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To: FawnVu who wrote (27165)	12/12/1998 11:35:00 PM
From: JEB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 119973

SEEK news in the NY Times: nytimes.com You'll have to sign up but it's free.

To: FawnVu who wrote (27165)	12/13/1998 1:11:00 AM
From: chirodoc	Respond to of 119973

SI Inbox (0) \| Folders Bookmarks \| People Hot \| New Subjects Options \| Profile Portfolios: - [Create a WatchList of your favorite stocks! ] Disney, Infoseek launch new Internet portal....December 12, 1998 Web posted at: 2:29 p.m. EST (1929 GMT) PALO ALTO, California (Reuters) -- A lot of people can expect to start hearing a lot more about the Internet over the next several weeks, even if they never go near a computer. The reason? Walt Disney Co. has weighed in with an online presence and plans to apply its legendary marketing brilliance to ensure its new venture is a big success. Disney and the Internet service Infoseek , which formed an online alliance over the summer, will on Monday preview their new Internet portal, the Go Network www.go.com, which aims to become one of the most popular destinations online. The Go Network is expected to go live early next year. For Sunnyvale, California-based Infoseek, a popular but not quite top notch Internet service, the Disney deal will deliver the dollars and marketing muscle that could potentially turn its brand into a household name much bigger than current industry leaders like Yahoo or America Online. "Disney owns ABC and they can use it to promote the heck out of the Go Network," said Forrester Research analyst Bill Bass. "They have not only the television operation, but movie studios and theme parks. Go will be featured at Disney World, on Disney movies, on Disney cruise ships. That is promotion that you really couldn't buy." Another analyst who asked not to be identified said: "If you've ever watched a kid watching a Disney video, they watch a bunch of Disney ads before the movie even starts, and they watch another half hour of ads after it finishes. Now those ads are all going to be Go, Go, Go." The move comes at a critical time in the Internet industry, where several young irreverent businesses are morphing into established media powerhouses with the backing of bigger, wealthier partners. America Online's purchase last month of Netscape Communications Corp , has triggered talks that other independent Internet portals will be swallowed by big media companies seeking an entree or expanded reach in cyberspace. "It made us think, 'Yeah, we made the right decision,"' Barak Berkowitz, Infoseek's general manager of the Go Network, said of the America Online/Netscape deal. "We have clearly teamed up with one of the most powerful entities." The new Go Network provides many of the same services offered on other Internet portals, including news, stock quotes, chat rooms, search engines, and personalization to feed users the appropriate horoscope or weather report. Infoseek says it has tweaked the standard Internet portal model to deliver better search results, and to make it easier for users to travel back and forth between Web pages. And while online porn sites will still be available to people seeking them, the search function on the Go Network has been built in a way that people are less likely to stumble upon a porn page while searching for something innocuous. But outside observers seem less interested in these improvements than they are in the Disney name. Along with promoting Go Network to the outside world, Disney will be able to steer millions of visitors from other properties like ESPN.com and ABCNEWS.com onto Go.com. "I don't think there are many strong brands out there," said Bob Walberg of Briefing.com in Chicago. "I still don't think mainstream America is all that familiar with the differences between Lycos, and Excite and Infoseek." There is one problem. Investors, who have raced to buy stock in almost anything related to the Internet, have shown indifference to Infoseek. Although Infoseek stock rallied this past week in anticipation of the Go Network launch, it has not reached the stratospheric levels touched by stocks like Yahoo or AOL. Bass said AOL's current stock price puts the company's worth at that of Disney and Time Warner combined. One reservation is over the ability of the two corporate cultures to blend, and over Disney's willingness to defer to its partners. Another is the financial terms of the deal, which is so complex even some financial analysts say makes it hard to understand how the two companies will share the profits. "Surely a large company like Disney could slow us down," said Infoseek's Berkowitz. "But they know that they have to manage this differently. They have a huge investment in Infoseek being successful."