America Online Brings Chat and Community Experience to the Web; Launches
Virtual Places on the GNN Internet Access Service

Vienna, VA, April 24, 1996 America Online, Inc., well known for its
interactive chat and online communities today unveiled Virtual Places, an
open, innovative and user friendly environment for chat and community on
the Web. Virtual Places, which will be freely available as an open beta
through GNN, provides the web with the popular core community features of
AOL --- Chat Rooms, Instant Messages, Live Auditorium, Road Trips, Locate
Members Online --- and more within an open Web-centric architecture.
Future plans include providing Virtual Places on the AOL service,
extending the AOL community to the web and allowing members to chat on the
web.

"Until now, you've had to explore the Web by yourself. Even though hundreds
of people might be looking at the same Web page as you, you'd never know
it," said Ted Leonsis, President of America Online Services Company.
"Building community experiences is what AOL is all about. We've built the
largest online community and we are excited to extend our expertise to
provide chat and community to the Web with Virtual Places."

Virtual Places is an open and flexible, web-centric architecture which will
allow content providers to create unique multi-dimensional programming on
the Web. America Online and GNN plan to work with content partners like
McMillan Digital to create interactive communities on their web sites, and
eventually through AOL, using Virtual Places.

"Our partnership with America Online marries our premier content with their
community building skills," said Kevin Howat, VP and Publisher of
Macmillan Digital USA. "The flexibility of Virtual Places allows us to
create a web presence that extends the content and reflects the characters
of our brands. For our Politically Correct Bedtime Stories website we will
be making our characters come alive for consumers. With the Virtual Places
road trip feature, we can actually take our characters out on the web
where they can interact with the content and with the consumers of that
content, building new communities of interest that literally grow out of
that interactive experience."

The Virtual Places architecture allows users to chat on any Web site,
anywhere in the world. Technology partners will be able to use the
published APIs to extend Virtual Places to include new web technologies
such as voice, video, multiplayer games and 3-D worlds. VDONet, a leading
developer of audio and video communications technologies for the Web,
including the VDOPhone, has already agreed to provide voice technologies
that will allow users to speak to each other within Virtual Places
environments.

Virtual Places is developed by Ubique Ltd. a wholly owned subsidiary
acquired by America Online, Inc. in September, 1995. GNN, the first truly
national, fully integrated Internet service for consumers, is a service
provided by America Online, Inc.

America Online, Inc., (NASDAQ symbol: AMER), based in Vienna, VA is the
largest and fastest growing provider of online services in the world with
the most active subscriber base. AOL offers its more than 5 million
subscribers a wide variety of services, including electronic mail,
conferencing, software, computing support, interactive magazines and
newspapers and online classes, as well as easy and affordable access to
services of the Internet. AOL has a global workforce consisting of more
than 4,000 people. Founded in 1985, AOL has established strategic
alliances with dozens of companies, including Capital Cities/ABC, Viacom,
Bertelsmann, Hachette, IBM, Compaq and American Express. Personal computer
owners can obtain America Online software at major retailers and
bookstores, or by calling 800-827-6364.
 
 =========================================================
 From the 'New Product News' Electronic News Service on...
 AOL (Keyword = New Products) and Delphi (GO COMP PROD)
 =========================================================
 This information was processed from data provided by the
 company/author mentioned. For additional details, please
 contact them directly at the address/phone# indicated.
 Trademarks are the property of their respective owners!
 =========================================================
 All submissions for this service should be addressed to:
 BAKER ENTERPRISES,  20 Ferro Dr,  Sewell, NJ  08080  USA
 Email:   rbakerpc@aol.com   --or--   rbakerpc@delphi.com
 =========================================================
