[BusinessTeam] lycos intelligent portal deal

Message-ID: <6B75EF096AE0BE428B8CEDEA89C5F632783290@exchange01.lab49.com> · Mon Oct 09 22:14:42 2000 UTC

Lycos Asia launches 'intelligent' portal assistant 
by Terho Uimonen, IDG News Service\Taipei Bureau 
October 06, 2000, 23:08 	
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(10/06/2000) - As part of a broader strategic alliance agreement,
pan-Asian Internet portal Lycos Asia and Mindmaker announced on Thursday
the launch of NETi, an "intelligent," Web-based portal assistant software
offering.

NETi, which can help users with services ranging from entertainment to
checking e-mail, is now available for free download from Lycos Asia's
Singapore and Malaysia sites, the companies said in a joint statement.

Next, NETi will be rolled out to Lycos Asia's Indian and Philippine sites
by the end of October, and by early next year, the companies expect to
bring the product to Chinese-speaking markets of Hong Kong, Taiwan and
China. Lycos Asia later this year plans to launch additional localized
portals in Asia, the company said.

Available in two iterations, users can choose between basic version of
NETi includes animation, text-based communication and link connection to
Web sites, or an enhanced version which also includes text-to-speech
capabilities.

The software runs on any PC with Microsoft's Windows 9x/ME or Windows
NT/2000 operating system, with Internet Explorer 4.0 and DCOM 1.3
installed.

The offering marks the beginning of a strategic partnership between Lycos
Asia and Mindmaker, a San Jose, California-based developer of intelligent
portal assistants, speech interfaces and other artificial intelligence
technologies.

Together, the companies aim to explore opportunities for the
commercialization, application and deployment of Web-based intelligent
assistants.

Lycos Asia is a joint venture between Waltham, Massachusetts-based Lycos
and Singapore Telecommunications.

Lycos Asia, in Singapore, can be reached via the web at
http://www.lycosasia.com <http://www.lycosasia.com/> /. Mindmaker, in San
Jose, California, is at +1-408-467-9200, or at http://www.mindmaker.com/.

Luke Flemmer
VP Strategic Ventures
nano
phone: (212) 402-7870
fax:      (212) 430-6374
www.nano.com <http://www.nano.com/> 