Go.com will be staying, the Walt Disney Co.
said Monday, announcing that rather than close the Web portal it
will maintain the site using a former rival's technology to power
its search engine.
Disney launched a redesigned site quietly last Wednesday,
replacing its extensive series of articles and its powerful
Infoseek search engine with links to content on other Disney-owned
sites, including abcnews.com and espn.com.
In place of Infoseek — which Disney acquired in 1998 in order to
launch its Go.com portal — searches will be performed by GoTo.com.
Last May, Disney agreed to pay Pasadena-based GoTo.com $21.5
million to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit.
When Disney launched its portal, the site used an emblem that
had the word "Go" written in white letters on a green traffic
light inside a square yellow case.
GoTo's logo had its name spelled in white on a green circle atop
a yellow rectangle.
In January, the Walt Disney Internet Group said it would lay off
400 workers and shutter its money-losing Web portal. It said it
would also sell some of its assets, including the Infoseek search
engine.
Disney said Monday the decision to keep Go.com alive was made
after "the opportunity presented itself" to make money from the
traffic that still flows to Go.com.
"We can maintain the page at very little cost by taking feeds
from our other sites," Michelle Bergman, Disney Internet Group
spokeswoman, said. "We can still drive traffic to our sites and
leverage our traffic as an asset."
Bergman would not disclose the terms of the deal. Calls placed
to GoTo.com were not immediately returned.
"It's a good situation for both us and them," Bergman said.
