Coordinator                          (415) 725-7398 (fax)   *
>*Stanford Computer Forum
>*
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>*USA                                      "My opinion is mine and only mine*
>*********************************************
>

-----------------
Robert Hettinga  (rah at shipwright.com) "There is no difference between someone
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