Spyglass shifts focus from browsers
As the browser market focuses more on Netscape Communications' Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer, browser pioneer Spyglass is expanding its Web tools.
As part of its strategy to vary its portfolio, the company today announced a partnership with development tools giant Computer Associates that will result in a combined Web server and relational database.
Each copy of Computer Associates' CA-OpenIngres/ICE database will now come with Spyglass's Web server at no extra charge, creating a package designed to appeal to businesses that want to make database information accessible from both the Internet and private intranets, the companies said.
Although the CA partnership make a high-profile alliance for Spyglass, the company is also expanding its Web development tools efforts. Yesterday, Spyglass announced the Spyglass Web Technology Kit (WTK), a multiplatform software development kit for rolling a user's own Web browser.
Spyglass--the commercial licenser of the original Web browser, NCSA Mosaic--is aiming the WTK at corporate and commercial software developers that want to create customized browsers for accessing Internet and intranet applications.
The WTK gives developers a variety of technologies to use when building a browser, including: full Internet protocol support; graphics, sound, and audio support; security protocols; customizable user interfaces; internationalization features; Netscape plug-ins, ActiveX Controls and OpenDoc; Java, JavaScript, and Visual Basic Script; and cookies.
WTK-generated browsers will run on Windows 95, Windows 3.1, Windows NT, Macintosh, Unix, and various PDA platforms.
The WTK will ship to customers in the second half of this year. The toolkit starts at $25,000 for 1,000 client licenses. Spyglass has also offered since January a WTK for creating customized Web servers.
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