Web3000 Inc today releases its first revenue-generating product, the enhanced version of its free NetSonic internet accelerator, which speeds web navigation by locally caching copies of previously-visited pages and only updating things that have changed. NetSonic Pro 2.0, as the new product is known, offers a number of additions to the free version, which has been shipping since April and just this weekend passed through the 500,000 download mark. New this time is a maximum transfer unit (MTU) optimizer, for which company founder and chief technology officer Gene Kavner says many companies charge about $25 on its own – NetSonic Pro costs $40. The optimizer adjusts internet access settings depending on what type of connection they have and it also speeds email and FTP. The tool now automatically refreshes itself rather than the user having to reload the page. The pre-fetch feature previously only worked on the page the user was looking at but with this version it can pre-fetch pages linked to the site as well. It can also pre-fetch graphics, which the free version is prevented from doing, but, says Kavner, this doesn’t mean NetSonic is going to become a bandwidth hog and assures us that it is friendly on the internet as well. A site exclusion feature enables users to exclude certain sites from being updates, such as those that are database driven, which could tie up considerable bandwidth. Web3000, based down the road from Microsoft Corp in Redmond, Washington has been privately and angel-funded since its inception in late 1996, but this week or next it will announce the closing of its first proper round of funding, raising just under $1m, says chief executive Doug Woodward, who joined the company in August (08/19/98). He couldn’t name the venture capitalist just yet, who he says is a local company that specializes in the gap between seed capital and fully-fledged VC money. He adds that the second round of several million dollars is already being negotiated with about eight VC firms and is likely to be announced around the end of next quarter. Kavner says the free version is likely to be revved before the end of the year but the current plan is to maintain both a free and a version that brings in the money. Web3000 currently employs 15 people full time and will announce some partnerships in the next couple of weeks. NetSonic Pro 2.0 will be available in about 800 virtual stores online, including CNet’s Download.com and Egghead.com by the end of this month.
