Lycos.fr has resumed service after being acquired at auction for 35,300 euros. The domain name, once linked to the now-defunct Lycos company, is now being used for a new online portal project led by an Alsatian publisher. This new initiative aims to provide users with personal web pages, a search engine, and a media aggregator, and has no connection to the original Lycos company. The domain was sold on the specialized website WebExpire and was purchased on Monday, September 21. Following the acquisition, a new homepage was launched, allowing users to reserve a personal page at lycos.fr/votrenom in exchange for an email address. The service, called Lycos ID, promises to give users "a personal page on one of the most well-known addresses on the French web." The new owner plans to add a media aggregator that will continuously sort and update news, and a search engine that will combine "news, articles, and Lycos ID profiles in a single search bar." A screenshot of the Lycos.fr homepage on Tuesday, September 22, was shared by Next. The project aims to revive the Lycos brand, which was once a major web portal in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Lycos was created in 1994 as a research project and became a commercial company the following year. It experienced rapid growth and global expansion before gradually declining and changing hands multiple times. The portal officially disappeared from the European web on February 15, 2009, although the American search engine remained accessible through various national extensions of the lycos domain, including the .fr. The acquisition of lycos.fr has sparked public discussion on social media among domain experts and SEO specialists, drawing renewed attention to the domain. Benjamin Romei, founder of ADN Contents, the company that won the auction, stated that they were surprised by the immediate public response after acquiring the domain. He emphasized that the project aims to make Lycos a "simple gateway to the French web." The project includes a search engine based on its own index, a media aggregator expected to launch soon, and a personal page service that has already attracted some users who have reserved addresses. Romei described Lycos ID as an "online business card, at an address that everyone knows." Romei mentioned considering a hybrid business model, combining advertising and premium features related to personal pages. He noted that while the project appeals to those who remember Lycos, Caramail, and Multimania, the goal is to reach new generations and not to create a nostalgic museum. There are potential legal risks associated with using the Lycos brand, such as trademark infringement. The .fr domain could expose the new owner to an extra-judicial claim directly filed with Afnic, the French domain registrar, through the Syreli procedure. However, a search in the INPI database shows that all trademark registrations related to digital activities have long since expired. According to the American Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Lycos brand as a web activity appears to have been abandoned since 2020. The site lycos.com now appears as an empty shell with limited functionality and outdated legal information. Romei stated that the new owner is confident in their legal position and is closely monitoring the situation, with necessary procedures in place. At this stage, the lycos.fr page does not explicitly reference the historical Lycos brand or its iconic retriever logo.