Marc Fest (born 1966, in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

) is a German-American communications professional, programmer and entrepreneur. He is notable as the creator of multiple web-based information management tools and a pioneer in this technology. He is a former journalist and self-taught programmer. His most recognized achievement is originating the concept known as "

metabrowsing Metabrowsing refers to approaches to browsing Web-based information that emerged in the late 1990s as alternatives to the standard Web browser. According to LexisNexis the term "metabrowsing" began appearing in mainstream media in March 2000. Since ...

" through his creation of Quickbrowse.com in 1999. This is a Web-based subscription service that enables users to browse multiple web pages by combining them vertically into a single web page. This concept was an outgrowth of a tool which Fest had conceived as an aid to his journalistic research. Between 1990 and 1999 Marc Fest worked for the publications

Berliner Zeitung The ''Berliner Zeitung'' (, ''Berlin Newspaper'') is a daily newspaper based in Berlin, Germany. Founded in East Germany in 1945, it is the only East German paper to achieve national prominence since reunification. It is published by Berliner ...

(1996–1999),

die tageszeitung ''Die Tageszeitung'' (, “The Daily Newspaper”), is counted as being one of modern Germany's most important newspapers and amongst the top seven. taz is stylized as ''die tageszeitung'' and commonly referred to as ''taz'', is a cooperative-own ...

(1990 to 1995) and

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...

(1993) as part of an

Arthur F. Burns Arthur Frank Burns (April 27, 1904 – June 26, 1987) was an American economist and diplomat who served as the 10th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1970 to 1978. He previously chaired the Council of Economic Advisers under President Dwight ...

Journalism Fellowshi

At a party he mentioned his invention to financial writer

Andrew Tobias Andrew Tobias (born April 20, 1947) is an American writer. He has written extensively about investment, as well as politics, insurance, and other topics. He is also known for writing ''The Best Little Boy in the World'', a 1973 memoir – origin ...

, who began the process of providing seed money for what eventually became Quickbrowse. He was vice president of communications for the

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also known as the Knight Foundation, is an American non-profit foundation that provides grants for journalism, communities, and the arts. The organization was founded as the Knight Memorial Education ...

and the

New World Symphony New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

. Fest is CEO of social porta
Joy.net
He is a dual Germany/United States citizen.

Quickbrowse

Quickbrowse received wide media coverage during the height of the

Dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...

. It was quickly followed by other metabrowsers such as Octopus.com (backed by

Netscape Netscape Communications Corporation (originally Mosaic Communications Corporation) was an American independent computer services company with headquarters in Mountain View, California and then Dulles, Virginia. Its Netscape web browser was onc ...

founder

Marc Andreessen Marc Lowell Andreessen ( ; born July 9, 1971) is an American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon ...

), Onepage.com (backed by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

co-founder

Paul Allen Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, computer programmer, researcher, investor, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which h ...

), iHarvest.com, Katiesoft.com and Calltheshots.com - all of which have ceased to operate as metabrowsers. Octopus received more than $11.4 million in venture capital funding from

Redpoint Ventures Redpoint Ventures is an American venture capital firm focused on investments in seed, early and growth-stage companies. History The firm was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, with offices in San Francisco, Los Angel ...

. Onepage received $25 million in venture capital funding.VentureWire.co
Venturewire.com (archived at archive.org)
Retrieved on 2007-01-23. Quickbrowse received a half-million dollars in angel funding. Quickbrowse backers included its lead investor,

Geocities.com Yahoo! GeoCities was a web hosting service that allowed users to create and publish websites for free and to browse user-created websites by their theme or interest. GeoCities was started in November 1994 by David Bohnett and John Rezner, and w ...

founde
David Bohnett
the financial writer

and CBS hurricane expert

Bryan Norcross Bryan S. Norcross (born November 24, 1950) is a television meteorologist, hurricane specialist, and contributor in the United States. He works for Fox Weather in New York City, the free ad-supported streaming television weather service, and serv ...

Other Internet activities

Fest has created additional Web-based services, such a
Onlinehomebase.com
(information management)
Magicminder.com
(contact management)
Trackle.com
(Web page content monitoring)
SimplyAnnual.com
(yearly email reminders), an
myHerald.com
an experimental online edition of the Miami Herald based on

(discontinued). He is also the creator o
Aftersunrise.com
a video blog of

South Beach South Beach, also nicknamed colloquially as SoBe, is a neighborhood in Miami Beach, Florida. It is located east of Miami between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The area encompasses Miami Beach south of Dade Boulevard. This area was the fi ...

sunrises and o
Messagehouse.org
a site about messaging tactics.

Notes

Bibliography

Stumbling into success: Techies generate buzz with Web-reading discovery”
Miami Herald, by John Dorschner, 11/23/99 - Fest as inventor
Jim Regan - Site Reviews
Christian Science Monitor, 1/28/07 - Fest as inventor
“The Mother of all Browser Windows is a Hit”
New York Post, By Joseph Gallivan - Fest as inventor
“Save time by visiting website Quickbrowse”
The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, by Brian Kim, February 3, 2000 - Fest as inventor
“Thanks a Million: Net Millionaires”
Surfer’s Digest, by Carla Sinclair & Matt Frauenfelder - Fest as inventor
“Sun Salutations from a Survivor”
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, by Margo Harakas, April 11, 2006 - Fest as inventor

Miami Herald, by Nicholas Spangler, April 15, 2006 - Fest as inventor

External links

Marc Fest personal Web siteQuickbrowse.comOnlinehomebase.comMagicminder.commyHerald.comAftersunrise.comCommunicationTricks.comSeemydog.com

Message House

Publications by Fest

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fest, Marc 1966 births People from Münster Living people