February 6, 2003

Terra Lycos, the owner of the web portal Lycos.com has been reported to have cut the jobs for more than 20% of its organization's staffing here in the United States.

According to a Reuters news report published yesterday, Terra Lycos continues to seek ways to reduce costs. While 147 employees of Terra Lycos will now be without jobs, there are more immediate concerns for those involved within the search engine optimization industry.

The head of US operations, Mark Stover, has made it clear that his focus is on the core assets of Lycos.com. The question remains though, is providing search results for the network of Terra Lycos owned sites considered a core asset?

As we have highlighted in the past Lycos.com first came online in 1994. In 2000, Terra Lycos was formed when Lycos.com was bought up by the Spanish giant, Terra Networks.

With staff cuts evident throughout the US, combined with a low percentage of search referrals for searches in the English language, how should you see Terra Lycos and Lycos.com search engine optimization?

There is no doubt that the time spent on engine-specific optimization is more rewarded when focus is presented on search giants like Google and Inktomi, but do not discard Lycos.com just yet. As we have seen in the past, search portals that downsize and change their business models are often rewarded for their efforts.

Lets hope that in the mind of Mark Stover and others managing Terra Lycos' future in the United States, search does prove to be a valid core business. It would be a shame to lose an engine with true followers for the past 8 years.

Source: Reuters

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