Bytes : Genie on the Web

1 February 1997

Five Australian software packages designed to help manage
sites on the World Wide Web have proven extremely popular internationally but
are only just being noticed at home. The packages have been developed by
WebGenie Software, a company founded a year ago by Siva Prasad when he was
a researcher in the biochemistry department at the University of Adelaide.
(Prasad is now at the Australian National University in Canberra.) “We sold
products into 32 countries before selling our first package in South Australia,”
says Tim Anderson, manager of Luminis, the University of Adelaide’s
commercial arm. Luminis administers WebGenie Software. The packages include Site
Sleuth which accumulates and analyses information on the sort of people who
contact a Web site; CGI*Star which allows Web site operators to respond to
customers automatically by sending them information and order forms; and Banner
Show which gives operators the ability to display a series of changing
advertisements on their pages. The software, now used in 40 countries, has been
bought by General Electric, Lockheed, Compaq and the US Army. WebGenie can be
reached at http://www.webgenie.com