There is no special lighting of the Empire State Building and no Rolling Stones-pounding ad campaign, but the next big thing in software happens Monday when Netscape Communications Corp. releases a test copy of the next version of its software for browsing the World Wide Web.
The program, called Netscape Navigator 3.0, won't go on sale until June. But, for many people who use the Web, the release of the test version is the main event.Netscape allows people to download the software free, a strategy that got millions of people to use its browser and gave it the dominant role in shaping how information is created and shared on the Web. It makes money by selling so-called "server" software that creators and publishers of Web information use to take advantage of the features in the browser.
Microsoft Corp., which lit the Empire State Building and licensed Rolling Stones music in a $200 million ad campaign for Windows 95 last year, is hoping to catch up with Netscape by developing its own browser and server programs.
The company last month announced new features that would bring its Microsoft Explorer even with Netscape 2.0 but they won't be ready until summer.
By then, Netscape hopes to have extended its lead by encouraging wide use of its 3.0 version. The new program includes 75 features that were not in the previous one, chiefly in security, document sharing and audio and video.
They range from as simple as having different background colors in tables to running a video frame by frame.
There will be a simple way for businesses to share documents while employees are creating them. That raises Navigator's prospective competition with products Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes.
And some things that advanced Internet users have done previously with separate programs, such as using the Web for phone calls or exchanging three-dimensional images, will be incorporated into Navigator 3.0.
"The Web pages being designed today are no longer just static simple bits of images but are instead live and dynamic," said Bob Lisbonne, vice president of marketing for Navigator at Netscape.
The test version, ready for Windows, Macintosh and Unix-based computers, will range in size from 3 megabytes to 6 megabytes. The final version is typically smaller, he said.