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SeeMore, Search More With Lycos Tool

Pop-up utility offers nested Lycos searches within any Web site.

By Tom Spring, PCWorld   

It works like this: Say you're reading the latest Iowa straw pole analysis and want to know more about Elizabeth Dole. Click on the word "Elizabeth Dole" with your right mouse button, and a separate window opens on your computer. It contains a la carte Lycos search results, including related Web sites, news, and biographical information about the Republican U.S. presidential hopeful.

For now, only Microsoft Windows users with Internet Explorer browsers, version 4.0 or later, can use the service. A Macintosh version and a Netscape version are "under consideration," says Shumeet Baluja, Lycos chief scientist.

Getting started is a cinch. Follow a link for the search tool from the Lycos home page, and click on an activation button. Lycos seamlessly modifies your IE browser to handle SeeMore searches. Uninstalling the add-on is equally as pain-free and fast.

Distinctive Searches

Different searches yield distinct results. Product searches are designed to serve up direct links to electronic merchants. Highlight and right-click on a street address, and you're transported to Lycos RoadMaps.

"We just want to follow you around as you surf and help guide you along," Baluja says. "Lycos will never try to take you out of context of what you're surfing."

The ultimate goal is to lure you back to Lycos, of course, to match more eyeballs with advertisers who pay for banner ads. In time, Lycos will also add targeted ads to the Java-enabled pop-up search windows that deliver Lycos links and content, Baluja says.

The Lycos strategy is in line with an overall Web trend by portal firms to deliver applications and services beyond the browser, analysts say. By owning the software application that delivers services, firms can easily drive traffic to an Internet hub. As another lure, Lycos earlier this year released with Westwind Media a radio tuner that sits on your desktop and plays music when connected to the Internet.

Currently, Lycos and its related family of Web sites is the fourth most popular Web site, trailing AOL, Yahoo, and Microsoft, according to Media Metrix.