Programs Make Surfing More Communal
Despite the millions of people around the world surfing the Web, traveling through cyberspace can feel at times like walking through a dense jungle full of flora and fauna, but no people.
Thousands of surfers can be on the same Web page, but for all you know, you are there by yourself. The only indicator of being with others is the grinding delays in loading images and text.
Surfing, at times, is like drinking in a bar by yourself.
Everything about the Web screams for communal activities. It was only a matter of time before someone figured out how to break the loneliness of the surfer and make their journeys communal.
In just the last few months, a small group of programs have begun to appear that work like radar, identifying other users who are looking at the same page as you and then allowing you to chat with them.
It is a small addition to the world of Web surfing, but one that holds the possibility of redefining the way we seek information on the Internet.
Imagine the possibilities. You’re looking at an EBay auction and you can now ask someone if the price is right or if the seller is a decent person. You’re looking at a Web page dedicated to Janis Joplin and you can chat with another die-hard fan and find out about other Joplin sites.
The tools now on the market include Odigo, NetElement, Gooey, Third Voice and Utok--all free, although they are only available for IBM-compatible computers using Windows 95, 98 or NT 4.0. Each one is a little different, but they are all held together by the idea of allowing Web users to contact others who are following similar paths through cyberspace.
Odigo is perhaps the most fully developed of the bunch. Part of the program, whose name comes from the Greek word for “guide,” is very similar to other instant messaging programs like ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger and the MSN Messenger Service.
Each Odigo user has a nickname and when they’re online, Odigo will send an alert so you can chat with them, regardless of where they are.
But Odigo, which was released a few months ago, leaps past the other instant messengers with a little radar screen that shows you all the other Odigo users who are on the same Web page. You can strike up a conversation or ignore them if you please.
The program, which was awarded a “Head of the Herd” prize by the Tucows download site, has another little feature that allows you to place an electronic sticky note on a Web site to leave information or a question for other Odigo users. Odigo has about 23,000 registered users.
Gooey, from Israel-based Hypernix Technologies, is one of the most popular of these new chat programs. Gooey, with 80,000 copies downloaded so far, doesn’t have the instant messaging features of Odigo or ICQ, but it does allow users to chat with others on the same Web page.
One of Gooey’s nice features is a little box that lists the top Web sites where other Gooey users are currently located.
NetElement, which only works with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, is a program developed by three students at Stanford University that has been out only a few weeks. It too only allows you to talk to others on the same Web page, but it has a remarkably clean interface that fits at the bottom of your browser. It is one of the easiest Web tools to use that I have stumbled on in a long time.
One interesting NetElement feature is the ability to attach yourself to a leader and follow them as they surf through cyberspace.
Third Voice and Utok use a slightly different system for chatting, relying instead on little electronic notes that stick on a Web page.
These tools open up the possibility of a new world of interaction on the Web. The only problem is that at this point in time, there just aren’t that many people to interact with. Each program will only communicate with others using the same program.
You can visit hundreds of Web sites and never stumble on another Odigo or NetElement user. With more than 800 million Web pages in existence, even if these programs reached hundreds of thousands of users, surfing might still be a lonely experience.
Shai Adler, a co-founder of Hypernix, the creator of Gooey, said it may take a half a million or more users before a product like Gooey begins to show its abilities.
“Gooey has only been out for seven weeks, and we will soon hit 100,000,” he said. “The number of people online is amazing, and it is growing at an incredible rate.”
There is no question the number of users will increase as more people learn about these programs.
An encouraging sign is CNet’s recent investment of $2.64 million in Hypernix. CNet has also begun to advertise Gooey on its software download site.
With the instant messaging wars heating up, it also would be no surprise to see several of these companies snapped up by Microsoft or America Online and their technology melded into the current batch of instant messengers.
“The whole idea is that there are so many people at these sites and there are so many things you can do with them,” said Todd Masonis, a Stanford junior and one of the co-founders of NetElement. “Now, it’s like going to a bookstore and there’s no one there. The whole idea of people being around you really doesn’t exist now.”
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Where to Find Them
* Odigo, https://www.odigo.com
* NetElement, https://www.netelement.com
* Gooey, https://www.getgooey.com
* Utok, https://www.utok.com
* Third Voice, https://www.thirdvoice.com
* ICQ, https://www.icq.com
* AOL Instant Messenger, https://www.aol.com
* MSN Messenger Service, https://messenger.msn.com
