But startup Disappearing Inc. has a solution that should give companies the type of control over their private E-mail that they now have with paper documents. Disappearing Email lets users write their messages in the electronic equivalent of disappearing ink. Users can set a time period after which a message can no longer be read. The system consists of client software, available for Microsoft Outlook, and a service that resides on the software vendor's servers. Disappearing also offers a developers' kit that lets users port the system to other mail clients.
Users can download a free trial copy of the client software from the company's Web site.
AlphaServ aims to make information retrieval over the Web as simple as accessing information in a database. The company created the Network Query Language to retrieve data from Web sites, databases, E-mail servers, directory servers, legacy systems, and enterprise resource planning applications. NQL can also send data to any source, such as databases, an Extensible Markup Language repository, or Microsoft Office applications. The technology was created five years ago for internal use. Realizing how helpful it was for transferring data from midrange computers to desktop systems, the company began offering the language to its customers.