Vermeer's co-founder and chief technical officer and Fielding was senior product manager until the firm was bought by Microsoft Corp. in 1996. Both men continued to shepherd FrontPage at Microsoft for a time before leaving to pursue new ventures. But people need a way to make sense of what's available and what's possible. You can find them arranged thematically, under categories titled work, play, live and learn. You can use a search function.
Users can create their own accounts, rate the applications they use and track their own histories.
That makes it relatively simple to compare a half-dozen Web design packages, say, and save the most useful. A series of blue icons show whether the application can be downloaded, whether it must be bought, or other functions. The possibility of too much choice at a portal like this is real, but the rating system and overall site design take away some of the sense of being overwhelmed. Fielding said he was confident that model could be profitable by itself, but said the firm was looking at additional revenue streams that he declined to specify. As a classic portal, we'll create a lot of value for third parties as more users come to our site to find what's out there in the world.