Disney's Portal Shift Is No Surprise
Cory's TRAFFICK PERSPECTIVES #5 - January 28, 2000

So the first cracks are beginning to show in the portals' armor.

One might be tempted to believe that after hearing the news that Disney will reposition its Go Network portal as more of an entertainment and leisure destination, rather than a full-fledged portal.

This move was hardly a surprise, given the fact that Go has failed to live up to the Big Mouse's expectations after it transformed Infoseek into the much-hyped Go Network. Many analysts had surmised that a portal shakeout was on the horizon and that not everyone would be sitting when the music stopped. Nowadays, almost everyone is guessing that only Yahoo, MSN and AOL will remain general-interest portals and that the others will have to find a specific niche in order to survive.

That's why Go.com, the seventh-ranked site according to Media Metrix this month, opted to revise its portal strategy; Disney realized that they hadn't the strength to be one of the top 3 portals and admitted as such by choosing a new strategy. Analysts from Forrester Research and other companies applauded the move, saying that the entertainment and leisure niche was better-suited to Disney's strength as an entertainment giant.

So why did Go fail? Ask 10 different experts and you might get quite a few answers that range from the timing to the lack of content and services. I suspect, however, that Go failed because it lacked a unified brand that others such as Yahoo enjoy. What is the Go brand anyway? Basically a fresh coat of paint on second-rate search engine--Infoseek--sprinkled with content properties like ABCNews.com, ESPN and Mr. Showbiz. Mr. Showbiz? How in the heck can you build a portal around that?

There's no disputing the fact that Disney owns valuable properties, but these brands are so strong on their own that trying to unite them under one banner just doesn't work. Not every portal should try to match the singular branding model of a Yahoo. Even MSN doesn't try to force such singularity on its services. They stand alone pretty well but also fit together to form a whole piece.

Go.com never had that feeling. Sheesh, I'm speaking about it in the past tense! It's important to note that Go is not going away at all; the changes alluded to by Disney will be phased in--or out, rather--gradually. Go.com will still remain a strong, viable portal option, but as a niche player in the entertainment field and not a general interest portal offering everything under the sun. Sometimes you just have to face the music and realize that when you're good at something you shouldn't try to be something you're not. Consumers will see right through it.

For example, I favor ABCNews.com as my prime source of online news, and ESPN.com is the first place I go to read about sports. But Go.com as a portal gives me no compelling reason to visit. They don't even offer a personalization option to create a super page featuring the best of all the Disney properties. They probably decided not to offer such a thing because of fears that it might dilute their strong individual brands. That may have turned out to be true, but I doubt it.

A successful portal is modular and strongly unified. It offers not only content aggregation but a consistent experience throughout the portals' network of sites. This is why Yahoo is profitable and why Go lost a billion dollars or so last year. You think Disney would've known better!

Expect to see Lycos, Excite, Snap and AltaVista take a similar detour later this year, as they realize that they can't possibly beat the Big Three. Go2Net won't suffer this fate because it's already got the niche thing figured out. But what that niche is I'm not really sure! One thing's for sure, though, with GNET: They don't pretend to be a big dog but are content to fulfill the needs of many people thanks to their breadth of services.

Who knows what to expect of Netscape this year. AOL announced a few months back its intention to leverage Netscape's strong position as the place millions of workers visit every day before they go home to AOL at night. I expect that trend to continue, but the Time Warner merger may have something to say about that! Also, we may see the second-tier portals merging with other high-traffic sites in an effort to further define their niches.

Keep it tuned to Traffick folks. It's just getting interesting!