The Next On-Line Wave

Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols

On-line services are responding to users' enormous demand for Internet accessibility by incorporating Internet access and tools as fast as their engineers can bring the connections on-line. As a result, Delphi ((617) 491-3393) has proclaimed a new identity: Delphi Internet Services. America Online ((703) 448-8700) recently announced it has become the most popular Internet service provider. And, by the time you read this article, CompuServe ((614) 457-8600) should be letting its commercial customers connect to the Internet via its Frame-Net frame-relay service.

But in addition to heightened interest in Internet access, Internet users also want to access on-line services, these companies say. CompuServe, for example, which already offers E-mail, access to Usenet news-groups, FTP, and, by early next year, full Telenet services, also has a home page on the WWW (World Wide Web) (see HTTP://www.compuserve.com) to inform Internet users about its services. The company says it will sell WWW services to other companies early this year.

CompuServe won't disclose what its precise plans are, but the company may possibly be working on a combined interface to both CompuServe Information Services and the Internet. Such a front end would combine a Mosaic-like WWW viewer with the functionality of its CIM (CompuServe Information Manager) family of front ends.

AOL also plans to install a WWW server that will let Internet users access portions of AOL for free as well as download AOL software and membership kits. Because the newest version of AOL's end-user software lets you use its Windows and Mac front ends with Telenet connections to access AOL, this approach may prove quite successful.

Delphi is being the most coy about disclosing its plans for the future. At press time, Delphi, which was the first major on-line service to offer a wide variety of Internet services, would only admit that 1995 will see a multimedia Delphi interface that will provide users with full access to all Internet tools, including the WWW.

Prodigy ((914) 448-8000) and GEnie ((301) 340-4000) lag behind the others in the Internet feature race. Prodigy only recently added Usenet newsgroups to its array of wares. GEnie will offer a full plate of Internet services by the beginning of this year, including FTP, Gopher, WAIS (Wide Area Information Service), and outbound Telenet.

Prodigy, however, after being the least Internet-friendly on-line service for years, is coming on strong. In November it launched AstraNet, an independent on-line service based around WWW servers. AstraNet, which is located at www.astranet.com, will include information provided by the current Prodigy team and other companies. Prodigy says it will release its own WWW browser this year.

As the on-line traffic increases, engineers working a t on-line services may find their systems stretched to capacity. In times of failure, users who have come to rely on these services for their business will become impatient, much as they did when CompuServe experienced difficulty with its E-mail last November.