|
Think of it as a stream and surf platter served up for broadband users.
New Orleans-based startup BroadScape.com has fielded a free broadband browser with a built-in streaming media player, which allows users to view rich media and surf the Web simultaneously. That may be a forerunner of a future Internet where beefed-up browsers include rich media tools and separate media players become extinct.
In cooperation with Microsoft Corp.'s Developer Network, BroadScape developed the integrated browser preset for broadband streaming speeds. Available for download on the BroadScape site, it combines the Internet Explorer browser and Windows Media Player, allowing users to view the player full-screen or minimize it to run in a bar on top of the browser panel.
"When using a traditional media player it takes up a significant amount of screen space," says Anthony Salvaggio, CEO of BroadScape. "So we decided there was a need to take video and place it up at the top of a browser out of the way, so people could surf while viewing video. It's sort of a common sense thing."
In the first week, BroadScape recorded about 3,000 downloads, and hopes to double that uptake rate in the coming weeks. Salvaggio sees a ready market for the browser, because cable modem and DSL providers "want to hook customers up as fast as possible, but they are not really giving them a tool to use that high-speed access," he says.
With their greater access to high-speed connections, college markets will be a major focus for BroadScape. The company plans an e-mail and print campaign to lure in these younger, more video-savvy users.
Similarly, BroadScape will also target the corporate world where broadband connections are plentiful-although Salvaggio acknowledges his product might not be a good productivity tool.
"We're really hoping to supply it to people at work, and that might not please all of the bosses-but there are also a lot of self-employed," he says.
With a Microsoft-based browser launched, the logical next step is to provide a version based on the Number One streaming media player owned by Real Networks. Salvaggio notes that the process is complicated by Real's firewall features, but he says his company is talking to the streaming media giant about the project.
"There was enough content out there for Windows Media that we didn't feel the need for both at first," he says. "But we definitely want to incorporate Real, because something like 80 percent of all the streaming content on the Web is in Real."
The company also plans to offer customized "skins," that will vary the look of the browser frame and controls.
Because the browser will be offered free, BroadScape will depend on banner advertisement and some affiliate agreements for its revenue. A rotating banner ad at the top of the browser will deliver one ad per minute.
 Broadscape's browser and video guide combines streaming technology
with basic search-and-surf browsing."Hopefully, down the road, banner ads will be replaced by a more interesting advertisement," Salvaggio says. "But I don't think it will be ads that interrupt the video streams-people will be frustrated by that. I think it makes sense to have the video running separate of ads in an area next to it."
"Our sense is once we get the network up we want to be able to target ads to what video is playing," he adds. "So we really have a unique way of targeting viewers. But that is down the road, when we get up to 100,000 to 200,000 viewers."
The evolution toward browsers with built-in media players is predictable given increasing multimedia use on the Internet, according to Howard Dyckovsky, vice president of operations and a streaming media expert at PC Data Online, an Internet analysis and statistics firm.
"Fundamentally, most of the browser guys-Microsoft, Netscape and AOL-are going that way," Dyckovsky says. "They are going to the point of being multimedia embedded with streaming audio and video-more like a TV."
While competition from the big players could prove formidable for BroadScape, the head start won't hurt. They could stay independent, but there is also an opportunity to become an attractive acquisition prospect, Dyckovsky says.
"They have a good chance-they are a first mover in this," he says. "They have a good chance to get enough mind share to stick around."
|
