FC: Predictions of Disney Net-takeover wrong: Go.com is dead

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=01/01/29/211230
                                      
   Disney Pulls Plug on Go.com
   posted by lizard on Monday January 29, @03:38PM
   from the jon-katz-wrong-again dept.

   MSNBC is reporting that Disney is shutting down its GO portal.
   Lizard was right, Katz was wrong. Rant follows.

   OK, here's the scoop. A long time ago, on a web site far, far, away,
   the perennially
   trying-to-get-hep-and-groovy-with-all-you-cool-young-dudes Jon Katz
   wrote about how Disney, which, being a corporation, is inherently
   evil, was going to destroy the net with it's Go network. The war is
   over! The mouse has won! The corporate uberstate has triumphed! We're
   all doomed, doomed, doomed!
   
   Intoned Katz: "Go.com has emerged as a sleeper... They are almost
   impossible to compete with... Like the Hotel California, you can check
   out any time, but you can never really leave... Go.com may be a
   watershed in the evolution of Net and Web media.... Go.com makes it
   instantly clear that Disney will buy whatever it needs to make its
   Website competitive..."
   
   Well, Go.com is dead. Katz was wrong. This is news on the level of
   "Dog bites man" or "Pope condemns abortion" or "Mideast peace talks
   break down."
   
   I, of course, was right. And I'm happy to admit I'm not too big a man
   too gloat over it.
   
   Here's what a lot of failed portals and dotcoms and other such types
   are learning the hard way. The appeal of the Internet is not content
   -- it's the ability to create content. We are on the net because we
   can be readers and writers, because the line between artist and
   audience is erased. From Ultima Online to Usenet, the net thrives
   because the users are part of the "product." Any "content" site based
   on a passive consumption model is dead on arrival.




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