Partner With Us

Talk City Inc., which provides Internet communities and interactive services, said it will offer a group of region-specific online communities that link to AltaVista's local portals.

AltaVista, a unit of Compaq Computer Corp., currently has three local portals covering New York City, Houston, and British Columbia in Canada, and plans to have 60 by year end.

The portals help narrow the focus of the World Wide Web, enabling visitors to access more localised content than can be found on a general portal. With the addition of the communities, visitors to these local portals will be able to set up small chat rooms covering topics of interest, local businesses and community services.

A spokesman for AltaVista said the new communities would be an alternative to the "slick, precreated communities" found on many Internet portals, and might be an ideal venue for a small local group such as a school's Parent Teacher Association to post information.

In addition, consumers who use the Compaq Presario personal computers will be able to access these local communities directly by pushing the "people" key on their keyboards.

Alta said this will direct them to the community serving their region, or to the My AltaVista page offering business directories, mapping services, entertainment listings and shopping guides.

It said the AltaVista/Talk City co-branded communities are expected to go live in the fourth quarter of 1999.