Subject: Your message to [email-masked]

From: InfoSeek Corporation <[email-masked]> (by way of [email-masked] (Hans-Martin Adorf))
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 10:27:28 +0100

This is an automated reply to your message requesting more information
about InfoSeek.

NOTE: This message will be updated on Oct. 15 to reflect new pricing
and information on how to get an account for the commercial service.

The "[email-masked]" e-mail address *always* sends this introductory
information. If you would like to request a specific document or get
an account, your request should be sent to a *different* e-mail address
as explained below. The "info" email address is normally *not*
monitored by a human.

If your request is not addressed by the information below, the
following instructions will also tell you how to contact a real
person. However, *please* use this as a last resort because we have
had an incredibly high response to our service and we currently have
very limited support resources. The answers to almost all questions
are either in this document, or are available electronically and
*instantly* through our request server.

Also, we know you don't have a lot of time to read through all this,
but we'd really appreciate it if you do. We've tried to keep it as
short as we can and still cover everything you need to know. When we
get support questions we haven't covered, we immediately fix the
documentation.  It will be *much* faster to read the information below
carefully, rather than skimming it and then *waiting* for support!!

InfoSeek is now making a limited number of free accounts available in
order to give us a better understanding of the Internet market.
Information on how to apply for an account is included below. It's
easy and simple and there are no forms to fill out. The whole process
takes about 60 seconds and your account will be immediately activated
upon receipt of your request.

This message contains:

        o Background information about InfoSeek
        o How to apply for a free account
        o What happens when the free trial is over
        o Minimum system requirements
        o List of supported browsers
        o How to get more information

========================================================================
Background information about InfoSeek
========================================================================

"It's too hard to find anything on the Internet."

"Finding information takes too long, you have to know which vendors
and which collections to search, you have to know the specific query
language for the system, you have to be careful in formulating your
query, you have to look through too many or too few hits, the hits
aren't sorted in relevance order, there's too much pressure when you
are being charged for connect time, it's too expensive if you don't
find anything, and it's too expensive if you do."

Can you relate to this? Finding information today is just plain too
hard and too expensive. It's the reason we started InfoSeek. By making
it very easy to find information and by requiring our information
suppliers to provide their information at reasonable prices, more
people will have rapid access to information. And that's a big win
for everyone.
========================================

Mission

InfoSeek Corporation's mission is to deliver products that make it
possible for computer users to quickly find information stored
anywhere in the world. Using a single, easy to use information tool,
users connected to the Internet will be able to browse, search, and
retrieve information from multiple local and remote collections.

The problem

Information today is widely available, but it's often expensive and
difficult to find. All of today's information systems are limited in
scope to only that data organized for access through a vendor-specific
interface. We have "islands of information" where it is difficult to
access anyone else's data in a uniform manner. For example, you must
use the Dow Jones interface to search Dow Jones for a financial
analyst report and the Dialog interface to search a database there.

Compounding this segmentation is that even within a single vendor the
tools are difficult to use. Users want a single, easy to use tool that
provides uniform access to all data, whether that data is from local,
remote, private, corporate, or commercial sources. That is what
InfoSeek is all about.

InfoSeek's approach

In late 1994, InfoSeek will establish an Internet full-text search
service that is compatible with existing Internet end-user tools and
protocols. UNIX, PC, and Macintosh Mosaic users can use a single
"point and click" user interface to browse, search, and retrieve
information stored at InfoSeek or accessible from other Internet
search servers.

Queries can be expressed in plain English, e.g., "Who makes the
fastest 400 dpi laser printer?" InfoSeek software hides the complexity
of where the data is located and which protocols were used to retrieve
the information. Within a few seconds, article titles are returned
sorted in relevance order.  Clicking on a title returns the original
article with query terms highlighted.

The search system we are using is extraordinarily accurate.  On
average, in the top 20 documents returned from a query, over 60% are
relevant.  In extensive independent laboratory tests of over 30
different full-text search systems, no other search system performed
better than this and most were quite a bit worse. If you've been
frustrated in the past with other search systems, you should be
pleasantly surprised using InfoSeek.  It is easy for novices to use,
yet has capabilities that meet the needs of the most sophisticated
professional searchers.

