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Go.com

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused withGoTo.com.
Go.com
Type of site
Web portal
Available inEnglish
OwnerDisney Interactive
(The Walt Disney Company)
Created byDisney Interactive Media Group
(The Walt Disney Company)
URLgo.com
Commercialyes
LaunchedJanuary 9, 1998;26 years ago(1998-01-09)

Go.com(also known asThe Go Network) is a portal for Disney content that was created afterThe Walt Disney Companyacquired the search engineInfoseek.Go.com is operated byDisney Interactive'sDisney Online.It began as aweb portallaunched by Jeff Gold.[1]Go.com includes content fromABC News,which is owned byWalt Disney Televisionand is hosted under a.go.com name. Along withTime Warner'sPathfinder.com,Go.com proved to be an expensive failure for its parent company, as web users largely preferred to usesearch enginesto access content directly, rather than using directories. In 2013, the site was transitioned from a general-interest portal to a simple landing page.

History

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Go.com's original logo used from 1998 to 1999 as Go Network.

On January 9, 1998, Disney registered Go.com.[2]Infoseek and Disney Interactive Media Group joint ventured in developing the Go Network, an internet portal.[3]Go.com was launched on January 15, 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, ESPN Internet Ventures, and Buena Vista Internet Group were merged into the Go.com company; the company was 72% Disney-owned, with the other outstanding ownership in atracking stock.[5]

In October 1999, the Go Guides program, a user-edited directory likeDMOZ,was launched.[6][7]

In January 2000, Go.com was forced to abandon its originalstoplightlogobecause of a complaint of similar-looking logos filed byGoTo.com.[8][9]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.[10]

However, in January 2001, Disney announced that it would be closing Go.com and its search engine,laying offapproximately 400 employees and retiring the go.comtracking stock.[11]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 ofGoTo.comsearch results.[10]

Current status

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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, Overture Services, Inc, was eventually purchased byYahoo!.[10][12]

Go.com terminated its email service on August 31, 2010.

In 2013, Disney retired the Go.com logo and branding, turning the domain into a Disney-branded landing page without a search engine. The properties of Disney Interactive then began the process of moving the connection of user accounts off from depending on the Go.com domain to a different type of system not dependent solely on one domain. Throughout 2014 and 2015, theABC Owned Television Stationsbegan to move to only using their on-air domains, mainly forsocial mediaconsiderations. For example, the websiteABC 7inChicagohad been hosted at abclocal.go.com/wls but is now instead hosted on abc7chicago.com.

In 2016, some of Disney's sites, including ABC's network and news divisions and Disney's cable networks continued to be hosted on the go.com domain, although a base address was used for branding and simplicity purposes; for example, the website forFreeformredirected to freeform.go.com. As of 2022, the Freeform website is hosted solely on the freeform.com domain name.

In August 2016,ESPN.comswitched to solely using that domain instead of espn.go.com, tying into the improved Disney Enterprise Technology user account and registration process, rather than a rumored issue involving the resolution of "301"error notices from the former espn.com redirect causing lower search result rankings.[13][14]

References

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  1. ^Bahareth, Mohammad (April 18, 2012).Kings of the Internet.iUniverse. p. 210.ISBN9781469798431.RetrievedMarch 31,2014.
  2. ^Polsson, Ken."1998".Chronology of the Walt Disney Company.kpolsson.com.Retrieved7 December2012.
  3. ^Tedesco, Richard (December 14, 1998)."Disney, Infoseek give green light".Broadcasting & Cable.Archived fromthe originalon May 31, 2013.Retrieved30 November2012.
  4. ^"GO Network premieres".CNN Money.January 12, 1999.Retrieved7 December2012.
  5. ^"Disney absorbs Infoseek".CNN Money.July 12, 1999.Retrieved7 December2012.
  6. ^"The Search Engine Report: Go Guides Goes Live".searchenginewatch.com.October 4, 1999. Archived fromthe originalon 3 January 2003.Retrieved7 December2012.
  7. ^abSullivan, Danny (Feb 3, 2000)."Go Going Elsewhere, Loses Logo".Search Engine Watch.Retrieved7 December2012.
  8. ^Jacobus, Patricia (January 28, 2000)."Judge bars Disney from using Go.com logo".CNET News.Archived fromthe originalon November 17, 2013.Retrieved7 December2012.
  9. ^"Go Going Elsewhere, Loses Logo".Search Engine Watch.February 3, 2000. Archived fromthe originalon August 3, 2004.Retrieved2024-07-15.
  10. ^abcSullivan, Danny (March 14, 2001)."Go.com Becomes GoTo".Search Engine Watch.Archived fromthe originalon 25 March 2013.Retrieved7 December2012.
  11. ^"Disney to Discontinue Go.com Portal".Internet News.January 29, 2001. Archived fromthe originalon 31 May 2008.Retrieved7 December2012.
  12. ^Olsen, Stefanie."Yahoo to buy Overture for $1.63 billion".CNET.Retrieved2021-01-30.
  13. ^Buchholz, Andrew (4 August 2016)."ESPN drops ESPN.go.com, but not over a tweet from last week".Awful Announcing.Retrieved5 August2016.
  14. ^Benton, Joshua (4 August 2016)."ESPN.com has finally replaced espn.go.com, and a newish SEO rule means it won't lose Google juice".Nieman Journalism Lab.Retrieved5 August2016.
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