Dave Horvath
13 Nov 2006 11:00
The time was the late 1990's and during what seemed like a limitless horizon of digital possibilities. Internet companies sprang up out of nowhere and reproduced quicker than the proverbial rabbit. Overpopulation soon became a problem and many corporations were hit by what became collectively known as the dotBomb.
Lycos was one company that, although survived, felt a huge decline in service after that dreaded event. With popularity gaining for places such as Yahoo! and Google, Lycos fell to the wayside in the wake of the next wave of Internet entreprenuers. During it's hayday, Lycos saw success by rejecting a majority share buyout offer for $4 billion, only to accept a $12 billion dollar offer a year later. Hard times hit and the company was offloaded for a mere $95 million to the Korean Daum.
Fast forward to today and Lycos is announcing they want to take two of the most popular types of Internet interaction and meld them together in what they hope becomes a flurishing community. Lycos says they have a good product in their new Lycos Cinema.
Merging the styles of successful sites like YouTube and MySpace, Lycos Cinema hopes to allow users to view streaming video all the while participating in an online chat community. Executives hope that one potential avenue would be simliar to Match.com in which users can go on a virtual movie date before actually meeting each other. One would wonder if they'll provide the virtual slap in the virtual face when someone virtually suggests they have virtual sex after the virtual date.
Source:
Reuters