---
title: "Lycos throws hat in Internet Media ring"
date: 2005-10-04
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2005"
    url: "/tag/2005.md"
---

# Lycos throws hat in Internet Media ring

Lycos, search engine portal and owner of Wired Magazine, has [announced its intention](https://web.archive.org/web/20060315002840/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/03/AR2005100301580.html) to rebrand as a media company. According to [the press release](https://web.archive.org/web/20060315002840/http://info.lycos.com/pressroom/100405_press.asp) Lycos has released a service called Planet, which enables its users to create “mini sites” that include photos, blogs, slideshows, animation, special effects and other multimedia. [ClickZ referred to Planet as](https://web.archive.org/web/20060315002840/http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3553401) a “social interaction platform”.

I love the press release headline: “NEW PLANETS DISCOVERED ON LYCOS, Revolutionary Interactive Platform Redefines Personal Expression”. Yeeeeaa….

[ The Washington Post](https://web.archive.org/web/20060315002840/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/03/AR2005100301580.html) ends it story with this:

*“Lycos, best known for its roots in the search business, is hoping to relaunch itself as a media company, eventually reaching out to self-publishing writers, artists and musicians, as well as major book publishers and entertainment studios to become a kind of Web-based studio for its 22 million-strong audience.”*

Sounds great – and very similar to what Yahoo! is doing with its media strategy. Read this excerpt from the ClickZ article and tell me if it sounds familiar:

*“\[Lycos’\] vision will include search, but will hinge on the building, distributing and consuming of content. Some of that content will be user-generated, from blogs on Lycos’ Tripod and Angelfire networks. Other content will be created by Lycos or will come from strategic partners like record labels, book publishers, and movie studios.”*

I suppose this is a natural extension for a search company that was/is big on content portals and owns Wired, so it’ll be interesting to watch Lycos’ progress. I think Yahoo! has a more organic and exciting approach to new media generation and distribution, with greater use of Web 2.0 technologies such as RSS and APIs. But it’s an open market right now.

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/lycos_throws_ha.php))*