Visto - Visto The Product/Service

Visto The Product/Service

In 1996, Visto offered what was likely the first complete browser-based application suite: including email, to-do list, calendar, address book, remote file storage (ftp by any other name), browser bookmarks (both IE and Netscape). Visto pioneered the sharing of calendars between customers, allowing one to send invites and coordinate events with other Visto users.

Visto also offered a then-unique push email service allowing corporate email to be accessed outside the company firewall. A Windows service was configured on a machine within the company firewall, which pushed email to the easily-accessed Visto servers.

The complete application suite was synchronize-able between Windows-based machines equipped with the Visto software. Syncing to personal information managers (PIMs)--such as Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, Lotus Organizer, and ACT!--was achieved by licensing IntelliSync technology. Synchronization was limited to Windows machines, but the synchronized information was available from any machine running Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator/Communicator. Other browsers were not supported.

Initial code development was in Java, but performance proved too slow for customer satisfaction and scalability. In late 1997, early 1998, the transition of the complete code base from Java to C++ cost the company six months of product advancement, diminishing market lead and allowing competitors such as Yahoo to catch up with the functionality Visto offered for their own consumer services.

In 2008, Visto provides only corporate email services, billing itself as a "mobile email provider."