Note: Teleshuttle's proprietary software and online
operations services are no longer marketed.
Please view the consulting information on
the Teleshuttle home page.
The information shown dates from 1996 or earlier, and remains relevant to the
history of CD/online/Web hybrid technology.
If you build it, can they come?
The Web is a very effective way to reach users who 1) have paid to have access, 2) have gotten their computer set up properly, and 3) know where to find you. The cost to reach those people is very small. But that population is only 10-20% of the total population of modem-equipped users. While it is growing very fast, it will remain a minority until the turn of the century. You can distribute a browser that is preset to take users to your content (such as the Mosaic Direct package), but unless they enter their credit card number and ante-up the subscription fee to an access provider (at $10 per month or more) they still won't call.
Teleshuttle offers free and easy access to the entire population of modem-equipped users.
If you have a Web site, and are satisfied with the presentation of browsers such as Netscape or Mosaic, then Teleshuttle's WebShuttle is the easy way to expand your reach.
The WebShuttle service consists of:
This enables users to access your Webpak information without ever needing an Internet subscription.
Any user with a modem can use Teleshuttle to get your latest Webpaks quickly downloaded to his hard disk for offline browsing at any time.
Even users without modems can view your starter Webpak.
Users who like moving around with a laptop will find this offline access handy, even if they do have Internet capability when they get to a phone.
If you supply the disk and sponsor an 800 number, the user incurs no cost at all. No $10 per month, and no credit card entry to stop them in their tracks. Communications costs to you remain very low, because the call is just long enough to retrieve the designated Webpak, and then automatically disconnects. Unlike conventional Web access, and unlike conventional voice 800 services, the meter does not run while users (and operators) dawdle.
To the user, it looks as if he were connected at very high speed to your subset of the Web. Hyperlinks to pages within the Webpaks currently on the hard disk work normally, but faster. Hyperlinks to pages in other Webpaks automatically call the Teleshuttle Transporter as a "helper application" to call out and download the additional Weblet(s). Periodic updates can be triggered by a special "Get Update Now" hyperlink, which can be placed wherever you wish. Getting a new Webpak may take a minute or two, but once it is downloaded to the the hard disk, surfing runs at wideband speeds, with no busy servers or lost requests. Of course content is limited to the Webpaks you provide, but maybe the ability for the user to surf off to some other site with one click is not a feature you will really miss.
The Webpaks can consist of any selection of pages and related images, sounds, etcetera from your Web site, or from other sites (subject to any copyright limits). Data or files in any format other than HTML can also be included.
Browsers have an important place - when surfing is what you want to do. Publishers can use Teleshuttle in their product and bundle a Web browser with it as well. Ever notice that surfboards are often mounted on top of cars? Keep that surfboard handy, but when your users just want to sit back and have some data delivered, let them click on Teleshuttle.
The Teleshuttle transporter works with Web browsers and information in Web/HTML format, but it also works with any other content format as well. Content can be Acrobat PDF, or text, image, and sound, or special database structures in any form you like, even encrypted under your control. For use apart from a Web browser, the Teleshuttle Drop-in Utility Tranporter provides a basic user interface to retrieve content for any viewer, and the Teleshuttle Transporter API was designed-in from day one as the premier, standard tool to allow you complete freedom to seamlessly embed rich Teleshuttle function into any application, with no compromise to your production values. (See Teleshuttle Products and Services, and TeleshutleTechnical Overview)
All transporter functions are network independent, so you can offer both direct-dial and Internet connectivity options.