Thursday, February 16, 2006
Lycos Looking Forward, an Interview with COO Brian Kalinowski:
"...The firm’s focus is shifting towards “… consumer created and specialty niche content”. This means Lycos plans to support independent creators and publishers by building products, services and platforms that allow them to make professional content and distribute it through social-based search applications.
“Search is an absolute, necessary vehicle,” said Kalinowski, “Web2.0 search is the primary vehicle for navigation and discovery. Lycos is not the general purpose [search] destination of choice but it will always offer competitive commercial search and specialty search for niche content.”
... “Our primary focus is rolling them into 7 or 8 key properties.” He went on to identify key areas as; news, entertainment, games, content, email, blogging, photo albums and multi-media / social networking products.
A glance at the Lycos Network Help page shows they already have many of the technologies in place. Anglefire and Tripod are services geared to helping beginning bloggers or website builders create web-ready properties ready to accept fresh content. Much of that content can be stored, shared and gathered using Planet, a youth-focused social network platform introduced by Lycos. New webmasters can register domains through Lycos and receive HTML tutorials, manuals and gadgets through the WebMonkey and HTMLGear services. Wired Magazine is considered to be among the most credible sources of Internet and technology news.
That collection of assets gives the management structure at Lycos a wide resource base to work with as it reinvents and reasserts itself in relation to its much larger competitors, Yahoo, Google and MSN.
For Lycos, reinvention is, “… the opportunity to go from a large public to a small private company.” While admitting Lycos is, “… never going to beat Google,” at pure search, Kalinowski says Lycos will focus on areas, “where we can make a big dent.”
The area Kalinowski identified as Lycos’ primary target is niche content created by independent producers. Lycos wants to become a, “… destination for not only consumers but for producers and creators where they can market and promote the goods they create.” He noted there are several independent producers of films, music, video games, and written products.
...
Lycos sees a great deal of potential serving long-tail searches in order to aggregate content that appeals to small markets that control niches in the larger marketplace. The idea is that fresh content will draw viewers, “… creating a larger audience of varied, eclectic tastes.” Lycos plans to be a big player in a lot of smaller markets.
“We see and use search as a discovery engine,” Kalinowski said. “It will evolve in a few years to personalized content based on user interests and desires. Google needs to stay on the cutting edge of general search, sort of a one-trick-pony. We see many niches so if one falls off…”
If anything, Lycos is a survivor. When asked how search engine marketers should think about Lycos, Kalinowski replied, “As the sleeping giant. We will never come back and be the $100 billion company. We’re aiming at capturing a lot of smaller niche markets, satisfying needs that Yahoo and Google can’t because that requires focus outside of their capabilities.” Lycos intends to, “… take a significant position for indy content creators and content outside the realm of mainstream publishers. This is a very dedicated commitment for us.”
As the search sphere segments, it will be interesting to watch Lycos’ continued evolution."
"...The firm’s focus is shifting towards “… consumer created and specialty niche content”. This means Lycos plans to support independent creators and publishers by building products, services and platforms that allow them to make professional content and distribute it through social-based search applications.
“Search is an absolute, necessary vehicle,” said Kalinowski, “Web2.0 search is the primary vehicle for navigation and discovery. Lycos is not the general purpose [search] destination of choice but it will always offer competitive commercial search and specialty search for niche content.”
... “Our primary focus is rolling them into 7 or 8 key properties.” He went on to identify key areas as; news, entertainment, games, content, email, blogging, photo albums and multi-media / social networking products.
A glance at the Lycos Network Help page shows they already have many of the technologies in place. Anglefire and Tripod are services geared to helping beginning bloggers or website builders create web-ready properties ready to accept fresh content. Much of that content can be stored, shared and gathered using Planet, a youth-focused social network platform introduced by Lycos. New webmasters can register domains through Lycos and receive HTML tutorials, manuals and gadgets through the WebMonkey and HTMLGear services. Wired Magazine is considered to be among the most credible sources of Internet and technology news.
That collection of assets gives the management structure at Lycos a wide resource base to work with as it reinvents and reasserts itself in relation to its much larger competitors, Yahoo, Google and MSN.
For Lycos, reinvention is, “… the opportunity to go from a large public to a small private company.” While admitting Lycos is, “… never going to beat Google,” at pure search, Kalinowski says Lycos will focus on areas, “where we can make a big dent.”
The area Kalinowski identified as Lycos’ primary target is niche content created by independent producers. Lycos wants to become a, “… destination for not only consumers but for producers and creators where they can market and promote the goods they create.” He noted there are several independent producers of films, music, video games, and written products.
...
Lycos sees a great deal of potential serving long-tail searches in order to aggregate content that appeals to small markets that control niches in the larger marketplace. The idea is that fresh content will draw viewers, “… creating a larger audience of varied, eclectic tastes.” Lycos plans to be a big player in a lot of smaller markets.
“We see and use search as a discovery engine,” Kalinowski said. “It will evolve in a few years to personalized content based on user interests and desires. Google needs to stay on the cutting edge of general search, sort of a one-trick-pony. We see many niches so if one falls off…”
If anything, Lycos is a survivor. When asked how search engine marketers should think about Lycos, Kalinowski replied, “As the sleeping giant. We will never come back and be the $100 billion company. We’re aiming at capturing a lot of smaller niche markets, satisfying needs that Yahoo and Google can’t because that requires focus outside of their capabilities.” Lycos intends to, “… take a significant position for indy content creators and content outside the realm of mainstream publishers. This is a very dedicated commitment for us.”
As the search sphere segments, it will be interesting to watch Lycos’ continued evolution."
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