Wired Digital Unveils HotWired 4.0

Posted on July 2, 1997

Wired Digital, an online-media division of Wired Ventures Inc., unveiled HotWired 4.0, an expanded version of its HotWired Web site.

The new edition of HotWired is dedicated to being a highly interactive crossroads for the World Wide Web's large, emerging class of "Web participants" -- professionals and enthusiasts who need or want to be actively involved in creating the Web, and have made this medium a part of their lives. HotWired 4.0 boasts next-generation Web design, and provides the latest information and discussion about the Web's emerging issues, technologies, arts, and culture. The site showcases the Web's best and latest developments, and also teaches Web participants how to put these developments to use.

"Web participants" -- the primary audience for HotWired 4.0 -- are profiled in depth in HotWired's soon-to-be-released first quarterly "State of the Web" report. According to the report, active Web participants, who contribute to and communicate through the Internet, now constitute a distinct audience of millions worldwide. Web participants differ from ordinary surfers in that they spend more time online, work in the digital industry, build personal homepages, engage regularly in online chats, or take other significant steps to integrate the Web into their lives.

"HotWired 4.0 is focused exclusively on the Web, and is built for people who want to experience, understand, and create this medium," said June Cohen, senior producer at Wired Digital Inc. "We are confident that HotWired will become a center for people who aren't content to passively experience the Web - both Web veterans and newcomers. Everything about HotWired 4.0 is designed to transform its visitors from outsiders to insiders, from encouraging participation in discussions and offering tools for creating personal profile pages, to providing first-person technical tutorials and information about open jobs in the industry.

"HotWired currently has more than 600,000 registered members," Cohen added, "and HotWired 4.0 reflects what many of them have identified as being personally compelling and interesting -- getting involved."

HotWired 4.0 claims to be first major Web site to use dynamic HTML, a set of Web design tools supported by the 4.0 versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. The use of dynamic HTML throughout the site allows users to experience pages that "come alive" with motion and interactivity, and that download more quickly and efficiently.

HotWired 4.0 is centered around six sections which collectively provide insight into what the Web is and will be, and the possibilities of Web technology. The sections are Webmonkey, Synapse, Dream Jobs, Net Surf, Beta Lounge, and RGB Gallery.

"Ever since HotWired launched in October 1994, we have been pushing the online envelope with innovative Web content and design," said David Weir, vice president of content at Wired Digital Inc. "Now, with HotWired 4.0, we are transforming our flagship Web site into an interactive experience unlike anything that previously has existed. Within months, everyone else who wants to be a player on the Web will be following our lead."