The e-mail answering machine

It all started when Notify Technology Corp. examined the possible frustrations surrounding voice mail. Some people were accustomed to the luxury of the answering machine, which displays that little red light when there is an unheard message.

Thus, to avoid the whole dial up and wait routine only to find no voice mail, Notify created a low-cost, desktop adjunct, a light that appears when a new voice mail message arrives. After accomplishing that, the company decided to try the same thing with e-mail, introducing the Visual Got Mail system.

"E-mail parallels what we learned from voice mail," said Paul DePond, president and CEO of Notify. "Why wouldn't you want to know if you have mail?"

In mid-June, a regional Bell operating company will test the system internally and make a decision within 60 days as to whether it will team with Notify to offer the service to customers.

"After research and development, we decided to create a system composed of two parts: a server and an adjunct," said DePond.

Notify provides a telephone company with the e-Server, while the consumer who buys the service has an adjunct, or e-Light, which connects to the telephone line.

The e-Server repeatedly queries all users' e-mail accounts for unread messages, while the e-Light, periodically or at the push of a button, dials into the e-Server through a standard telephone line. If unread e-mail is present for one user's e-mail account, the e-Server notifies the e-Light, which then flashes a bright red light, similar to an answering machine.

The company is targeting the residential sector, as well as the small office/home office user, and anyone using a dial-up modem who wants to avoid the frustration of waiting through the long process. Although telcos are the main focus for now, Notify also has talked with some Internet service providers.

The company hopes to eventually add a filtering feature that eliminates all junk mail, thereby programming it to notify only if certain people send a message. "We are working on it," said Michael Manzo, marketing manager and product manager for Notify. "It is not fair to say it is a feature yet, but we believe it is important, though it won't make or break the product's success."

During the pilot, the system will notify users of unread e-mail in nearly all industry-standard e-mail systems such as the ones used by EarthLink, Mindspring and UUNet. The system also will provide notification to America Online subscribers.

As for the future, the company hopes to offer an adjunct that will notify if there is not only e-mail, but voice mail and caller ID.