Both internet hub Lycos Inc and web community site Xoom.com Inc have partnered with multimedia search engines as they struggle for an edge in the increasingly competitive portal space. Lycos has teamed with MGI Software Corp and plans to integrate MGI’s PhotoSuite II with its Pictures and Sounds multimedia service. Users should now be able to go to Lycos Pictures and Sounds, enter a description of an object or scene, find royalty-free photos and work with them in MGI PhotoSuite II. Xoom has taken a different route, agreeing to host Parable’s ThingSearch database. As its name suggests. ThingSearch lets users hunt for multimedia Things. Xoom has also said it will sell Parable’s ThingMaker authoring tool through its home page. In return, Parable has agreed to license 10,000 gifs and pieces of clip art from Xoom.com. These will go back into the ThingWorld database to be made into other Things, hopefully creating a ‘virtuous circle’ that will establish ThingWorld as a multimedia showcase and hub. The only problem with this as far as we can see is the Things themselves, which, when ComputerWire tested them, sent our PC into spectacular meltdown.
