FEBRUARY 21, 2000
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`a new kind of dot
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`BY MARK GIMEIN • Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World
`Wide Web, thinks it stifles creativity. Jakob Nielsen, the reigning
`guru of Web usability, thinks it's a disgrace. Bill Gates wishes it
`would just go away and become "part of the operating system."
`What we're talking about, of course, is the browser, the software
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`Creating rabble-browsers? DoDots twins John (left) and George Kenabel
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`that serves as the personal computer's window onto the Internet.
`Some hate the browser because it turns the Web into nothing
`more than "pages." That metaphor works well for reading text, but
`less well for other purposes. Like a book, the browser functions
`best when one is looking at one page, and much worse if one
`wants to look at several at once. It does
`little to help people exchange informa-
`tion (unless pasting Web addresses into
`e-mail is your ideal information-man-
`agement solution). When it comes to
`building applications, adapting software
`to the "page" makes for clunky design.
`In short, the browser just isn't much fun.
`Hardly anybody believes the
`browser is on the verge of disappear-
`ing, but new applications have been
`nibbling away at its edges. "Browser
`companions" run alongside it, giving
`one-click access to frequently used ap-
`plications like stock-quote monitors.
`Still other applications, like Real Me-
`dia's Real-Player, come with their own
`dashboards, giving audiophiles a way
`to bypass the browser entirely. Each
`begs users to rely less on their
`browsers. But a desktop full of such
`disparate programs seems no more ap-
`petizing a vision of our computing fu-
`ture, Better, one thinks, to stick with
`the browser than rely on a mishmash of
`programs that offer no carefully
`thought-out alternative.
`That's what makes the ideas of
`DoDots, a Palo Alto startup, so inter-
`esting. The company unveiled the pro-
`totype of a platform that online compa-
`nies can use to develop Internet
`applications that don't feel like Web
`pages but like handy virtual appliances.
`DoDots hopes that its partners will be-
`gin distributing the free applications, or
`"dots," in March.
`DoDots was started by 27-year-old
`twin brothers John and George Kern-
`bel, both graduates of a Stanford Uni-
`versity program in product design.
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`Confidential — Outside Attorneys' Eyes Only
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`DODOTS0026225
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`COMPANY
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`George is chief executive officer; John (who has also worked as
`a programmer for Intel) is chief technology officer.
`Dots will offer convenience: They can easily be sent back and
`forth between users and summoned with just a few clicks. In
`some cases, they'll have the same kinds of functions that one now
`finds on Web pages. Because dots are built out of the same ba-
`sic ingredient—hypertext markup language—as Web pages,
`DoDots' partners can build dots from existing content and ap-
`plications. DoDots' software, in fact, uses code already present
`in a user's browser (which won't even have to be turned on) to do
`most of the heavy lifting.
`So what's the difference between using a dot and going to a
`Web page? For starters, you won't have to hand over most of your
`computer screen. Second, you won't have to put your other work
`aside and navigate to a Website when all you need is an often-
`used appliance.
`Most important, desktops will look dramatically different. Un-
`like Web pages, each dot can be "packaged," with its own logo
`and look. Demonstrating a prototype, George pulls up a stock-
`tracking dot created with BigCharts, a Web-based stock analysis
`service. It looks like a smaller version of BigCharts' Web page,
`festooned with its logo and lime-green color scheme. But when
`George keys in a ticker symbol, he doesn't go to a Web page. In-
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`stead, a new dot appears with the stock price and other data. An-
`other click and a third dot appears, this one charting the stock's
`recent progress. Now the screen looks like a mini version of a mul-
`tipaned Bloomberg terminal. Any of the windows can be quickly
`closed—or left open—without affecting the others. Soon, a day
`trader will be able to keep a stock chart in a corner of his screen
`and have it automatically updated every few seconds.
`And new possibilities will emerge. For example, George predicts
`users will be able to assemble playable packages of songs—"album
`dots"—that can easily be stored on their hard drives. Music ven-
`dors will even be able to create onscreen packaging—a virtual al-
`bum cover—that makes using the dot resemble the experience of
`playing a real CD or record (Sergeant Pepper, after all, wouldn't
`be Sergeant Pepper without the famous album cover). Creating ap-
`plications that feel like consumer products rather than "pages,"
`George argues, will change the way users interact with the Web.
`Indeed. The big marketing battles of the Web today are fought
`over what pages users visit. That won't be the case forever. It
`seems likely that in the next few years the battles will be fought
`not simply over where users go, but how they use the Web in the
`first place. The winners could turn out to he companies that learn
`to use tools like DoDots to wean their users away from the
`browser. Browsers being what they are, it shouldn't be too hard.
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`Reprinted through the courtesy of the Editors of FORTUNE © 2000 Time Inc.
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`Confidential — Outside Attorneys' Eyes Only
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`DODOTS0026226
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