UK Lycos/Tripod users: you're unprofitable, get lost
There was a time when the black labrador at Lycos was a fairly common sight, but times change and the RSPCA may have to step in shortly to rescue the poor little mutt.
That is, if Lycos UK does to him what it’s doing to its email and web hosting users.
You see, it’s not very profitable running free email and web hosting services, particularly when there are much bigger (Hotmail) and better (Gmail) ones out there.
From 15th February, users with Lycos Mail or Tripod web hosting accounts will lose all of their data and no longer be able to send or receive emails. While I’ve not visited a Tripod page in about ten years, nor seen anyone in the UK with a Lycos email address for about the same period of time, a little piece of Internet history is slipping away.
Maybe it doesn’t have the same impact as watching Woolworths shutting down, but it reminds me of an age when you really could get away with simple, brightly coloured web pages about your favourite hobbies, riddled with other people’s garish, flashing banner ads.
Practically, anyone still using their Lycos email account should hotfoot it over to Gmail, sign up, and then begin the arduous task of telling all your contacts that your email address has changed. If you’ve got a web site hosted on Tripod, maybe start a blog instead at Blogger or WordPress.com.
Though Lycos claims that it is “working on finding a solution to provide you the service through another provider” it says the likelihood is “doubtful”.
(Via Techcrunch)
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