 | | about.com's CAD, GIS Guides Quietly DisappearCAD, GIS get no respect as about.com's changes focus to e-commerce; editor-based directory about.com's restructuring leaves 300 subjects in the lurchBy Roopinder Tara, Editor, TenLinks.com NEW YORK, New York, October 25, 2001 - If you've tried to access about.com's top-rated CAD portal recently, you've probably been directed to a page that has little, if anything, to do with computer-aided design. According to about.com, the CAD pages are no longer being maintained. Former CAD guide Shefali Kumar was unavailable for comment. about.com's GIS site has suffered a similar fate. Caitlin Dempsey, the GIS guide at about.com, has also disappeared from view but her incredibly useful GIS site has been woven into Matt Rosenberg’s equally good about.com geography site. What's behind this? According to a CNET report on Sep 27, about.com has shifted its focus to e-commerce and away from declining advertising revenue. They have trimmed 20% of their staff. They have not renewed contracts for 300 of their 750 guides. Remaining guides are now instructed to guide their readers into making buying decisions, of which about.com will presumably take a cut. A private campaign is underway to resurrect these subjects, headed by Eric Ward, publisher of URLwire and a marketing consultant. Ward's site <http://www.ericward.com/guidehelp/relocationdirectory.html> lists the subjects no longer supported by about.com as well as attempts to collect contact information about former guides. As of the time of this writing, CAD and GIS guide information was not present. about.com, which bills itself as the Human Internet, was acquired by Primedia, a magazine publisher, for $690 million in October of 2000 in a deal that resulted in a lot of media attention. In September of 2001, Scott Kurnit, founder and CEO of about.com was replaced by William Day, a co-founder of Primedia. |
