I don't know how friendly www.geocities.com is to blind computer users is
as far as surfing their site or designing web pages online is
concerned however the following
press release may be of interest for those wishing to design web sites
with RealAudio content.
From the web site,
http://www.real.com/company/pressroom/pr/99/geocities.html
Start of text.
GeoCities and RealNetworks Team up to Enable More Than 3 Million
Homesteaders to Become Internet Broadcasters
Agreement Provides GeoCities Homesteaders Hosting and Rich Streaming
Media Production and Publishing Tools for Personal and Business
Applications
SEATTLE & MARINA DEL REY, CA, March 1, 1999 - RealNetworks (Nasdaq:
RNWK), the recognized leader in streaming media, and GeoCities
(Nasdaq: GCTY), the world's largest and one of the fastest-growing
Internet communities, today announced a significant distribution and
marketing agreement which will, for the first time, provide more than
3 million GeoCities Homesteaders seamless support for creating and
streaming RealSystem G2 multimedia content. Through the agreement,
millions of Homesteaders may offer next-generation media experiences
to their business partners, customers, friends, and colleagues by
taking advantage of production tools and Web multimedia hosting
services.
GeoCities will be installing RealSystem G2 RealServers to provide a
free trial period of streaming media hosting services for their
customers, enabling them to stream their multimedia content from their
Web sites. Additionally, these users of GeoCities services will be
provided with RealProducer G2, at no charge, for easy and simple
production of RealSystem G2 multimedia content. The agreement will
allow GeoCities small business users to create a wide range of
streaming video applications including customer education,
promotional, real estate listings and training videos. GeoCities
consumers will now be able to post home videos of friends and family,
weddings, and vacations on their personal Web pages in streaming
audio, video or as a slideshow.
Also announced today, Dazzle Multimedia will be offering an Internet
Edition of its market leading Dazzle Digital Video Creator, available
in parallel port and USB versions, based on RealProducer G2. The
Dazzle Digital Video Creator Internet Edition will allow GeoCities
members to easily capture, edit, manage and publish digital video
content and produce RealSystem G2-based Web pages.
"GeoCities business users can now easily add the power and impact of
rich media to product demonstrations, sales and training tools, and
more. GeoCities consumers will now be able to display their home
videos on the Internet," said Len Jordan, senior vice president,
RealNetworks, Inc. "This agreement accelerates the continued rapid
adoption of streaming media, making it easy for both consumers and
small businesses to take full advantage of the richness of the Web."
"We identified RealSystem G2 as the solution that would make adding
audio and video integration easy for our members," said Thomas R.
Evans, president and CEO of GeoCities. "This represents the next great
technical innovation for personal Internet publishers. The ability to
add audio and video to a Web site with a simple process opens a whole
new range of personal and business possibilities for our members," Mr.
Evans added.
"Streaming media technology is a powerful value-add for online
communities," said Paul Kagan, president and founder, Paul Kagan
Associates, Inc., a media research and consulting firm based in
Carmel, CA. "By enabling richer communications between community
members through "one-click" content creation tools and hosting
services, solutions providers are strengthening their relationships
with members, while at the same time opening up valuable new revenue
opportunities."
"Being able to direct prospective clients to our Web site as a means
of finding out who we are and what we do will be much more meaningful
if they will be able to view our work," said Josselyn Staff, a
GeoCities member and president of B-HIVE Productions, a commercial
film production company based in Boston, New York. "We are in the
business of creating moving pictures, and the ability to show
streaming video on our Web site will definitely make a difference for
us."
About RealProducer
RealProducer G2 allows anyone to create and deploy streaming media Web
pages, regardless of ability level. Recently introduced wizards
further simplify the creation of Web pages with embedded streaming
media and the uploading of the media and Web page files to the correct
GeoCities Homestead directory.
About RealSystem G2
RealSystem G2, the next-generation media delivery system, provides the
highest quality streaming media, reliability and scalability for the
Internet and corporate intranets. RealSystem G2 incorporates
RealVideoŽ G2, including Intel's Streaming Web Video technology,
providing state-of-the-art production efficiencies for creating
automatic multi-rate streaming video content and delivers significant
video performance and quality improvements to consumers. RealAudioŽ G2
delivers 80% improved frequency response and stereo and near-CD
quality capabilities over connection speeds ranging from 28.8Kbps up
to corporate T-1 lines.
New SureStream transport technology enables reliable and continuous
end-user playback under real-world network conditions. With
SureStream, single media files now dynamically scale to deliver the
highest quality RealAudio and RealVideo to users at all connection
rates. RealSystem G2 also supports Synchronized Multimedia Integration
Language (SMIL), the W3C standard for Web-based multimedia, which
enables rich multi-stream content to be delivered over typical modem
connections with new data types such as RealPix, RealText and
RealFlash, co-developed with Macromedia. RealSystem G2 is an open
system, making it easy for third parties to take advantage of the
robust transport, management and display capabilities.
RealSystem Market Leadership
There are now more than 53 million registered unique users of
RealPlayerŽ, the largest absolute growth of any consumer desktop
application in 1998. Actual usage of RealPlayer has also grown
dramatically, with Media Metrix reporting that the number of
unduplicated home users in the US climbed by more than 300% to 15.5
million in December 1998, compared to 3.5 million consumers who used
the RealPlayer in December 1997.
RealNetworks continues to maintain a more than 85% share of the
streaming media market. More than 85% of all Web pages on the Internet
using streaming media use industry leading RealAudioŽ, RealVideoŽ,
RealFlash, RealText or RealPix, and more than 300,000 hours of live
RealAudio and RealVideo programming are available each week (Source:
Hotbot).
About RealNetworks
RealNetworks, (Nasdaq: RNWK), based in Seattle, is the recognized
leader in the streaming media market. It develops and markets software
products and services designed to enable users of personal computers
and other consumer electronic devices to send and receive audio, video
and other multimedia services using the Web. RealNetworks can be found
on the World Wide Web at www.real.com.
About GeoCities:
Based in Marina del Rey, California, with offices in London, New York
and San Francisco, GeoCities is the world's largest and one of
fastest-growing communities of personal Web sites on the Internet.
Over 3.5 million GeoCities Homesteaders have created over 32 million
pages of personalized content. In December 1998, the GeoCities site
generated more than 1.6 billion page views per month, according to
Nielsen I/PRO, and in January 1999, the site attracted nearly 19
million unique visitors and is ranked the fifth most trafficked site
on the Internet, according to Media Metrix.
End of text.
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