Lycos Leaving Search
Lycos Leaving Search
There are few internet web properties that were making news in 1998. Lycos was one of them. Once a powerhouse in internet search (and one of the hottest properties on the web) Lycos was soon bought by multinational Terra Networks to become TerraLycos.
Since that day in October 2002, Lycos seemed to have lost focus on what it was – a really good search engine. Instead they got into many other internet markets and performed even more global expansion. In fact, even today Lycos is more popular in some countries than any other search engine or portal.
If you were to review their press releases from 2000 and 2001 you would that they were acquiring properties back then that are considered hot now. Job finding sites, travel sites, music services and more.
While other players like Yahoo and MSN were coasting (and Google was sneaking up from behind) Lycos was building its world internet presence.
Lycos Losts Its Appeal
But something happened. Lycos lost its appeal to the majority of internet users. While they were still hugely popular in Europe and other places around the world, in North America they were all but forgotten.
Around the time of the tech stock crash, Lycos faded, much like many other big internet names, and never recovered in the US.
More recently, they have cut staff drastically and have put up “for lease” signs in their California offices. It was only a matter of time before Lycos search disappeared.
Today Lycos announced that it is getting out of search. Instead they are going to focus on the latest internet craze – social networking. Social networking is the new gathering place – A place to go hang out and meet new people, or maybe even meet that special someone.
Many other players are getting into social networking – such as Google – which led to rumors that Google will incorporate social networking into search.
But for Lycos, this could be their last attempt at some kind of web supremacy. They realized that they could not compete in search. In fact, they were so far behind, it would have taken years to get caught up even to where search is today. So they chose a new route.
Hopefully, for the company’s sake, this new path turns out to be the right choice for them. They are getting into social networking at its infancy. As long as they can capitalize on its current popularity and make it work, they may stick around for a few more years.
Author Bio:
Rob Sullivan
Production Manager
Searchengineposition.com
Search Engine Positioning Specialists
