AltaVista to announce home page building deal
Homestead technology will power its popular home page publishing service, the portal company will announce Monday.
Homestead's page publishing capabilities will be featured on AltaVista Live, the portal's section for personalized news, finance and community offerings, according to an AltaVista spokesman. Menlo Park, Calif.-based Homestead allows users to build Web sites by dragging site elements, such as chat, news headlines and clip art, onto their home pages.
Home page publishing has become one of the more popular offerings on the Web. Proponents say users tend to spend more time and return more often to a home page service because they have a personal stake.
Popular home page communities such as GeoCities and Tripod have become acquisition targets for larger portals, such as Yahoo and Lycos, as they look to boost traffic and loyalty.
For Palo Alto, Calif.-based AltaVista, Homestead will be the latest in a string of deals to add more features to its service. Since CMGI acquired AltaVista in August for $2.3 billion, the portal has particularly focused on acquisitions and partnerships with CMGI-owned entities.
Just last week, AltaVista acquired stock and financial information site Raging Bull for an undisclosed amount. Previously, AltaVista began offering free ISP service 1stUp.com, which CMGI eventually acquired.