The death of AltaVista

[April]

Was just browsing the My AOL doohickey a moment ago, and saw this.


AltaVista pulls the plug on free Net access
By Melanie Austria Farmer
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
December 5, 2000, 5:25 a.m. PT
AltaVista is terminating its free Internet access service, according to a notice posted on the company's Web site.

The Web portal, which will end the service on Dec. 10, said it has been "forced to discontinue this offering because the company who provided the service and telecommunications infrastructure for it, 1stUp Corp., is going out of business."

Representatives from AltaVista were not immediately available for comment.

Last month, AltaVista's parent and Net holding company CMGI announced that it would "wind down" 1stUp, its free ISP. The company, based in Andover, Mass., blamed the planned closure on an unhealthy market for online advertising and "insurmountable" capital costs to maintain the business.

On top of its partnership with AltaVista, 1stUp had offered its services via deals with Excite and Lycos, among other Internet companies.

AltaVista offered assurances that the change would not affect the availability of its Internet search services.

The move comes on the heels of announced staff reductions and restructuring plans at the company.

AltaVista in September trimmed its work force by 25 percent, or 225 people, to focus on its namesake search engine and to accelerate its path to profitability. The company has said that it plans to consolidate its operations in California into its Palo Alto headquarters. At the time, the company also said that its Shopping.com offices in Irvine, Calif., will be reduced and that the majority of its remaining staff will relocate to the headquarters offices.

The recent changes and layoffs at the company are indicative of AltaVista's attempt to refocus its efforts in a highly competitive market. Over the past year, AltaVista had been trying to transform the company into an all-in-one Web portal to compete with market leaders Yahoo, America Online and the Microsoft Network.

In its notice to members, AltaVista said that although it has investigated finding another supplier to provide a free Internet access service, it was unable to find a company that was able to meet the needs of its customers.

The company, which unveiled the free Internet access service in July 1999, said that it has made arrangements with Microsoft's MSN to assist its members in the United States who would like to move to the MSN Internet access service.

For a limited time, customers who sign up for MSN will receive three months of unlimited Internet access at no cost. After the three-month offer, the cost of the MSN service will be $21.95 per month.

 

[Isabella Thorne]

How it all began ...

An old, bearded shepherd, with a crooked staff, walks up to a stone pulpit and says:
And lo it came to pass that the trader by the name of Abraham Com did take unto himself a young wife by the name of Dot. And Dot Com was a comely woman, broad of shoulder and long of leg.

Indeed, she had been called Amazon Dot Com.

And she said unto Abraham, her husband, "Why doth thou travel far, from town to town, with thy goods when thou can trade without ever leaving thy tent?"

And Abraham did look at her as though she were several saddle bags short of a camel load, but simply said, "How, Dear?"

And Dot replied, "I will place drums in all the towns and drums in between to send messages saying what you have for sale and they will reply telling you which hath the best price. And the sale can be made on the drums and delivery made by Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)".

Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with the drums. And the drums rang out and were an immediate success. Abraham sold all the goods he had, at the top price, without ever moving from his tent. But this success did arouse envy.

A man named Maccabia did secrete himself inside Abraham's drum and was accused of insider trading. And the young man did take to Dot Com's trading as doth the greedy horsefly take to camel dung. They were called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Siderites, or NERDS for short.

And lo the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the deafening sound of drums, that no one noticed that the real riches were going to the drum maker, one Brother William of Gates, who bought up every drum company in the land. And indeed did insist on making drums that would only work if you bought Brother Gates' drumsticks.

And Dot did say, "Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken over by others". And as Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel, or as it came to be known, "eBay," he said, "we need a name of a service that reflects what we are," and Dot replied, "Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators."

"Whoopee!", said Abraham. "No, YAHOO!" said Dot Com. and that is how it all began .....

 

[Ambrosious]

That was great! I always wondered...

There is a list at http://www.freedomlist.com that you might find useful. I found a couple of backups for when the Netzero at work is on the fritz.

 

[Never]

Really? I'm using AltaVista right now.
You'd think they'd be kind enough to tell the people using the service that they were going to shut it down.

 

[Naked Hunny]

I recieved an email about the situation didnt you?