In 1995, in addition to offering the search service, we will also be
providing our search software and Internet server software to anyone
who wants to make their information accessible over the Internet for
either commercial or non-commercial use. This will expand the network
of information sources available to all InfoSeek subscribers.

InfoSeek has developed two novel approaches for finding
information across distributed databases.  First, users are not
required to know "where" to search for the information. If the
information is located on any participating computer(s) anywhere in
the world, InfoSeek will be able to locate it within a few seconds.
Second, InfoSeek can accurately rank the query "hits" from multiple
servers into a single relevance ordered list, even if multiple
heterogenous search engines are involved in the query. Solving these
two problems was required in order to truly provide access to global
information resources and, to our knowledge, no other company's search
approach has solved these two problems.

Background

InfoSeek was started in January 1994 by Steve Kirsch, formerly founder
and president of Frame Technology (makers of FrameMaker), as well as
founder and president of Mouse Systems (makers of the Sun optical
mouse).  The development team has extensive experience in the design
and implementation of wide-area document search and retrieval systems.

InfoSeek, which is privately held, has raised over $2M in two rounds
of financing. Investors include Menlo Ventures and founders and
executives from Sun, 3Com, Frame, InterOp, Kodak, and Alex Brown.

========================================================================
How to apply for a free account
========================================================================

100+ Computer Publications Now Searchable from Mosaic!

InfoSeek is offering access to a trial version of the Computer Select
articles database from over 100 computer periodicals for a limited time
absolutely FREE to the first 20,000 Internet users who are willing to
answer a few short surveys during our test period.

The Ziff Computer Select trial database contains the full text of
selected articles from such computer periodicals as The Seybold
Report, MacUser, MacWeek, PC Week, and many more. Plus, it also
contains selected computer-related abstracts from the New York Times,
Wall St. Journal, San Jose Mercury News, etc. Over 79,000 articles
covering more than a year's worth of data are included.

Using plain English queries processed by a very powerful and accurate
full-text search system, you will be able to obtain information on a
broad variety of computer related topics, such as stories on companies,
products, people, technologies, and trends.

During the free trial period, the database will be limited to computer
articles from November 1992 through November 1993. So although you
cannot ask about events within the last 10 months, we encourage you to
explore the database and become familiar with the search engine while
it is free.

The Ziff Computer Select test database has quite a bit of interesting
data available to you at no charge! Here are some sample queries that
can be typed in exactly as they appear:

   o A developer might want to look up algorithms or find out about
   development tools or technologies, e.g.,

      What is JPEG?
      What is Kerberos?
      What is MIME?
      What is Spec 1170?
      Who makes transport-independent RPC?

   o A computer operations manager might want to look at
   articles/reviews/prices on equipment or software before making a
   purchase, e.g.,

      Who makes the fastest Pentium PC?
      Who makes the fastest 486 computer?
      Who makes the best laser printer?
      Which digital tape drive has the best data reliability in the industry?
      Which Ethernet cards have the best performance?
      Who makes the best RAID system?
      What's the difference between the NEC 5FG and 5FGe?
      What are the considerations for selecting a UPS?
      What should I consider when buying a network server?

   o A product manager or business analyst might want to get
   information about other companies or technology trends, e.g.,

      What were Apple's 4th quarter earnings?
      Where is Frame Technology located?
      Who is the president of RSA Data Security?
      What companies make CAD packages?
      Does anyone make an SGML viewer?
      What is the ticker symbol for HP?

All of these queries, typed in exactly as they appear above, will
produce a list of up to 20 of the most relevant documents within a few
seconds. And, in all these examples, the first or second document in
the list will contain exactly the information you are looking
for. When you click on a title, the full document text will be quickly
downloaded so you can read it or print it for your own use.

Extensive on-line hypertext help is available which completely
describes how to make the most effective use of the system including
tips on how to limit your query to the key words that will give you
the best results as well as how to use all the special advanced query
operators.

If you are using the **latest** 2.x release of Mosaic or Lynx on any
platform (UNIX, PC, or Macintosh) or any of the other supported
browsers listed below, we invite you to apply for a FREE account which
will give you full access to the database.  In return, we ask that you
respond to a brief survey that will be sent to you during the test
period.

