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The Internet has replaced it since 1997, fitting bigger, faster, more varied and more dangerous.
And as the volume of Internet content increases, About.com, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary in April, is also turning things of its overall taste from enduring content to more specific vertical areas. To move to 2016, the latest redesign of About.com in 2014, the site has changed its purpose of offering items of general interest to highly sought-after resources.
“We flew the old About.com and rebuilt it, better,” said CEO Neil Vogel of the IAC-owned site.
The team first presented Verywell, which answers all their questions about fitness and “scares” him. He then added The Balance, a non-public finance center. And today it introduces Lifewire, a support site.
“Algorithms didn’t know how to recognize About, but they can see them as fast places,” Vogel said.
Lifewire will feature 16,000 articles across about 40 experts and aims to teach readers the latest developments in the world generation, while explaining how to make greater use of the devices they already own.
“Themes like that can be intimidating or full of jargon,” Vogel said. “We need to write those articles in plain language, as if your friend were an iPhone expert.”
Vogel compares specific verticals with the popularity of specialty retailers. “Retail branches are dying,” he says, “but specialty retail stores work.”
About.com is still one of the 50 largest online sites. Vogel calls it “the world’s largest startup.” At launch, Lifewire will already be one of the 15-generation most sensitive sites in the United States.
“We made the decision to avoid doing things, like the latest news or sports, that we know we can’t participate in,” Vogel said. “When users accept as true with you, the set of rules accepts as true with you and traffic increases, so advertisers will also accept as true to you.”