Advanced Internet users are expected to take up Intel Corp’s offer of downloading and exploring the company’s latest Internet technologies in return for market research-type feedback. Intel says it now feels that the Internet has matured to a level where it is now safe for users to download and experiment with unlaunched technologies, rather than having selective individuals testing potential new products. With a centralized Web server based physically in the US, Net surfers across the world can download the technology and report back to Intel, with Internet enthusiasts and researchers from rival companies expected to get in on the case. The technologies to be found on the Intel site are a mixture of leisure and business products containing multimedia capabilities. The Intel Smart News Reader will enable users to select a specific topic or area that they are interested in and then they can receive news stories on a daily basis that relate only to that topic. If it is found that a potential product is received well in its experimental period, Intel will go ahead and trial it on an official basis with the view to a future release, or revise it as it feels necessary. Intel, which is following a similar strategy from that adopted by IBM Corp with its ambitious AlphaWorks laboratory on the Web initiative last year (CI No 2,987) wants to get new technology into the hands of its users, enabling them to have a chance to contribute and understand what the technology should be.
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