Hoover's To Offer Hoover's Portal Windows As Web Parts For Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AUSTIN, TEXAS - May 1, 2001 - Continuing to build its presence in the enterprise portal market, Hoover's, Inc. (Nasdaq: HOOV), a leading provider of business information, tools, and content integration and syndication technology, today announced it will provide Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) with a collection of Hoover's Portal Windows, which will be offered as Web Parts for use within Microsoft's SharePoint Portal Server.

Hoover's Portal Windows are navigational windows into Hoover's Online (www.hoovers.com), the premier online information resource for businesspeople. SharePoint Portal Server allows companies to easily find, share and publish information, and is the first Microsoft product based on the company's digital dashboard framework, a customizable portal framework that enables knowledge workers to view and collaborate on personal, team, corporate and external information. Web-based content can be integrated into the portal via Web Parts, which offer companies the most effective way to integrate any existing enterprise systems, such as analytical and collaborative tools in Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server, into their corporate portal.

A new Web Part Development Kit CD containing an extensive catalog of Microsoft and third-party Web Parts will soon ship with Microsoft's Digital Dashboard Resource Kit 3.0. Web Parts contained in the kit, including Hoover's Portal Windows, can be used with SQL Server 2000-based digital dashboards, or with SharePoint Portal Server.

The Hoover's Portal Windows, or Web Parts, that will be available include:

• Business Buzz - includes top news stories of the day, hand-selected by Hoover's Online editors
• Capsule Search - includes coverage on more than 12 million companies worldwide
• Headline News - displays the top five news headlines from a preconfigured Hoover's query
• Industry Updates - covers the latest news within dozens of industry sectors
• IPO Information - includes IPO Alerts, an IPO Hot List and IPOs On Deck
• Simple Search - allows ad hoc searching of daily news headlines
• Travel - includes flight booking, plus car and hotel reservation capabilities, as well as comprehensive hotel, dining and entertainment information on more than 100 worldwide locations.

"This opportunity with Microsoft allows Hoover's to deliver key business intelligence directly to the desktops of SharePoint Portal Server customers," said Carl Shepherd, executive vice president, Hoover's. "People are increasingly demanding more integration and customization of business information from diverse sources. Now we can better help those people find what they need, when they need it, so they can then act upon the information quickly and more efficiently."

"Hoover's Portal Windows as Web Parts provide a natural extension to SharePoint Portal Server and digital dashboard solutions, benefiting our mutual customers," said Jeff Teper, general manager of the SharePoint Portal Server business unit at Microsoft. "Hoover's Portal Windows deliver business information from diverse sources to customers."

About Hoover's, Inc.

Hoover's, Inc. (Nasdaq: HOOV) provides online business information, tools, and content integration and syndication technology to help businesspeople get their jobs done. Hoover's information is available through its destination sites Hoover's Online (www.hoovers.com) and the company's other sites in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K., through syndication and co-branding agreements with more than 30 other online services, and through customized applications developed for enterprise information portals, corporate intranets and business-to-business vertical and content sites. Hoover's investors include AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL), Media General (AMEX: MEG.A), NBC -- a unit of General Electric (NYSE: GE), and Knowledge Universe, through its Knowledge Net Holdings and Nextera Enterprises (Nasdaq: NXRA) units. Hoover's is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and has offices in London, New York City and San Francisco.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release may contain forward-looking statements relating to future events or results that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding the expected benefits of strategic relationships, future services and new products. Among the important factors which could cause actual results of Hoover's to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are the market demand and acceptance of new and enhanced services, the success of new features and tools from Hoover's Online, including Hoover's Portal Windows, the ability to attract new subscribers and customers, competition, economic conditions specific to the Internet, as well as general economic and market conditions and other factors described in Hoover's reports and documents filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its prospectus and recent 10-K and 10-Q filings.

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