Go.com

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Go.com
Godotcom.JPG
URL go.com
Commercial? yes
Type of site web portal
Available language(s) English
Owner Disney Interactive Media Group
Created by Disney Interactive Media Group
Launched January 9, 1998; 15 years ago (1998-01-09)
Alexa rank negative increase 60 (August 2012)[1]

Go.com (also known as The Go Network) is a web portal first launched by Jeff Gold,[citation needed] and now operated by the Walt Disney Internet Group, which is a part of The Walt Disney Company. The portal includes content from ABC News and ESPN which are associated with Disney and are hosted under a .go.com name. Along with TimeWarner's Pathfinder.com, Go.com proved to be an expensive failure for its parent company, as web users preferred to use search engines to access content directly, rather than start at a top-level corporate portal.

Contents

History [edit]

Disney on January 1998 registered go.com.[2] Infoseek and Disney Online joint ventured in developing the Go Network, an internet portal.[3] Go.com is launched in January 1999 as a portal with content from ABCNews.com, ESPN.com and Disney.[4]

With Disney's purchase of the remainder of Infoseek in July 1999, the Go Network, Infoseek, the Disney Catalog, Disney Online (Disney.com and DisneyStore.com), ABC News Internet Ventures and ESPN Internet Ventures and Buena Vista Internet Group are merged into the Go.com company which will only be 72% Disney owned with the other outstanding ownership in a tracking stock.[5]

In October 1999, the Go Guides program, a user edited directory like the Open Directory, is launched.[6][7]

Go.com's original logo used from January 9, 1998 to November 15, 1999.

However, in January 2000, Go.com was forced to abandon its original stoplight logo because of a complaint of similar-looking logos filed by Goto.com.[8] Concurrently, Go.com company officials announced it was shifting from a general appeal portal to featuring entertainment content.[7] (A court later ruled that Go.com had to pay $21.5 million in damages to Goto.com)[9]

However, in January 2001, Disney announced that it would be closing Go.com and its search engine, laying off approximately 400 employees and retiring the go.com tracking stock.[10] Also announced was the closing of Go.com's volunteer-edited directory. With the closing, some volunteers created, or migrated to, offshoot directories including JoeAnt, Goguides.org, and Skaffe.com.

In March 2001, Go.com dropped its internal search engine in favor of goto.com search results.[9]

Current status [edit]

Go.com's second logo used from 2001 to 2005

Despite its announcement, go.com never ceased operations. Instead, in March 2001, the site ended its search engine and switched to a search engine provided by goto.com, whose parent, Inktomi, was eventually purchased by Yahoo!.[1] Go.com continues to use the Yahoo search engine for queries and features content and news from its family of sites, and thus should be transitioning to Microsoft's Bing service.

All of Disney's sites, including ABC's, broadcast, cable, news, and owned and operated television station sites (except for a handful of ESPN sites, such as Jayski's Silly Season Site) continue to be hosted on the go.com domain, although a base address is used for branding and simplicity purposes; the ESPN site address redirects from espn.com[11] to espn.go.com,[12] for instance, while the site for WABC-TV redirects from 7online.com[13] to abclocal.go.com/wabc.[14]

Go.com has announced that they will cease the operating of its email accounts effective August 31, 2010.

In 2013, Disney retired the Go.com logo and branding, turning the domain into a Disney-branded landing page.

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ January 28, 2000 - Judge bars Disney from using Go.com logo
  2. ^ February 3, 2000 - Go Going Elsewhere, Loses Logo
  3. ^ January 29, 2001 - Disney to Discontinue Go.com Portal
  4. ^ March 15, 2001 - Go.com Becomes GoTo

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Go.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2012-08-02. 
  2. ^ Polsson, Ken. "1998". Chronology of the Walt Disney Company. kpolsson.com. Retrieved 7 December 2012.  source: CNet News.com, http://www.news.com.com.
  3. ^ Tedesco, Richard (December 14, 1998). "Disney, Infoseek give green light". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 30 November 2012. 
  4. ^ "GO Network premieres". Money. CNNfn. January 12, 1999. Retrieved 7 December 2012. 
  5. ^ "Disney absorbs Infoseek". Money. CNNfn. July 12, 1999. Retrieved 7 December 2012. 
  6. ^ "The Search Engine Report: Go Guides Goes Live". searchenginewatch.com. October 4, 1999. Retrieved 7 December 2012. 
  7. ^ a b Sullivan, Danny (Feb. 3, 2000). "Go Going Elsewhere, Loses Logo". Search Engine Watch.com. Retrieved 7 December 2012. 
  8. ^ Jacobus, Patricia (January 28, 2000). "Judge bars Disney from using Go.com logo". CNET News. Retrieved 7 December 2012. 
  9. ^ a b Sullivan, Danny (March 14, 2001). "Go.com Becomes GoTo". Search Engine Watch.com. Retrieved 7 December 2012. 
  10. ^ "Disney to Discontinue Go.com Portal". siliconvalley.internet.com. January 29, 2001. Retrieved 7 December 2012. 
  11. ^ "espn.com". espn.com. Retrieved 2012-07-10. 
  12. ^ "espn.go.com". espn.go.com. Retrieved 2012-07-10. 
  13. ^ "7online.com". 7online.com. 2009-11-02. Retrieved 2012-07-10. 
  14. ^ "WABC-TV New York News, Weather and Traffic | New York Area News | 7online". Abclocal.go.com. 2009-11-02. Retrieved 2012-07-10. 

External links [edit]

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Go.com&oldid=554835541"