Centraal Introduces "Active Namespaces"

Palo Alto, CA-based Centraal Corp., providers of the RealNames Web page addressing system, launched an extension to its RealNames technology called “Active Namespaces,” for use in navigating complex sites.

The three new namespaces will run alongside the existing RealNames Service. The new namespaces include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Patent Office and the Internal Revenue Service. The namespaces further simplify Web navigation for Internet users, directing them to specific Web pages deep within these large, dynamic Web sites.

Internet users can access the RealNames System and the new Active Namespaces today by visiting the AltaVista search site, or by downloading the RealNames enabler from the RealNames Web site.

Active Namespaces can improve navigation to any Web site offering a multiplicity of products or services, with rapidly changing and dynamic content, the company said.

Centraal said it will introduce additional Active Namespaces for commercial companies in the near future, with a variety of consumer and e-commerce Web sites offering many types of services.

Said Ted West, executive vice president of marketing and sales at Centraal: “Users will now benefit from smart navigation to a growing number of data- driven Web sites. We expect to roll out new commercial ‘Active Namespaces’ each month throughout 1999 and beyond. The opportunity for our partners is that their users will have simple access to a growing range of information.”

For example, consumers now can research a U.S. patent. simply by typing “US Patent” and the patent number and be taken to that patent’s Web page.

The RealNames System is a global, standards based solution for the allocation of simple names to Web pages. With its downloadable software, RealNames functions in the URL location bar of all popular browsers. RealNames subscriptions cost $100 per RealName per year.

Centraal’s RealNames resolvers contain more than three million RealNames. Centraal directs Internet users to desired Web sites, and analyzes user search requests to determine Internet usage preferences and trends. The service already reaches over three million unique users according to Media Metrix.