Lycos, one of the original search engines, is looking to make a splash (it's already the 16th most trafficked site) - to position itself as a hub for consumer-generated content such as albums, podcasts, video blogs, and short films - and hoping to return to the public markets with an offering in 2007, writes MarketWatch (via paidContent). And, it's "bringing back the dog" as the company's logo, according to chief executive Alfred Tolle.

Two sites in the Lycos network may already be pointing the way to what the future holds for Lycos. Angelfire and Tripod, which let users build personal or store sites, blogs and photo galleries, draw 25 million visitors a month and have strong audiences of 13-29 year-olds: "We already have this promotional platform with millions of people," he is quoted by MarketWatch as saying.

He also says Lycos has good technology, delivering Helpful Search, "the most likely results you are looking for" rather than Google's overwhelming amount of links. He mentions possible acquisitions, pointing the likes of Technorati. And he plans to reduce Lycos's 42 destination websites: "Focus, focus, focus is what we must do."