GNN Unveils First Virtual Places Community: Integrates Chat and Live
Programming With its Web Offering

Avatars. Live Chat.

Join the GNN Virtual Places Community for a Journey Around the Web.

Berkeley, CA - April 24, 1996 -- GNN, an America Online Inc.(AOL) company,
today announced the launch of the first Virtual Places community,
complementing its Internet-wide Web offering with live chat, programmed
live events, and interactive guided tours of the Web. Virtual Places is
client-server software that enhances the Web experience with immediate
human presence and live interaction. With Virtual Places, Internet users
can roam the Web using graphic avatars (thumbnail images), which represent
users on screen. Utilizing this dynamic technology, they now can find,
meet and collaborate with other people on the Web, facilitating the
building of communities of interest, centered around Web content.

During the open beta test of Virtual Places beginning today, any Internet
user can become a member of the GNN Virtual Places community by enhancing
a standard Web browser with the Virtual Places software, available for
free from the GNN Web site (http://gnn.com).

"GNN is bringing warmth to the Web," stated Ted Leonsis, President of
America Online Services Company. Now, GNN allows people to surf the Web
with friends and meet people in their Web treks. When they spot other
people's avatars, they know they are not alone. We are excited to add the
Virtual Places technology and our AOL chat expertise to our total package
of Internet offerings."

Virtual Places provides the Web with community building features such as
instant messages and open chat sessions with other Netizens on the same
Web page or allows them to share their enjoyment of programming,
information and content on a variety of sites. Virtual Places enables
users to craft a tour and invite others to join them on a journey around
the Web.

GNN is dedicated to building programming that is supported by Virtual
Places. Already underway are three such programs, CAPTooNs, Tubetime
Theatre and Ballot Boxers which leverage the conferencing capabilities of
Virtual Places to create innovative Net programming with value. With
CAPTooNs, users on a robot-conducted Internet tour get to stop for 40
seconds while supplying satirical captions to photographs of celebrities
supplied by GNN. Virtual Places enables participants of Tubetime Theatre
to watch their favorite television programs together from their homes in
any part of the country by gathering on "CyberDen" pages dedicated to
television shows such as the X-Files, Melrose Place and Seinfeld. Ballot
Boxers is a Crossfire-like political chat room with two famous Democratic
and Republican co-hosts that features a weekly debate. Other Virtual
Places supported programs are planned in the near term.

"Virtual Places adds dimension for audiences who flock to the Web," stated
Lisa Gansky, GNN vice president of programming. "Virtual Places and
avatars allow studios to extend storylines and characters beyond their
sites and reach into the Web at large. Studios can extend the pallet of
what's possible and advertisers can increase impact as they will be able
to directly engage existing and prospective customers on the Web."

GNN Studio Partners Provide Interactive Programming

The combined involvement of GNN and their partners lends added muscle to
the implementation of Virtual Places. A number of partners will be
integrating voice, video and other technologies into the Virtual Places
architecture. GNN partners have agreed to create original interactive
programming for users with the Virtual Places client. The Web sites of
these partners will feature events which are designed for Internet users
with a standard web browser and the Virtual Places client. Virtual Places
is available from the GNN site or on the AOL service at keyword GNN. The
first partners to have Virtual Places areas and events on their Web sites
include: CyberSurfer DreamTeam Studios, Inc.; Hecklers Online; iGolf;
iVillage, Inc.; NetNoir,Inc.; nFX Inc.; OnRamp; Songline Studios, Inc.and
Virtual Entertainment.

About GNN Partners

CyberSurfer DreamTeam Studios, Inc. is a new media studio whose first
property is the Internet's first interactive city which will be
distributed by GNN and will launch at the end of June. The city contains
several Virtual Places areas, including a movie theatre, a martini bar, a
cigar lounge and sushi bar.

Hecklers Online is interactive attitude. It's comedy, creativity, talent,
fun, sarcasm, cynicism, politics, pot-shots, and antagonism all rolled up
into one online Mardi Gras. Hecklers Online Virtual Tours will include
real-time interactive games and chat, as well as good-natured heckling of
sites that span the World Wide Web.

iGolf provides consumers the latest information on professional tours,
including players results and schedules, as well as online pointers from
industry gurus.

iVillage, Inc., an independent production studio, is devoted to creating
targeted communities of interest that address the real needs of real
people. Parent Soup (http://www.parentsoup.com) is the first online
support community where all kinds of parents can talk to each other and
the experts about the things they care about the most.

nFX Corporation develops tools and applications which enable "Living
Graphics" - giving users the ability to create, transmit and manipulate
original, dynamic images and animations in real time. nFX's goal is to
enable the emerging markets for on-line communities, electronic "Graphic
Communications" and multimedia applications with content that is
controlled by the users' imagination and personality. Working with AOL and
GNN, nFX is providing the members of the Virtual Places virtual community
the ability to create custom, personal and professional "Avatars" to
represent themselves in VP "Chats". VP users can create an unlimited
number of their own custom Avatars on-line using the nFX "Living Art
Server" and Cartoon-O-Matic(TM) - as simply as pushing a few buttons.

On Ramp is a premier creator and provider of new media, "interactive
solutions", the foremost among them being content and applications for the
Internet http://www.metaverse.com

NetNoir, Inc. is a promoter, developer, digitizer, archiver and distributor
of distinctive afrocentric programming and commercial applications for all
forms of interactive media.

Songline Studios, Inc. is an interactive content production studio whose
properties include Web Review, an online magazine that covers the World
Behind the Web, and Ferndale, an interactive multimedia soap opera.

Virtual Entertainment is an educational software company that develops
publishes and markets personal computer software for children and young
adults which are used in homes and schools. Their products build core
learning skills, inspire creativity and original thinking.

About GNN

GNN, a service provided by America Online, Inc., has offices in Berkeley,
California and Vienna, Virginia. The first fully-integrated Internet
service for consumers, GNN offers its more than 200,000 subscribers
national Internet access, e-mail, Web-publishing tools, original
programming and navigational services. Personal computer owners can obtain
GNN software by calling 1-800-819-6112, or through the GNN site on the
Internet at http://gnn.com.

About America Online

America Online, Inc. (NASDAQ symbol: AMER), based in Vienna, Virginia, is
the largest and fastest growing provider of on-line services in the world.
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 on-line 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 Time
Warner, ABC, Knight-Ridder, Tribune, Hachette, IBM and American Express.
 
 =========================================================
 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
 =========================================================
