AT&T WorldNet Service Selects Talk City, the Chat Network, as Chat Link

CAMPBELL, Calif., Oct. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Talk City (www.talkcity.com), the leading quality Internet chat network, today announced it is a featured link on AT&T WorldNet(R) Service, the largest direct Internet service provider in the United States, with nearly 1 million customers (www.att.net). A link to Talk City is displayed on the redesigned AT&T WorldNet Service website, being introduced today. With a single mouse click, members can move from the AT&T WorldNet Service welcome page to the chat page, where the link to Talk City is featured.

"AT&T WorldNet Service is designed to enable customers to get and use material from content providers in a way best suited to each individual's needs," said Chris Varley, Interactive Services director for AT&T WorldNet Service. "As we enhanced our website and service, it was clear that our members could find value in Talk City as a way to meet their need for Community."

"We are pleased to link with leaders like AT&T WorldNet Service, who share our desire to bring quality chat and community to the Internet," said Peter Friedman, president and chief executive officer of Talk City, the Chat Network and its parent studio, LiveWorld Productions. "We believe this is a further demonstration of Talk City's leadership position as the #1 place on the Internet for quality chat programming."

Talk City features over 10,000 Chat @ Talk City rooms (with over 1,400 new applications each week). Its extensive partner network includes over 25 strategic partners -- including IDG Books, WebTV Networks, Worldview Systems and its affiliated travel area, Travelocity. Additionally, Talk City has experienced explosive growth in recent months. The service has over 15,000 active chat rooms each week and is now running at over 1.5 million hours (90 million minutes) of user chatting each month. This translates into over 375 million web impressions/month (combination of web pageviews and chat impressions).

Easy to Use Technology

Talk City runs on a specially developed chat server system utilizing Microsoft's MCIS chat servers and Talk City's specially developed EZTalk client series. Talk City is accessible using EZ Talk (with any standard, Java enabled browser such as Microsoft Explorer, Netscape Communicator or AOL's WEB browser) or any IRC compatible chat client. Talk City's service is designed to support tens of thousands of concurrent users and many real-time conversations at once, including both public, private, auditorium-style chats and VR (virtual reality) panorama ChatZines. Most important, Talk City's exclusive EZTalk chat software allows users t easily participate in chats without downloading or configuring any special applications.

About Talk City and LiveWorld Productions, Inc.

Talk City, The Chat Network, is the leading quality Community and chat service on the Internet. The lead product of LiveWorld Productions, Inc. (www.liveworld.com), Talk City has been building a reputation as 'clean well- lighted' place since its inception in 1996. Talk City's current Community programming includes 7 channels, 33 topic areas and 20 featured communities with more than 8,000 moderated chat sessions each month, plus member rooms, discussion boards, and more. Participation in Talk City is skyrocketing, with over 2.5 million chatters to date.

Talk City also recently launched the Chat @ Talk City program, which enables anyone -- friends, families or businesses -- to easily create, personalize and integrate quality Community chat into their Web sites or home pages -- all for free. Since the program began in June 1997, over 10,000 Chat Talk City rooms have been opened.

LiveWorld, Talk City, and Chat @ Talk City are trademarks of LiveWorld Productions, Inc. AT&T WorldNet is a service mark of AT&T. All other brands and products are trademarks of their respective companies. AT&T WorldNet is a registered trade mark of AT&T.

SOURCE LiveWorld Productions, Inc.

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/CONTACT: Betty Taylor, 415-591-0274, or bettyt@krause-taylor.com, or Mary Devincenzi, 408-559-1820, or mary@krause-taylor.com, both of Krause Taylor and Associates, for LiveWorld Productions, Inc.; or Mike Miller of AT&T WorldNet Service, 908-658-2815, or 800-865-9460, PIN 4141, or michaeld2@attmail.com/

/Web site: http://www.talkcity.com/liveworld/

CO: LiveWorld Productions, Inc.; AT&T WorldNet Service ST: California IN: MLM SU: PDT

EB-SM -- SFTH051 -- 0624 10/23/97 14:41 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com