History of Infoseek
– Infoseek launched in January 1994 as a pay-for-use service.
– The service was dropped in August 1994 and Infoseek was relaunched as Infoseek search in February 1995.
– In 1995, Infoseek struck a deal with Netscape to become the default search engine on Netscape Navigator.
– On June 11, 1996, Infoseek’s initial public offering started trading on Nasdaq (under the name SEEK) at $12 per share.
– By September 1997, Infoseek had 7.3 million visitors per month.
Post-demise of Infoseek
– Infoseek’s Ultraseek Server software technology was sold in 2000 to Inktomi.
– Under Inktomi, Ultraseek Server was renamed Inktomi Enterprise Search.
– Rakuten agreed in November 2000 to acquire Infoseek Japan for $81 million.
– In December 2005, Verity was acquired by Autonomy PLC, and Ultraseek became a modular component under the IDOL platform.
– Ultraseek continued to be developed and marketed as Autonomy’s entry-level keyword-based site search offering.
Domain name
– The infoseek.com domain name redirects to go.com, and the Infoseek brand name is no longer used in North America.
– However, the Australian domain and the Japanese domain still operate with the Infoseek name.
– The Japanese domain name now operates as a web portal known as Rakuten Infoseek.
Related topics
– San Francisco Bay Area portal
– Companies portal
– List of search engines
– List of assets owned by Disney
References
– Short History of Early Search Engines – The History of SEO.
– Kirsch Foundation About the Founders.
– Contacting Infoseek. Infoseek. July 2, 1997.
– Disney absorbs Infoseek – Jul. 12, 1999.
– Mike Slade on 80s Microsoft, NeXT, Starwave and Steve Jobs Return to Apple.
Infoseek (also known as the "big yellow") was an American internet search engine founded in 1994 by Steve Kirsch.
 | |
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. Infoseek was bought by The Walt Disney Company in 1999, and the technology was merged with that of the Disney-acquired Starwave to form the Go.com network.
