Can You Work in Netscape Time?

There are, to be sure, risks to life on the Web. To an extraordinary degree, Netscape has opened itself up to the competition. Engineers from Spyglass, America Online, or any other company can log on to Netscape's user groups and see what its customers are saying, what its engineers are promising, what glitches are raising a ruckus. It's as if Pepsi published the results of its taste tests in a public forum that Coca-Cola could visit every day.

Netscape's executives don't seem worried. The company doesn't post its official timetables and development priorities. Those plans are discussed and executed on Netscape's internal Web site, its Intranet. Besides, there's something satisfying about watching the competition surf for intelligence on Netscape's own site -- especially since they can't surf it without using Netscape software. (It's the only browser that can "read" the user groups.)

Marketing Vice President Homer relishes the thought: "The competition has to use the Netscape Navigator to learn about the Navigator. The good news is they can download it for free."

Tom Steinert-Threlkeld (tomhyphen@onramp.net) is Editor-in-Chief of "Inter@ctive Week."