During the Internet 1.0 “era” that went from the late 1990’s through the early 2000’s, Lycos.com was one of the top online search engines and online “portals” (oh, how antiquated that seems these days), competing head to head with Yahoo, AOL, and others. At the time, Lycos had some really strong assets in its portfolio and the people talent in its organization could rival most places. Sadly, things didn’t work out too well for Lycos in the long run and while Lycos is still around these days, it is a shell of its former self and hardly relevant. In three and a half years at Lycos, I worked on a variety of web site destinations and associated projects. Below are links to the sites, screen shots, and applications I worked on.
Marketing Manager – Personal Publishing
As Marketing Manager, I was responsible for the management of all consumer facing marketing communications including advertising, public relations, promotions and email/direct marketing for the Homepage building services Tripod and Angelfire. In addition, I was involved in marketing research and brand equity research studies for these properties along with some loyalty programs aimed at Tripod’s best web page builders.
- Tripod – One of the top homepage building sites on the Internet in 1999-2000, demographically targeted towards the average page builder
- Angelfire – Another of the top homepage building sites on the Internet in the late 1990’s, demographically targeted towards the younger teen marketplace
Product Manager – Broadband, Multimedia & Mobile Services
As Product Manager, I was responsible for the Lycos VideoCenter (a precursor to YouTube that was ahead of the market and not nearly as popular), the Lycos Network’s Streaming Video Player, and Lycos’ wireless portal website Lycos Anywhere. In addition to these assigned products and services, the Multimedia & Mobile Services team was driving several “forward looking” initiatives and projects including streaming pay-per-view video, live video webcasts, and broadband gaming, of which I had some exposure to.
Lycos Video Center
An innovative service that enabled users to create, edit and share personal streaming video with friends and family. the service was in existence from August 2000 through October 2001, when the partner went out of business due to market conditions beyond my control.
Lycos Streaming Media Player
The Lycos Network’s standard streaming media platform application used by various Lycos destinations to deliver and display streaming media. Below are some examples of different destinations utilizing the video player. In addition to the examples below, I also released the player for the Lycos Finance and LycosZone Kids destinations. Time has not been kind to Lycos since the early 2000s. The company is still around however it is a shell of its former self. As such, the Lycos Finance and Lycos KidsZone areas are no longer in existence.
Terra (Spanish) Streaming Video Player
Spanish language version of player used on the Entertainment section of the former Spanish language portal Terra.com and its Entertainment channel. While the branding of the player is Lycos, the language of the text on the player was changed to Spanish. There were plans to brand the player Terra in their colorful orange branding, however those plans were never executed on. The behavior of the player is exactly the same as the other executions since the core player is the same. Presenting streaming video content to Terra’s Spanish marketplace enabled Lycos the opportunity to deliver highly targeted video and large size advertising products to this rapidly growing marketplace.
RCN Broadband Streaming Video Player
Branded version of media player used by cable/broadband ISP RCN as a component of its RCN Broadband portal site, which was powered by Lycos. Lycos had a business relationship with RCN, the former broadband ISP and as part of that business relationship, we developed a RCN branded version of the Lycos Streaming Video Player. Similar to other executions of the Video Player, the behavior of the player is exactly the same as the other executions since the core player is the same.
Lycos Mobile & Wireless
The Lycos mobile portal and premium mobile services included Lycos Anywhere wireless portal and the Lycos Anywhere Ringtones service. Lycos Anywhere was the online wireless portal for Lycos, giving users information on how to access Lycos via a wireless phone, text message delivery to a mobile device, ringtones/logos, and voice services. Lycos Anywhere-Ringtones & Logos was a premium service component of Lycos Anywhere enabling users to select and purchase ringtones, logos, and pictures for download/delivery to their mobile device. It all sounds so antiquated these days. :)
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