Editing HotBot (section)

== Sale of domain name ==
In October 2016, Lycos sold the Hotbot.com [[domain name]] for $155,000 to an unnamed buyer.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://domainnamewire.com/2016/10/04/lycos-sells-hotbot-com-155000/ | title=Lycos sells HotBot.com for $155,000 | first=ANDREW | last=ALLEMANN | publisher=Domain Name Wire | date=October 4, 2016}}</ref> Afterwards, the HotBot domain became home to an unrelated shopping search site, ending the 20-year history of the original site.

In April 2018, the domain was put under new ownership and became an unrelated privacy-focused search engine.

As of 2020, the HotBot domain is controlled by a [[VPN]] company based in [[Seychelles]].<ref>{{Cite web| url=https://www.hotbot.com/about/|title=HotBot VPN: Learn About Our Company and Policies |website=HotBot VPN: Fast, Anonymous, Unlimited, VPN Service|access-date=2020-02-18}}</ref><ref >{{cite web | title=Hot Bot Limited| website=Dun & Bradstreet  | url=https://www.dnb.com/business-directory/company-profiles.hotbot_limited.f44f81bf8ecbc4e86c6b0dc87746f78f.html| access-date=August 25, 2023}}</ref>

In 2023 the aforementioned VPN company pivoted to offering an AI based web-search feature, inspired by however not officially affiliated with the domain's original usage in 1996.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-06-30 |title=HotBot - Search Smarter |url=https://hotbot.com/info/about |access-date=2024-12-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230630144120/https://hotbot.com/info/about |archive-date=June 30, 2023 }}</ref>