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Technology Stocks : Walt Disney -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raptech who wrote (1812)	8/10/1999 9:11:00 AM
From: Captain Jack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2222

Rap-- and another-- Do these guys sit long enough to warm their brains or what? Disney quietly shutters family Net guide By Jim Hu Staff Writer, CNET News.com August 9, 1999, 9:10 p.m. PT Disney Internet Guide, or "Dig," the family-friendly Web search directory created by Disney Online, has quietly shut its doors. Unveiled last June, the directory was touted as the first Web search engine safe for kids and families. Dig was also Disney's first attempt to step into the popular world of Web search engines, which at the time were beginning to be called "portals," sites that aggregate much of what the Web can offer. But Dig was launched a week after Disney acquired a 43 percent stake in Web portal Infoseek. Subsequently, the entertainment giant jointly developed another Web portal, Go Network, as a way to drive traffic to its Disney-owned Web content, search engine, and free email. Accordingly, Dig was taken scrapped this past June because Disney management wanted to maintain Infoseek as its primary search brand, according to a Disney spokeswoman. The move seems to close another frustrating chapter for the Disney, which has yet to really hit its stride online. To many observers, the flagship Go Network (which includes ABCNews.com and ESPN.com) remains a big gamble that could either mark the success of media-Internet partnerships or go down as another expensive rebranding attempt from a traditional media company still trying to figure out the Web. Either way, Disney's efforts to maintain its family image won't falter. Infoseek search has a filtering feature called "Go Guardian" that blocks potentially smutty search results. Because of this, Disney said there is no more need for Dig. "We're relying entirely on Infoseek's search capabilities at this point," the spokeswoman said. "Combined with Go Guardian, it's a very good solution for family-friendly search." In July this year, Disney said it will acquire the remaining 57 percent of Infoseek that it doesn't own for $1.62 billion. The acquisition will create a new Go.com company that could potentially be spun off for an initial public offering.