NetMechanic Forms Strategic Partnership With Bigstep.com

Bigstep.com Offers Members an Easy Way to Increase Site Traffic with New NetMechanic Tool

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., January 23, 2001 -- NetMechanic® Inc., the leading independent provider of online Web site maintenance and promotion tools, today announced a new partnership with Bigstep.com, an award-winning small-business services company and web hosting services provider. Through this partnership, Bigstep.com will offer its members an easy way to optimize their web sites and increase site traffic with a higher search engine ranking.

San Francisco-based Bigstep.com is a do-it-yourself, online service center where people who operate small businesses can build business web sites, communicate with customers, and market their sites. Bigstep.com will integrate Search Engine Power Pack, NetMechanic's suite of web site optimization and promotion tools, into its existing package of ebusiness services. This reseller partnership with NetMechanic provides Bigstep.com members with access to a comprehensive suite of online promotion tools designed to improve their web sites' rankings with popular search engines.

"NetMechanic's Partner Program is an ideal way for web hosting companies and business portals to provide high-quality, low-cost site-maintenance services to small and medium size businesses," said Todd Gandy, director of business development at NetMechanic. "Through a partnership with NetMechanic, Bigstep.com is able to differentiate its service offerings and promote higher standards of customer satisfaction."

"At Bigstep.com, we realize the importance of giving our members the tools necessary to raise awareness regarding their online business efforts and increase traffic on their sites. By using NetMechanic, our users have powerful tools to help them get their site listed on major search engines and increase site traffic in return," said David Rich, vice president of marketing at Bigstep.com. "Search Engine Power Pack's automated tools allow Bigstep.com members to focus more time on their core business and less time on determining the best ways to promote it."

NetMechanic's Partner Program is designed especially for web-hosting companies, Internet service providers (ISPs) and other business resource sites that focus on offering value-added web site services for small to medium size businesses. Through these customized partnerships, NetMechanic's solid range of web site promotion and maintenance tools are tailored to meet the specific needs of the partner and its customers. Other partners, such as Verio, EarthLink, ZDNet, Web Trends, and Be Free, have enjoyed increased customer retention and improved customer satisfaction through the availability of NetMechanic's tools.

In addition to Search Engine Power Pack, NetMechanic products include HTML Toolbox 2.0, the only web site maintenance tool that will repair most common HTML code problems; Search Engine Starter, which submits web sites to 100 top search engines and features a unique report from NetMechanic that informs subscribers which search engines have accepted their site for consideration; and GIFBot, a graphic optimizer with an exclusive rollover viewing feature.

Businesses interested in joining NetMechanic's Partner Program can find more information at www.netmechanic.com. They can also contact Todd Gandy at (256) 533-0076, x114 or by e-mail at todd.gandy@netmechanic.com.

About Bigstep.com
A business-services company that is leading the movement of small businesses to the Web, Bigstep.com is a do-it-yourself, online service center where small businesses can build business web sites, communicate with customers, market their sites, perform credit card transactions, track visitors and more. Based in San Francisco, Bigstep.com was listed as one of "The Best of 2000" in web development by PC Magazine and also made its "Top 100 Web Sites" list for 2000. Bigstep.com has also earned Home Office Computing's Gold award, Computer Currents' Readers' Choice Award, and PC Computing's MVP Finalist award. The company is privately held and funded by Worldview Technology Partners, InterWest Partners, Cardservice International, Compaq Computers, Office Depot, U.S. Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, The Washington Post Company, Angel Investors, LP, Partech International, Draper Richards, Argus Capital, Staenberg Private Capital and private investors.

About NetMechanic
NetMechanic provides online maintenance and promotion services for small to medium-sized business Web sites. Through its online tools, the company has "tuned-up" over 32 million Web pages to improve Web site quality for its customers and optimizes customer Web sites for improved search engine rankings. NetMechanic offers its services directly from its site and through a partnership network of over 40 major hosting companies and online publishers.

For information regarding NetMechanic's services visit the company's Web site at http://www.netmechanic.com. The internet.com Corporation (Nasdaq:INTM), through its venture capital arm, is an equity investor in NetMechanic, Inc.