PLUGGED IN
P On-line service usage soars during 1995: Powered by potent increases in the consumer segment, subscriptions to on-line services skyrocketed to nearly 15 million in 1995, according to Electronic Information Report's Year-End On-line Subscriber Survey. The industry posted a net gain of more than 5.7 million subscribers last year, according to the survey. Driven by the explosive popularity of the World Wide Web among gov
P> On-line service usage soars during 1995: Powered by potent increases in the consumer segment, subscriptions to on-line services skyrocketed to nearly 15 million in 1995, according to Electronic Information Report's Year-End On-line Subscriber Survey. The industry posted a net gain of more than 5.7 million subscribers last year, according to the survey.
America Online was the leading consumer service, finishing the year with 4.5 million subscribers, a 200 percent gain from 1.5 million subscribers at the end of 1994. America Online had grown to 5 million by February and has predicted it will have 10 million customers by the end of 1997. Among business services, the report said, LEXIS-NEXIS was king with 744,000 subscribers, followed by Dow Jones News Retrieval with 233,000.
Motion picture-quality video via the Web: Starlight Networks, Informix, Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard Co. teamed up at intermediaWORLD, March 5, to showcase interactive Web-based multimedia. Together, the companies created opportunities to experience interactive multimedia via the World Wide Web -- as it is meant to be experienced with high-quality, full-frame, or 30-frames-per-second, MPEG video and audio, delivered immediately to the desktop from a Netscape browser. The new tool debuted at intermediaWORLD '96, at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. For more information, contact Mary Lindsay of Lindsay PR at (408) 984-7242 or e-mail 4007894@mcimail.com.
K-III Buys Facts on File: K-III Reference Corp. has acquired the News Services Division of Facts on File Inc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but industry sources estimated that it was in the $17 million to $19 million range.
The News Services Division produces news products to schools and libraries in print, CD-ROM and on-line formats, K-III said. The Facts on File World News Digest is the flagship product of the privately held New York-based company, which has provided reference information to schools and libraries in the United States and abroad for more than 50 years.
NEXT STORY: WHO'S ON FIRST