Meryl's Notes Blog

Email is 30. Gosh, almost as old as me??? I’m 31, folks. Several people have announced recent anniversaries / birthdays of their Web sites. I don’t know the exact day I launched mine at URL http://www.dgsys.com/~meryl while living in Washington, D.C. in 1993. Then it became http://www.onramp.net/~meryl when I moved to Texas in 1995. October 1999 — meryl.net was born. So, my Web site is roughly 8 years old (yikes!) and the domain is 2 years old.

All About About

Whoa! Just learned from SearchDay, Search Engine Watch’s newsletter, that About.com does an about face. It has cut 300 of 750 guide sites and 20% of its workforce (about 60 jobs) since it has decided to change its focus from “something for everyone” to “what users need to know.” Known as About 3.0, it will emphasize e-commerce, consumer reviews, and comparison shopping. Some sites will be consolidated while others eliminated.

What led to this? Same thing as everything else - shrinking advertising revenues. Already they’re confusing people with the change. According to SearchDay, some guide sites have been terminated and are no longer accessible. Instead of sending readers a message, it simply refreshes the browser or sends it to the about.com main page. Furthermore, there are guide sites that are terminated, but STILL accessible. I won’t even bother with the rest of the confusing details. Pretty sloppy.

I remember when this company stormed the Web as “Mining Company.” Then, they changed their name to about.com. I used it a bit in the beginning when it was “mining” since it was one of the few places to go for “specialized information.” I used it less and less as more resources popped up without having ads pop up everywhere. Occasionally, I find my way there whenever doing research for an article and whatnot… but before I went there, I made sure I loaded my pop up ad remover program so I wouldn’t get a screenful of popups.

Usual answer. I am not surprised. In a way, about.com had “too much information” and was overwhelming at times. Consolidation is good. Elimination and changing direction to e-commerce, I am not so sure about.

Articles: About.com Cuts Jobs as Shifts Toward E-Commerce

About.com cuts 300 sites, increases e-commerce focus