Infoseek (also known as the "big yellow"[1]) was an American internet search engine founded in 1994 by Steve Kirsch.[2]
 | |
Type of site | Search engine |
|---|---|
| Successor(s) | Go.com |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Owner | Disney Interactive |
| URL | infoseek |
| Commercial | Mixed |
| Launched | January 1994 |
| Current status | Closed as of 1999 |
Infoseek was originally operated by the Infoseek Corporation, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.[3] Infoseek was bought by The Walt Disney Company in 1999,[4] and the technology was merged with that of the Disney-acquired Starwave to form the Go.com network.[5]
History
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (February 2019) |
Infoseek launched in January 1994 as a pay-for-use service.[1] The service was dropped in August 1994 and Infoseek was relaunched as Infoseek search in February 1995.[1]
In 1995, Infoseek struck a deal with Netscape to become the default search engine on Netscape Navigator.[1]
On June 11, 1996, Infoseek's initial public offering started trading on Nasdaq (under the name SEEK) at $12 per share.[6]
By September 1997, Infoseek had 7.3 million visitors per month.[7] It was the 7th most visited website that year (5th in 1996) and 10th in 1998.[8] Infoseek acquired the WebChat Broadcasting System in April 1998.[9]
In 1998, Disney purchased a 43% stake of Infoseek, and incorporated the site into its various media businesses. Around the same time, Disney acquired the Starwave Corporation, which included ESPN.com and ABCNews.com.[1] In 1999, Disney acquired the remaining Infoseek stock it didn't own. Disney bundled its Starwave properties and Infoseek and formed the GO.com portal.[4]
Infoseek was among the first search engines to sell advertising on a CPM, Cost Per Thousand Impressions, basis.[1] In 1997, the first Cost Per Click programs, as well as the precursor to pop-ups called daughter windows, was sold to Grey Advertising for a Procter & Gamble Pampers campaign.[10]
In 1998, Infoseek was the first internet company to develop and launch behavioral targeting via its UltraMatch targeting algorithms.[citation needed] In 1999, Infoseek engineer Li Yanhong moved to Beijing, China and co-founded the search engine Baidu.[1] In February 2001, Disney decided to cancel the service and lay off all staff. Also in 2001, Bernt Wahl, Andy Bensky and 15 software engineers, all Infoseek employees, led a management buyout attempt from Disney but were ultimately rebuffed.[11]
Post-demise
Infoseek's Ultraseek Server software technology, an enterprise search engine product, was sold in 2000 to Inktomi.[1] Under Inktomi, Ultraseek Server was renamed "Inktomi Enterprise Search". In December 2002 (prior to the Yahoo! acquisition of Inktomi), the Ultraseek product suite was sold to a competitor Verity Inc, who re-established the Ultraseek brand name and continued development of the product.
Rakuten agreed in November 2000 to acquire Infoseek Japan for $81 million.[12]
In December 2005, Verity was acquired by Autonomy PLC. Under Autonomy, Ultraseek ceased to be a stand-alone product and became a modular component under the IDOL platform. It continued to be developed and marketed as Autonomy's entry-level keyword-based site search offering until after Autonomy was acquired by Hewlett-Packard (HP) in October 2011.
Domain name
The "infoseek.com" domain name redirects to "go.com" and the Infoseek brand name is no longer used in North America.[1] However, the Australian domain and the Japanese domain still operate with the Infoseek name.[1] The Japanese domain name now operates as a web portal known as "Rakuten Infoseek".
See also
References
External links
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