Back to 1995

Chapter 146 Backdoor
When the on-site press conference at the San Jose Convention Center ended, a crowd of media immediately swarmed around Song Yang and Willis. These media and reporters were the most sensitive group of people who were most sensitive to wind direction and hot spots.

Just look at the fact that Microsoft, Netscape, Yahoo and others hurriedly left after the press conference. Anderson and Jim Clark didn’t even bother to say a word of kindness, so they returned to Netscape in a hurry to understand these Internet issues. Colleagues, the attitude towards this press conference.

The young people from the University of San Jose who entered the scene applauded ICQ for 3 minutes after the press conference was announced, and they understood their attitude towards ICQ!
In addition, the NFT avatar mentioned by Wesley at the end seemed to ignite the weeds in the hearts of countless people at the scene, making countless people restless.

Many people know little about this thing, but they all clearly feel that at the last moment, ICQ took out this trick, and it is definitely not for fun. No one knows what impact ICQ will have on NFT avatars!

"ICQ will have a banquet later. If you are interested, you can participate. ICQ will hold a special media meeting day in a few days. If you have any questions, you can ask them at that time!"

Facing a large group of reporters who came over, as well as the on-site personnel who came to join in the fun, Irene announced on behalf of ICQ, and then Song Yang and Willis rushed to the hotel where the celebration banquet was held under the escort of Ulf.

Kevin Kelly, who was standing behind the crowd, made another note in his notepad. He was not as anxious as these fellow reporters. Song Yang had already promised him that he would accept an exclusive interview with Wired Magazine.

Today's ICQ press conference left Kevin Kelly unsatisfied. It has been a long time since he has experienced the kind of Internet products that surprised him, and ICQ is definitely one of them!

Kevin recorded the main points of today's ICQ press conference, but he had to go back to the hotel and experience ICQ himself before he could publish a real comment on ICQ in Wired magazine, but Kevin had a hunch , Tomorrow, it is estimated that the technology industry will explode because of ICQ!
Sitting in the car, Willis's excited mood gradually began to calm down. Looking at Song Yang sitting beside him, Willis asked carefully, "Boss, ICQ user, is he really willing to accept NFT avatars?!"

Song Yang smiled. The so-called NFT is created by the people in the currency circle to cut leeks. Everything can be NFT. A pair of NFT socks sells for 16 US dollars, a star's NFT animation auction for 21 US dollars, a virtual The NFT real estate sold for $60, and a famous painting composed of NFT sold for $6934 million...

Although the publicity of NFT is very good, what blockchain technology is used in NFT, it is an encrypted picture, which is unique in the world, indivisible, and non-replicable. Every NFT picture can be tracked and queried. It is like giving a picture identity and so on.

But in any case, when NFT pictures start to circulate and trade like antiques, calligraphy and paintings, it has hype attributes, and it starts to cut leeks. Someone bought an NFT picture and spent hundreds of thousands. People make millions of dollars by making NFT pictures.

When ordinary people see such news, they probably don’t think about it and investigate carefully. What the hell are people buying and selling? They only saw the profit, so they flocked to trade NFT pictures, and finally got taxed by IQ !
It is not ruled out that NFT may indeed become popular, but except for those with special needs, ordinary people spend tens of millions to buy this thing, basically being cut off from the leeks, even antiques have substitutes, and even more Don't mention this stuff.

However, this does not prevent ICQ from using this set of gameplay to hype ICQ!
Of course, ICQ does not have any blockchain and tracking technology now, but it is no problem to play the NFT game on the ICQ platform.

The current Internet culture is trendy and unique, and ICQ launched the NFT avatar to make it unique, and even represent identity and status, so that people will know who the person using it is when they see this avatar , use it to break the circle for ICQ!

"I believe that users will accept NFT avatars, but these are not what we need to care about now. In Willis, your technical department, the server must be prepared for the influx of users, and the technical problems encountered must be handled well! "

Song Yang said to Willis that NFT avatars are ultimately a means of publicity, and the users in front of ICQ are the most important. No one knows whether ICQ can replicate the miracle of Hotmail mailbox users. But this time, in order to promote ICQ, Song Yang has spent real money.

At the celebration banquet, Song Yang, Willis and the others did not stay long. After a few drinks, they returned to the ICQ office building. On the signs of ICQ.

Song Yang went directly to the technical department, and the backstage of the technical department could see the download volume of ICQ, as well as the user's usage time and so on.

"Now some users have started to download the ICQ client, and the number of webpage visits is also increasing. The total number of registered users has exceeded 1250!" Seeing Song Yang who came in, the staff staring at the rear tire reported to Song Yanghui.

