Lycos

Lycos is named as one of the search engines expected to remain a leading contender before Google’s rapid ascent. The book offers no account of Lycos’s origins, operations, or later development; its significance here is as a marker of how quickly the search landscape changed.

Position in the Search Landscape

In 1998, Yahoo! seemed to dominate Internet search. If Yahoo! faltered, the book observes, AltaVista or Lycos looked likely to become the last major contender standing. Lycos is thus placed among the plausible alternatives at a moment when Google had not yet become the routine choice for regular Internet users.

Contrast with Google’s Rise

Within a couple of years, Google had become the default search engine, according to the account, because it found relevant pages more quickly. The contrast is not developed as a direct comparison of Lycos’s technology or performance: the text provides no such details. Instead, Lycos helps establish the uncertainty of the earlier market and the speed with which Google’s search approach changed what users could expect.