Infoseek portal to go away -- but search engine stays

While Disney and Infoseek are targeting the major portal sites with their upcoming "Go Network," the project doesn't mean the end for the existing Infoseek site -- but it will look much different once the new portal is launched.

Infoseek Corp. (Nasdaq:SEEK) CEO Harry Motro said the companies will continue to support the Infoseek brand, but that the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based site will become primarily a search engine, with e-commerce and messaging functions transferred to the upcoming www.go.com site.

'We didn't have the marketing power on our own to really make it take off' -- Infoseek CEO Harry Motro

"We had been pushing it more into the portal space, but we didn't have the marketing power on our own to really make it take off," Motro told ZDNN Monday.

The Go site, set to launch in the fourth quarter, will feature Infoseek as its search brand, just as Yahoo Inc. once featured the AltaVista portal as its search brand, he said.

"We're layering commerce and community functions into the portal," and integrating the Infoseek search tool to create a more valuable service than the other portals offer, Motro said.

On Tuesday, Infoseek will announce a new search tool, dubbed "Infoseek Express," he said. The tool will offer faster and more comprehensive Web searches by simultaneously querying other major search engines. As the user reads the first set of results, the others are downloaded in the background, Motro said. The "Infoseek Express" site will go live Tuesday at www.express.infoseek.com, he said.

Infoseek in control
The new Go portal site, being developed along with the Walt Disney Co.'s (NYSE:DIS)Internet unit, Buena Vista Internet group, will be an Infoseek property, but links to Disney's major online brands such as ABCNews.com and ESPN.com will be offered on every page, Motro said.

Jake Winebaum, chairman of Buena Vista, was unavailable for further comment Monday. But a company spokeswoman said Buena Vista officials did not wish to comment on the Infoseek site-branding issue.

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Disney announced in June its $70 million purchase of a 43 percent stake in Infoseek. The companies said at the time that they planned to launch a new portal, but vowed their continued support for the Infoseek brand.

Third largest reach
Shares of Infoseek stock jumped on the news, closing up nearly 4 percent at $21 5/16. Disney stock closed down 1.22 percent at $25.25.

Go.com will have the third largest reach on the Web, according to July data from Relevant Knowledge. In terms of unique visitors, Go.com would rank ahead of Microsoft and Netscape, and be behind only Yahoo! and AOL, according to Infoseek and Buena Vista.