Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Yahoo may be dead, but Lycos still survives.

From The Next Web:
For all intents and purposes, Yahoo as we know it is dead.

The main part of the company has been devoured by Verizon in a deal worth $4.8 billion. What remains of it has rebranded as the (perplexingly-named) Altaba, which let’s face it, sounds like a brand of weight loss milkshake aimed at seniors.

Beyond the screwups (and let’s face it, there were many), it’s often said the real reason why Yahoo failed was because it’s impossible to compete with Google on search.

This isn’t an unreasonable point. After all, Google is a hegemony. People use it because its search product produces the best, most relevant results. I mean, its name is a byword for “searching for shit on the Internet.” Really, how on earth do you compete with that?
I think the answer is ‘quietly.’ Take, Lycos for example.

In the 1990’s, Lycos was a pioneer of search. It preceded Yahoo by one year, and Google by four years. And while it never really reached the same level of popularity of the aforementioned companies, it came pretty close....MORE