Please note that since this service is being provided to you
absolutely free, InfoSeek reserves the right to terminate this offer
at any time and to terminate any account at any time and for any
reason. However, it is our intention at this time to run the trial
until October 15, 1994 for all accounts.

If you are a Mosaic or Lynx user and you are interested in
participating in this trial, send an email to:

        [email-masked]

The Subject line can be blank. However, the body of the message must
contain one line of the form:

        password <your email address> <password>

where the first argument is your preferred Internet e-mail address and
the second argument is the password which you would like to use to
protect your account.  Do not include the angle brackets (they are
there for readability). Also, please do not include any spaces in your
password or e-mail address and do not include any other lines (such as
signature lines) in your request.

The e-mail address which you type in will be used both as your account
ID as well as the address to use for sending the login instructions.
It will also be used for communicating messages to you from time to
time. Your e-mail address will be kept confidential.

IMPORTANT: Please type your preferred e-mail address *carefully* or
you won't get any instructions back! Try to use the "shortest"
external e-mail address that still works since this will make it
easier to deliver mail if you move and easier for you to log in. For
example, [email-masked] is preferred to [email-masked]
***if*** both e-mail addresses work.

Do NOT use *internal* e-mail addresses such as fred@topgun.
Do NOT use your IP address; [email-masked] is meaningless.
Do NOT drop characters from your username.
Do NOT use a 0 instead of a O (or vice-versa).
Do NOT use .com if you are in an .edu or .net domain (or vice-versa).

In short, TYPE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS CAREFULLY!

Also, both the email address and password are ***case-sensitive*** so
if you hate using the shift key every time you log in, just type
everything in lowercase!!!!

For example, if your Internet e-mail address is [email-masked], and
if you want to protect your account with the password "wombat", you
would send email to [email-masked] containing a single line in
the body of the message:

        password [email-masked] wombat

Our automated responder will process your request and send a reply
back to the e-mail address you have supplied within 10 seconds from
when we receive it. The confirmation will have the username and
password for your account as well as instructions on how to get to the
server. You should then be able to log in.

If you have any trouble logging in, please send e-mail to
[email-masked]. If you don't get a quick response to your
password request, it may mean that either we are currently down (this
is rare), or your e-mail gateway is slow. In either case, you will
normally not need to repeat your request.

For technical, copyright and support reasons, we ask that you not
share your account with anyone. Plenty of accounts are available.
Please refer other Mosaic (or WWW) users who are interested in getting
an account to send e-mail to [email-masked] so that they will
receive the latest introductory information. Another reason to refer
people to [email-masked] is because account registration procedures
may change from time to time, but this e-mail will alway contain the
current instructions. Thanks!  So if you are reading this because this
e-mail was forwarded to you, please send e-mail to [email-masked]
to get the latest version of this document!

========================================================================
What happens after the trial period is over
========================================================================

The free trial period will last until October 15. At that time, your
account will be automatically closed. You will never be billed.

After the trial period, you will need to explictly sign up if you want
to use the commercial service which will begin on October 15.

On October 15, the Computer Select database will be brought
***up-to-date*** and will be maintained so that it always has at
least 1 years worth of ***current*** data, instead of 1 years worth of
**historical** data.

We'll be adding more databases to the service in the future so you'll
be able to find things other than just ***computer*** articles.

Pricing has not yet been determined yet. It will not be announced
prior to October 15. Your suggestions (send email to
[email-masked]) are welcome!

========================================================================
Minimum system requirements
========================================================================

The minimum requirement for using InfoSeek is that you must have a
real-time connection to the Internet. Ideally, you have a dedicated
T-1 line or better, but you can also access InfoSeek through dialup
connections (SLIP, PPP, or standard ASCII dialup).

The minimum configuration to use InfoSeek is to run Lynx at either
your local site (preferably) or by telnetting to a site where you can
run Lynx. This will give you a line-oriented user-interface that,
while usable, is not the easiest to use. You can run Lynx over
standard ASCII dialup phone connections.

The preferred method for accessing InfoSeek is by running a graphical WWW
browser such as Mosaic. However, this requires either a direct Internet
connection, or a PPP, SLIP, or CSLIP dialup connection.

