Lycos and Fast Search & Transfer Form Alliance Companies to Co-brand World's Largest FTP Site and Integrate Compression Technology

Business Wire, Nov 16, 1998

WALTHAM, Mass. and OSLO, Norway--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 16, 1998-- Lycos, Inc. (NASDAQ:LCOS), the second most visited Internet hub, and Fast Search & Transfer ASA (FAST), owner of the world's largest File Transfer Protocol search site, announced an agreement to create and market a co-branded site (http://ftpsearch.lycos.com) featuring FAST's extensive database of more than 100 million FTP files and their associated search and compression technologies. The co-branded FAST/Lycos search site will be accessible throughout the Lycos Network.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lycos and FAST will work together to identify areas of the Lycos site and Lycos products where Fast Image Transfer compression technology can be utilized. Fast Image Transfer compresses files two to six times more than JPEG for the same visual quality, resulting in smaller file size and faster download times for images and web pages. The companies are looking into supporting multimedia applications through these advanced technologies.

"Recent industry trends show that vast numbers of users are downloading large images and multimedia files. As technology improves and users get more sophisticated, the demand for quicker downloading of these files will only increase," said Jan Horsfall, vice president of marketing for Lycos. "FAST technology makes it easy to search the world's biggest file download database while FAST Image Transfer makes pictures and pages download more quickly." Group product manager of search, navigation and multimedia for Lycos, Rajive Mathur said, "We view this co-branded venture as one which highlights the incredible reach of the Lycos Network while delivering advanced technology that makes FTP searching a breeze."

"We chose Lycos because of the vast reach of the Lycos Network and the compatibility of its search and homepage properties with FAST FTP Search," said Espen Brodin, president and CEO of Fast Search and Transfer, ASA. "The Lycos Network has more than 40% reach in the U.S. and a strong presence in Europe and Japan. These characteristics make the Lycos Network the best choice for exposing large numbers of users to FAST's advanced technologies."

"Lycos is very excited about using FAST's Java-based compression technology with our industry leading Image Gallery service," said Brian Kalinowski, multimedia product manager for Lycos. "Our goal has been to consistently improve the user experience through the integration of content and technology. FAST's compression technology offers a natural synergy with our service."

About Lycos, Inc.

Founded in 1995, Lycos, Inc. (NASDAQ:LCOS) owns the Lycos Network, the second most visited hub on the Internet, combining all aspects of community, leading Web navigation resources and cutting-edge business and consumer e-commerce solutions. The Lycos Network, a unified set of properties that delivers mass reach and diversity of audience and programming, is composed of best-of-breed services: Lycos.com, Tripod, WhoWhere, Angelfire, MailCity, Guestworld, HotBot, HotWired, Wired News, Webmonkey and Suck.com. Located at http://www.lycos.com, Lycos.com --"Your Personal Internet Guide"-- is dedicated to helping each individual user locate, retrieve and manage information tailored to his or her personal interests. Headquartered near Boston in Waltham, Mass., Lycos, Inc. maintains U.S. offices in New York City, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Mountain View, Calif. and Williamstown, Mass. International offices are located in Germany, Italy, France, Japan, the UK, Spain and The Netherlands.

About Fast Search & Transfer ASA

Fast Search & Transfer ASA, headquartered in Oslo, Norway, and with US and UK subsidiaries, is a high-technology research and development company delivering advanced and innovative search and image/video compression technologies for intranets, extranets, and the Internet. The company develops and markets fully scalable cost-efficient software and hardware, ranging from small and mid-size solutions to solutions for the large Internet content providers and media companies. Applications include the world's largest search engines for structured and non-structured text and the highest performance image compression technology available for the Internet.

FAST has more than 1,000 shareholders and is traded on the OTC market in Oslo, Norway.

For more information about FAST, visit http://www.fast.no

FAST and the FAST four-colored logo are trademarks of Fast search and Transfer ASA. Copyright (c) Fast Search and Transfer ASA. All rights reserved.

(c) 1998 Lycos, Inc. - Lycos (R) is a registered trademark of Carnegie Mellon University. All other product or service marks mentioned herein are those of Lycos or their respective owners. All rights reserved.