Go.com

Go.com (also known as The Go Network) is a web portal first launched by Jeff Gold, and now operated by the Walt Disney Internet Group, which is a part of The Walt Disney Company. The portal includes content from ABC News, ESPN, and FamilyFun.com, all of which are associated with Disney and are hosted under a .go.com name. Along with TimeWarner's Pathfinder.com, Go.com proved to be an expensive failure for its parent company, as web users preferred to use search engines to access content directly, rather than start at a top-level corporate portal.

History
Go.com was launched in 1995 by entrepreneur Jeff Gold (now president and chairman of the nonprofit World Environmental Organization), as an entertainment portal featuring one of the Internet's first web-based chat room networks. The site was affiliated with nearly 3,000 radio stations worldwide, and nearly 1 million people became members of the network, making it the second largest web-based chat network at the time. Go.com was acquired from Gold by the Walt Disney Company and redeveloped after Infoseek, created by Steve Kirsch, was merged into the Go.com network in 1998. The site originally started off as a search engine, using a distinctive green stoplight logo. However, in early 2000 Go.com was forced to abandon its logo because of a complaint of similar-looking logos filed by Goto.com. (A court later ruled that Go.com had to pay $21.5 million in damages to Goto.com)

In 1998, Disney expanded Go.com beyond the entertainment portal concept launched by Gold. In addition to its own content, the company used the site as a hub for other Disney-related sites, including ABC.com and Disney.com. Go.com also hosted personal web pages. In early 2000, with visits to the site dropping, Disney announced that the general portal would now focus more on entertainment.

Almost all Disney/ABC sites migrated to the Go.com domain, and thus as a sub domain example: Disney.go.com, espn.go.com, and the site was mentioned at the end of programs on ABC/Disney networks often (for example at the end of a program on ESPN, the end line was "For more visit ESPN.com, part of the Go Network", while the logo was displayed on-screen, or at the end of an ABC News program, the bumper would freeze frame at the end while the logo animates, accompanied by "ABCNews.com is now a part of the Go Network").

However, in January 2001, Disney announced that it would be closing Go.com and its search engine, laying off approximately 400 employees and retiring the go.com tracking stock. Also announced was the closing of Go.com's volunteer-edited directory. With the closing, some volunteers created, or migrated to, offshoot directories including JoeAnt, Goguides.org, and Skaffe.com.

Current status


Despite its announcement, go.com never ceased operations. Instead, in March 2001, the site ended its search engine and switched to a search engine provided by goto.com, whose parent, Inktomi, was eventually purchased by Yahoo!. Go.com continues to use the Yahoo search engine for queries and features content and news from its family of sites, and thus should be transitioning to Microsoft's Bing service.

All of Disney's sites, including ABC's, broadcast, cable, news, and owned and operated television station sites (except for a handful of ESPN sites, such as Jayski's Silly Season Site) continue to be hosted on the go.com domain, although a base address is used for branding and simplicity purposes; the ESPN site address redirects from espn.com to espn.go.com, for instance, while the site for WABC-TV redirects from 7online.com to abclocal.go.com/wabc.

Go.com has announced that they will cease the operating of its email accounts effective August 31, 2010.