Infoseek (also known as the "big yellow") was an American internet search engine founded in 1994 by Steve Kirsch.
Infoseek was originally operated by the Infoseek Corporation, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Infoseek was bought by The Walt Disney Company in 1999, and the technology was merged with that of the Disney-acquired Starwave to form the Go.com network.
History
Infoseek launched in January 1994 as a pay-for-use service.
In coopertion with Aptex Software (then a division of HNC Software), Infoseek was the first search engine company to develop and launch behavioral targeting, via its UltraMatch targeting algorithms. The developmental partnership with Aptex was announced in 1996 and the technology was released the following year. UltraMatch utilized Aptex's SelectCast neural networking software.
By September 1997, Infoseek had 7.3 million visitors per month. It was the 7th most visited website that year (5th in 1996) and 10th in 1998. Infoseek acquired the WebChat Broadcasting System in April 1998.
In 1998, Disney purchased a 43% stake of Infoseek, and incorporated the site into its various media businesses. Around the same time, Disney acquired the Starwave Corporation, which included ESPN.com and ABCNews.com.
Post-demise
Infoseek's Ultraseek Server software technology, an enterprise search engine product, was sold in 2000 to Inktomi.
In December 2005, Verity was acquired by Autonomy PLC. Under Autonomy, Ultraseek ceased to be a stand-alone product and became a modular component under the IDOL platform. It continued to be developed and marketed as Autonomy's entry-level keyword-based site search offering until after Autonomy was acquired by Hewlett-Packard (HP) in October 2011.
Domain name
The "infoseek.com" domain name redirects to "go.com" and the Infoseek brand name is no longer used in North America.