Sensis acquires LookSmart Australian assets

posted on the Sensis website

[keeper]

Another big move in the Australian search market - things are heating up:

Full press release here:
[sensis.com.au...]

Its a 27k PDF.

PS: For those who dont know: Sensis are the advertising subsidiary of Telstra. They operate Yellow pages, White pages, GoEureka and CitySearch.

[Woz]

Ooohhh! Good find Keeper, that'll certainly stir things up. I wonder what they will do with their purchase.

Onya
Woz

[whats up skip]

This looks to be a very complex deal.

It looks like Looksmart will continue to service NineMSN, but Telstra (Sensis) has bought the technology. The agreement covers some people who will go over to Telstra, but will then provide services back to Looksmart.

I gather Telstra has not bought the Looksmart brand.

I think Telstra will mainly use it to develop their goeureka search engine that is already "Powered Looksmart". The problem for Telstra is who actually uses "goeureka"?

The chicken or the egg - the traffic or the quality search results.

Only time will tell.

[Chris_D]

Yep - a Telco's phone book company buys Looksmart Australia. I wonder how long ninemsn.com.au will continue to use them?

[keeper]

I think Telstra will mainly use it to develop their goeureka search engine

<prediction>
Now they own 100% of the Looklisting click revenue (rather than whatever split they were on with Goeureka), I reckon they will start syndicating listings to YellowPages, CitySearch etc. which has a LOT more traffic than GoEureka.

They will also introduce search marketing to every business with a URL that has a YellowPages ad - giving them access to more business than Google and Overture put together.
</prediction>

[lukasz]

The documents implies that whole australian online advertising revenue ia about 160M au$. Can anyone confirm that this is the case?
It would be surprisingly small.

[Jaze]

Damn, I was hoping L$ would disappear...

When are they going to utilise WiseNut...

[Krapulator]

>>I wonder how long ninemsn.com.au will continue to use them?

Good question. Maybe until msn finish their own search product.

[keeper]

When are they going to utilise WiseNut...

In Australia they are using Wisenut as backfill for Looksmart.com.au, GoEureka.com.au and OptusNet.com.au. Ninemsn, however, has stuck with Inktomi as backfill.

[deej098]

Good find Keeper.

I think that your prediction is fairly close to the mark. Once Looksmart's technology can be fully integrated with Sensis, Sensis could offer their current clients greater exposure by upgrading their listings, giving them to ability be syndicated through Looksmart's partners. The opposite is also true with current listings in Looksmart being able to be listed in the Sensis products, helping to fill the void left by the MSN loss.

Should prove to be an interesting start to 2004.

[anallawalla]

I wish Sensis well but I can't see them working any wonders with LS. There is still a bit of Telecom-vintage bureaucracy there, whereas they need a Silicon Valley type of culture to succeed in this space.

You only have to look at their existing products to spot the lost opportunities. As more people get an always-on connection, they will reduce their dependence on print directories. Some years I have not opened the YP all year, but I do use its online version.

- Ash

[dodger]

I don't know why Sensis bought LS, will they try to mix a SE with their directory? Sounds like a disaster.
Time will tell. YP online works well at present and I was told just today that they have big plans to grow big time this year and take on the likes of Yahoo and Google in AU, let's see what the state of play is in 6 months.

[lukasz]

I went to Yellow pages today and gues what I found!

Yellow Lab

LOL

I am not sure if it has something to do with LookSmart purchase, but it looks like so.