Perspective: The man
who would be Sergey from News.com talks with Gary Culliss, formerly of
Direct Hit, on cashing out of search early on. Google and Direct Hit came along
at the same time (see
Counting
Clicks and Looking at Links from me in 1998). Ask Jeeves
bought
Direct Hit, making the original group involved with it a good chunk of money.
But Direct Hit effectively died as a brand and a technology while Google….
I disagree with News.com that in 1998, Google was somehow lumped in with
"non-household name" sites while Direct Hit was the shining hope. They both got
a lot of attention, but Google very quickly surpassed Direct Hit as the
wunderkind to watch. A little bit of history and reflection, in this Q&A.