GeoCities Inc, the personal web site community has signed a deal to offer the natural language alternative to URLs from Netword LLC. Netword offers the ability to map a URL to a word or phrase that can more easily identify the web site and take visitors to it. The word or phrase is entered in the browser and can map to URLs at any level of the web site. This deal basically gives a direct route to the service through GeoCities’ site. A rival technology is provided by Centraal Corp’s RealNames system, and the two companies are currently involved in a patent infringement claim brought by Netword against Centraal (07/23/98). Netword charges $5 per month for commercial use of its Netword, but non- commercial uses are free, though Netword retains ownership of those names.
