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Lycos Launches Wireless Portal

Wireless services lets MyLycos customers log onto their custom pages from almost anywhere.

By Cameron Crouch, PCWorld   

Announced Tuesday, Lycos Anywhere offers wireless access from a variety of devices to MyLycos, the personalized start page you can set to track specific content. Beyond that, Lycos plans to add Wireless Application Protocol site search and eventually voice access to MyLycos, so you won't even need a Web-enabled device.

Lycos Anywhere supports Palms, phones with WAP browsers (WML) or Short Messaging System, and Web-enabled pagers.

HTML-based browsers used on some pagers can access the site the same way Palms do, says Nick Werthessen, senior product manager at Lycos wireless. "We take WML but serve it in its simplest form, so earlier Phone.com browsers can access Lycos too," he adds.

Needed: Key Entry, Patience

But to get to Lycos Anywhere from a phone, you will have to key in and bookmark the site. Unlike AOL, Yahoo, Excite, and MSN, Lycos has not announced partnerships with carriers. Sprint PCS, AT&T Wireless, Verizon, and Nextel all have deals with wireless-enabled Web sites and feature single-key access to the portals on phone menus. That could deter potential customers, since keystroke entry on a phone is so difficult.

Although anyone can access Lycos Anywhere as a guest, the service is designed to give MyLycos customers "device-agnostic" access, Werthessen says. "People spend time creating a portfolio of content. Doing that over and over is a pain." You'll be able to set up your wireless menu and see the same layout from any of your handheld devices.

And when you make changes from a wireless device, they're reflected on any device you later access MyLycos, Werthessen adds. "You don't have a different stock portfolio because you're on a Palm versus a PC."

Lycos Anywhere also has a product service. MyLycos users can purchase Lycos-branded phone and pagers at the Lycos Wireless Marketplace. You can even sign up for a service provider.

Lycos has yet to announce when it will roll out voice access or the WAP search features to Lycos Anywhere. Rival Yahoo already offers wireless search functions.

As for carrier deployment, Lycos's wireless Marketplace and merger with Terra Networks into Terra Lycos to become what Werthessen calls "an extensive communications infrastructure," could pave the way to a role as more than just a wireless portal.