Irreverent comedy, snappy new brands replacing familiar old ones–that’s the standard formula for promoting Internet portals, the sites that try to hold Web users with a variety of news, chat and shopping features. With Go, Disney and Infoseek are coming late to a party already crowded with the likes of Excite, AOL, Microsoft and leader Yahoo. But while Disney might downplay its not-so-hip name, it plans to use its vast media empire to hype the new Web entry. That’s a prospect Go’s GM, Barak Berkowitz, thinks could turn the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Infoseek from an Internet also-ran into a top contender: Disney ““gives us an opportunity to be No. 1. We have a chance to win.''
Only six months ago, Infoseek’s future looked much cloudier. It failed to follow other Internet search start-ups in offering the content that keeps users coming back, and Wall Street largely ignored it. The deal with Disney solved the content problem. Disney took a 43 percent stake in Infoseek, with an option to go up to 50 percent in three years. Infoseek gets to fill Go with the full umbrella of Disney’s Web content, including sports from ESPN.com, news from ABC.com and all of Disney’s family sites, like Family.com.
At first glance, the site looks a lot like other portals. But there are several innovations. Go’s search engine does better than its competitors’ in weeding out the porn sites that often show up in query results. For example, search for ““sorority’’ on Go and you get PG-rated results; do the same on Yahoo and the second match is Sorority Sex House Live!
Go has also introduced what they call ““Follow Me Tabs’’ to make navigating the site easier. These are indices labeled ““Web sites,’’ ““community’’ and ““shopping’’ that appear throughout and let users explore those services in the context of a topic. While checking out an NFL team, you can click on the ““community’’ tab to chat with other fans, or on ““shopping’’ to buy its gear.
It’s a nifty tool, but in this business a new idea is often tomorrow’s standard feature. That’s why Jupiter Communications analyst Mark Mooradian isn’t exactly gung-ho about Go’s prospects: ““It’s more of the same. This is Infoseek and Disney ganging up to try to beat Yahoo at its own game.’’ Mooradian and other industry watchers think Go’s success will depend on how vigorously Disney promotes the site. Disney’s Internet chief, Jake Winebaum, says the whole Magic Kingdom will get behind Go, from shows on ABC and ESPN to exhibits at Epcot and Disneyland. ““We’re going to use some assets that, if you look at who is ahead of us, no one else has got,’’ he says.
While Disney’s marketing muscle can certainly help a venture (““A Bug’s Life’’), it doesn’t always succeed (ABC’s fall lineup). And, as one industry exec reminds us, ““This is a business that likes new, not old, brands.’’ Another reason why, while the hamster runs, the familiar mouse ears are nowhere in sight.
