August 27, 1999 Web posted at: 1:50 p.m. EDT (1750 GMT) by Douglas F. Gray

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INTERACTIVE

Are you ready for voice chat or do you enjoy typing in text-based chat? Gimme voice chat ASAP! I'm happy with text-based chat I don't chat I'll use both View Results

The company has made its Net Talk Lite available for free on its Web site. Net Talk Lite allows between two and four users with Microsoft's NetMeeting 2.1 to communicate with each other by voice over the Internet. The software features a graphical interface with avatars -- graphical representations of users.

"Take ICQ, add to that voice, add to that groups, add to that visual experience," and you have the Net Talk model, said Steven Tover, the company's president and chief executive officer. ICQ is the popular text-based chat and messaging software owned by AOL.

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The company's main products will be the Net Talk Enterprise and Net Talk Communities packages, which extend the basic functions of Net Talk Lite to a full business-to-business model, taking full advantage of the low-priced communications costs offered by the Internet, according to Tover. The full-blown versions of Net Talk offer functions not offered on the free Lite version, including application sharing and "white-boarding" possibilities, he added.

Net Talk Lite for NetMeeting is available for free now from the company's Web site. A cross-platform Java version will be available next month, according to Tover.

Net Talk Communities and Net Talk Enterprise will be available in November, Tover said.

Douglas F. Gray writes for the IDG News Service in London.