Exploring Explorer

DALLAS -- Some things must be written about simply because they exist.

Into this category falls MediaStream's PressLink Explorer.

MediaStream is the company born from last year's merger of Knight-Ridder's PressLink on-line information service and its Vu/Text archiving supplier.

During its tenure as a stand-alone company, PressLink needed a picture browser so its publisher customers could see the wares of its wire service customers. The solution was to first license, and later develop, a browser. What was to become PressLink Explorer was first shown to select potential users at the Digital '94 conference in Miami.

In the ensuing years, PressLink has gone through many changes, including a move to the Web (http://www.presslink.com/) and now doesn't really need a picture browser, as users view pictures they might want to buy through a web browser.

Nonetheless, PressLink Explorer has survived. The company was showing it here at Digital '97 as a $149 Macintosh application.

In addition to providing the customary lightbox view of images, PressLink Explorer also provides a window to edit the NAA/Iptc header information.

This allows editors to extract information from wire service photos -- such as a caption or a photographer's name -- or, for local photos, allows editors or photographers to put this information into the picture.

In addition, PressLink Explorer has a services menu, which can be configured to allow for a variety of editing applications -- such as Adobe Photoshop.

Lastly, the application allows for connection to not only a number of folders on the Macintosh network, but also uses the AppleSearch technology to find images that meet specific criteria.

Though PressLink Explorer isn't a picture database, it could certainly handle a lot of the work that goes into picture handling at a daily newspaper, and would afford a paper the ability to allow more editors and photographers access to the day's pictures.

And, it has survived, no mean feat these days.

PressLink, (800) 717-7706, e-mail: priddy@presslink.com.

-- dmc

From THE COLE PAPERS, May 1997, Copyright © 1997, All Rights Reserved.