Seeing the Web Through Another Person's Eyes: ATDC
Member Company TogetherWeb Enables Collaborative Browsing -- and a
New Level of Interaction
Advanced Technology Development Center
June 15,
2000
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 Web site? And 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. 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,
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 expert
sites, Web portals, e-commerce 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 or operation
issues.
"The service is integrated into their Web site and has
their look and feel," Hargett explained. "From the user's
standpoint, it will appear that their favorite site is providing
them a new service. TogetherWeb will be in the background."
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 them in their trip
through the Web.
"Everywhere you go on the Web, that person - or group
of people - goes with you and receives the same pages you do,"
Hargett explained. "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 or 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 explained. "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
company 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 share an unusual hobby: skydiving.
Hargett, the company's President and CEO, has worked with computer
systems and Internet architecture for such companies as MCI
Communications and PaineWebber. Before launching TogetherWeb, he led
an application group at Compaq Computer Corp. in Houston.
The company's chief technology officer is Kirk Bauer,
a 12-year programming veteran even though he is a senior pursuing a
computer engineering degree at Georgia Tech. The third founder is
Bill Thomasson, a Georgia Tech graduate who leads the company's
client architecture effort. TogetherWeb recently hired Jamie Graves
as its Chief Operating Officer and acting CFO. Graves brings the
company experience as an attorney with Long Aldridge & Norman
LLP, and as a CPA with PriceWaterhouse.
Hargett said the company was attracted to the ATDC
"because of its track record at working with technology companies
and the instant recognition ATDC companies receive from the business
community."
Link to
TogetherWeb's ATDC company profile.
