Lycos Inc’s two portals, Lycos.com and HotBot.com, will support the Open Directory Project for as long as they choose. Thanks to an agreement with the Netscape division of America Online Inc, the two will introduce the user-edited directory to an estimated 28.5 million monthly visitors to the Lycos network. Both say they will actively encourage users to join the Project as contributing editors. In addition, the Open Directory will get front-door placement on HotBot.com and Lycos.com.
Lycos Inc is selling the deal as a show of support for the burgeoning open web content movement but the Open Directory Project’s credentials are not exactly pure. The Project began life as Gnuhoo, a name which irritated Yahoo Inc and outraged the Free Software Foundation (FSF), which owns the trademark GNU. Free software advocates were quick to point out that GNUHoo assigned copyright not to the authors of content but to the owners of the company, leaving workers open to exploitation. The owners proved their critics’ point by selling the hastily renamed NewHoo to Netscape in November 1998 (CI No 3,541) and pocketing the handsome profit. The volunteer editors’ work was then sold again, this time to AOL as part of the Netscape merger. AOL is already in hot water for allegedly abusing the volunteer labor of its community leaders. The company had better tread carefully with its Open Directory editors, or risk poisoning present and future lucrative deals. á
