Synchronus Surfin'
 |
Ever wanted to surf the Web with friends or relatives who live in another city, or wished you could chat with other visitors at your favorite website?
Imagine online technical support in which an expert leads you to a page containing just the information you need and answers your questions there.
Atlanta start-up company TogetherWeb Inc. Has launched the beta version of a product that will create a new level of interactivity on the Web by doing just that.
A member of the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), the company was founded in February by a team of Georgia Tech graduates and students and it already has seven full-time employees.
"TogetherWeb enables Internet users to collaboratively browse the WEb and interact in real-time, allowing people to guide, teach, learn, help and advise dynamically," said Rick Hargett, IE 98, president and CEO of the company. "We are building the infrastructure on which a whole new form of simultaneous, synchronous communications will travel. No longer will the Web have to be a solitary experience."
An application service provider (ASP), TogetherWeb will market its product, SimulSurf, to online guide and training sites. The product will be incorporated into the services offered by the sites, taking on their look and feel. But thanks to the company's ASP approach, customer sites will not deal with integration of operation issues.
"From the user's standpoint, it will appear that their favorite site is providing them a new service. TogetherWeb will be in the background," Hargett explained.
For TogetherWeb's Web site customers, the product will provide a new way to interact with visitors. Hosts employed by the sites and experienced users there will interact with visitors, providing information, answering questions and leading them to related sites, including e-commerce locations. Site hosts could remain with the visitors even as they surf to other sites, maintaining the customer relationship across the Web, Hargett said.
For a Web user, the experience would begin with a visit to a site offering SimulSurf. Clicking a button would download and automatically install the software, which integrates with the user's copy of Microsoft Internet Explorer. After registering, the user could send e-mail inviting friends to join in a trip through the Web.
Everywhere you go on the Web, that person or group of people goes with you and recieves the same pages you do," Hargett said. "You can lead a whole group through the Web and communicate with them through a real-time chat."
At each site they visit, registered users will see a list of TogetherWeb users already at that site and be able to chat with them or join trips to other sites. At customer support of other guide sites, users would be able to ask questions from experts and be led to pages containing product information or e-commerce applications.
Users going to any site on the Web, whether a business site, advice site or a user's own page, will enter an instant community and be able to see a list of the other TogetherWeb users," Hargett said. "They will be able to interact with those users as part of one big community regardless of where they started. Every Web site can be an instant community."
Hargett believes the high level of interactivity will appeal to guide sites, whose visitors now must wait for answers. "When you go to a guide site, you want an answer right now. You don't want to have to post a question then come back the next day for an answer."
Users have the option of selecting "private mode," in which they cannot be observed by other TogetherWeb users or the ocmpany itself. To protect the privacy of transactions, SimulSurf automatically puts the user into private mode when entering a secure server page.
TogetherWeb supports Internet Explorer 5 on Windows 95, 98, 2000 and NT machines. Compatibility may be expanded to other browsers and Macintosh machines in the future.
The company was founded by three Georgia Tech software engineers who met because they shared an unusual hobby: skydiving. Hargett, the company's president and CEO, has worked with computer systems and Internet architecture for companies including MCI Communications and Paine-Webber.
Before launching TogetherWEb, he led an application group at Compaq Computer Corp. in Houston.
The company's cheif technology officer is Kirk Bauer, a 12-year programming veteran even though he is currently a senior computer engineering major at Georgia Tech.
The third founder is Bill Thomasson, CS 92, who leads the company's client architecture effort. TogetherWeb recently hired Jaime Graves as its Chief Operating Officer and acting CFO. Graves brings the company experience as an attorney with Long Aldrige & Norman LLP and as a CPA with PriceWaterhouse.
Hargett said that the company was attracted to ATDC "because of its
track record at working with technology companies and the instant
recognition ATDC companies receive from the business community."
©2000 Georgia Tech Alumni Association
