NBCi serves GoTo results

July 3 2001

The NBCi directories are dying. NBCi now serves paid results from GoTo.

We are starting to repeat ourselves. This is the refrain: Another great search resource goes down the drain, serving pay-per-click results from Goto.

Well, we knew that NBC was going to close the NBCi portal. After all, they told us so. They did not say anything about the fate of the NBCi directory, however, nor of the "user-driven" Live Directory.

At the moment the NBCi site is still there, but if you use the search form, you are fed results from the pay-per-click search engine GoTo, not the NBCi "Snap" directory. As many of you will know, the same thing happened to the Disney Go portal not so long ago.

Try a search for "Pandia". Although our site has several listings in the NBCi Standard and Live directories, you get no results. This also means that the search form will fetch GoTo results only, not additional Inktomi results, as does the GoTo site.

The directories are there, though. You may click your way down through the category tree from the special search page. You may even add your site to the Live Directory. Our guess is that it is only a matter of time before they disappear altogether. There is no point in upholding a directory, if it is not searchable.

What does this mean for searchers? The brutal answer: There is no point in using NBCi for searching anymore. If you want to search the GoTo database, visit GoTo.

Webmasters should no longer spend time on promoting their site through the NBCi directories.

The option for paid inclusion in the directory is gone. We do not know if people who have recently paid to get their site included in the main directory will get their money back.

And then they were three. There are now only three major search directories left: Yahoo!, LookSmart and the Open Directory. Who's next?

NBCi
GoTo
The end of the NBCi directory (Pandia May 2001)
GoTo replaces Infoseek at Go (Pandia on the fate of the Go portal)

Be informed every time Pandia adds another original search engine news story!