Now using ICQ, you can access it through Netscape and IE browsers, and you can also search for ICQ webpages on Yahoo. In addition, Hotmail mailboxes are now online with embedded ICQ function keys, which can directly transfer to the ICQ login page!
Song Yang glanced at the time. After the press conference, ICQ's official website began to go online for users to visit and download the client. In addition, double-clicking on the company side also started to promote ICQ. Basically, it will be tomorrow evening. Only by downloading can we know whether ICQ is accepted by users.

At the moment, Microsoft, Netscape, Yahoo, AOL and other Internet companies are also studying ICQ.

Myhrvold, who has not yet returned to Microsoft headquarters in Seattle, is having a conference call with Microsoft headquarters, "Gates, Ballmer, Microsoft must pay attention to ICQ, it will change the history of the Internet in America, I promise!"

While talking with the Microsoft headquarters, Myhrvold was operating the computer to experience the newly downloaded ICQ. After logging into ICQ with one-click access to the Hotmail mailbox, Myhrvold saw in the ICQ friend list column, static There is a "friend address book import" lying quietly.

Myhrvold clicked on it directly, and then saw a scene that stunned him, only to see that ICQ directly imported Myhrvold's Hotmail mailbox friend account into ICQ, and gave Myhrvold very considerately Send a sentence to remind him to notify his Hotmail mailbox account friend to open an ICQ account, and the two sides can communicate, and even Myhrvold clicks OK, and ICQ can replace Myhrvold, directly use the Hotmail mailbox to generate emails, and notify His friend opened an ICQ account!

Sitting in the Microsoft headquarters, Bill Gates and others who were studying ICQ software heard Myhrvold's unprecedented scolding.

"That bastard Bruno Song!"

On the phone, Myhrvold's curses were still echoing. He only saw the function of "Address Book Friends". The back door, it's like the house has been sold, and the key to the back door is left, so you can come in and walk around at any time, or move something to leave.

When Bill Gates heard this, he also noticed it, but he didn't curse. Even if he didn't mention that Song Yang still holds 10% of Hotmail mailboxes, he said that Song Yang is Microsoft's most staunch ally in the Internet industry At this point, it is impossible for Bill Gates to turn his face directly because of this.

Bill Gates continued to experience ICQ, experienced most of ICQ's functions, and finally stopped on the "discovery" page of the ICQ space community, and then said to the people around him, "The product released by our ally has a high level of maturity. Very high, it seems that preparations have already begun!"

"What does Microsoft need to do now, how to deal with ICQ?!" Ballmer touched the top of his head and said with some headaches. This matter does not depend on the performance of ICQ, but on how Microsoft handles the relationship with Song Yang. Whether to continue to be an ally, or to start being an opponent.

"Bruno Song should not intend to be an enemy of Microsoft. Even if ICQ is launched, as long as there is an IE browser, Bruno Song's ICQ will not be able to threaten Microsoft's layout in the Internet industry. On the contrary..."

Before going to San Jose, Todd, the president of the public relations department who signed an agreement with Song Yang on behalf of Microsoft, did not want Microsoft, which had finally improved its situation, to turn against its allies again.

"If ICQ can develop, this ally of Microsoft may be more beneficial to Microsoft!"

But for Todd's remarks, some people at Microsoft immediately objected, "When Netscape appeared, you also said the same way. If Bruno Song finally turned against Microsoft, what if Bruno Song occupied this place with ICQ? , instant messaging and Internet social networking industry, is Microsoft going to withdraw from the social networking industry forever?!"

Microsoft is not monolithic internally, where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, not to mention Microsoft, a billion dollar giant, and there are many factions inside. At this time, the person who is speaking is from the Wall Street institution. Like an octopus, Microsoft can enter all walks of life on the Internet.

As for the new terms such as "instant messaging" and "social industry" that just appeared today, I naturally don't want Microsoft to miss it, and I don't want Microsoft to repeat the mistakes it made with Netscape!

"Now Microsoft's enemy is Netscape!"

Bill Gates, who was sitting at the top, looked at the computer screen, and finally said emphatically, this is basically a final decision, and the relationship with Song Yang will not be changed, and he still wants to beat Netscape to death.

"However, keep an eye on our ally. If ICQ and the social industry really develop, Microsoft also needs to enter, or you need Todd to go to San Jose again!"

Bill Gates finally looked at Todd, the meaning is very clear, kill Netscape first, and then see how far ICQ can develop. .

Not only Microsoft, Netscape, Yahoo, AOL, etc., there was no movement that night. There were Microsoft and Netscape who were afraid of each other, and some were just waiting to see what ICQ could do.

But the media side is very lively, and ICQ is even more active.

(End of this chapter)