I think it's pretty obvious to most people that Napster is not media specific, but I could see a system like Napster evolving into something that allows users to locate and retrieve different types of data other than just MP3s or audio files.
I think the most difficult thing had been scaling the infrastructure. Trying to support the response we had received from our users and the number of people that were interested in using the software.
But I just really think there is a natural extension into other types of media because it's an excellent system for reliably locating and retrieving content.
There really was nothing like it at the time. We had good ideas for implementation, so we proceeded. I think it was an excellent solution to the reliability issues with existing search engines.
Unfortunately, the client that exists today is still pretty much the prototype design.
I think in terms of the work we're doing now a lot of the UI cleanup... I see it getting much prettier.