Even if you have a firewall between your system and the Internet, you
can access InfoSeek without jeopardizing system security if your
system administrator has installed one of the proxy forwarders
available for Mosaic. This will be slower than running it directly on
the Internet but it allows you to run Mosaic on your own workstation.
You may also be able to run Mosaic on your firewall machine, and
specify the name of an X display (your UNIX workstation, X terminal,
PC, etc).  Or you may be able to rlogin to your firewall machine and
use lynx. Your system administrator may also be able to give your
workstation an Internet IP address with direct Internet access. If
done properly, this does not represent a security risk. Please contact
your system administrator for details.

Most commercial on-line services only provide a limited amount of
connectivity to the Internet. For example, as far as we know (please
let us know if we are mistaken!), you cannot at this time use the
InfoSeek service from Prodigy, CompuServe, America Online, Dow Jones,
or Apple e-World because these services do not yet provide a
Mosaic-compatible browser (CompuServe is supposed to have PPP access
in 1995). On the other hand, many "Internet" service providers such as
CerfNet and Netcom allow you to use Lynx if you have a standard dialup
account or Mosaic if you have a SLIP or PPP account. Delphi
just recently announced a text-mode browser for the web, but it
doesn't support forms or authentication.

Since Delphi does not support Lynx and their WWW browser cannot be
used with InfoSeek, InfoSeek will be providing a limited number of
telnet logins to allow you to run Lynx. Use telnet to connect to
infoseek.com and login as www. You can login as www-dumb if you
terminal does not support highlighting (this will number the
links). Once Lynx has started, navigate to the Query page, and log in
using your InfoSeek username and password.

========================================================================
List of supported browsers
========================================================================

You MUST use Mosaic or a WWW-compatible browser that supports **both**
forms and authentication in order to use the InfoSeek service. All the
latest 2.x NCSA Mosaic versions support InfoSeek. Use the Help
pulldown to see what version you have.

The following browsers are known to work:
        NCSA Mac Mosaic 2.0 (alpha 2 and 6)
        NCSA Win Mosaic 2.0 (alpha 4,5,6, or 7)
        NCSA UNIX Mosaic 2.0 (2.1 thru 2.5).
        Lynx 2.1 thru 2.3
        Spry AirMosaic
        Spyglass Mosaic
        OmniWeb 0.7.4.1 (Beta) for NextStep

See the next section for how to use our request server to get
information on how to ftp the latest versions of Lynx and NCSA Mosaic.

The following browsers do *not* work and **cannot** be used with InfoSeek:
        Win Mosaic 2.0 (alpha 2)
        Win Mosaic 1.x.x
        Mac Mosaic 1.x.x
        MacWeb (all versions)
        Netcom's NetCruiser

Note that Lynx is a character mode browser that can be used over
standard ASCII dialup connections to Internet service providers and
over telnet, while Mosaic is a graphical user interface browser and
requires a direct Internet connection, or SLIP or PPP access.

If you are not sure if your browswer supports authentication, try loading:
        http://www.infoseek.com/cgi-bin/query
and see if you get a dialog box asking for a user name.

========================================================================
How to get more information
========================================================================

For more information about InfoSeek, you can use our automated request
server.  Send e-mail to:
        [email-masked]
with the command:
        send titles
in the body of the message. In return, you'll get back a complete list of
document titles that you can subsequently request.

A wide variety of documents are available through the request server
such as:
        o information on how to get on or off our mailing list
        o information on how to close your account
        o information on how to get browsers such as Mosaic and Lynx
        o information on licensing Mosaic for commercial re-distribution
        o information for the press (screen shots in TIFF BinHex format, Q&A)
        o information on how to put your information on our server
        o information on how to get our software for your own server
        o the complete list of journals included in Computer Select
        o the complete list of request server commands
        o pricing (site licenses, educational pricing, etc.)
        o how to win $100 by solving a user mystery
        o and a lot more....

InfoSeek Corporation
2620 Augustine Dr #250
Santa Clara, CA 95054

FAX:   (408) 986-1889
Phone: (408) 982-4450   <<-- Use as a last resort. E-mail to
                             [email-masked] is preferred.

E-mail:    [email-masked] (automated server; sends general information)
           [email-masked] (automated request server)
           [email-masked] (for submitting questions, bugs, suggestions)

WWW:       http://www.infoseek.com/

End of info document. This document was last updated on October 3, 1994.