Zeal In The Wake Of MSN & Looksmart's Breakup

Will Zeal be useless now?

[onlineshrine]

I really like the Zeal directory ... but I'm afraid that it will be useless now that MSN is no longer partnering with Looksmart. Is there any hope to maintain good traffic from Zeal listings?

[gibbon]

maybe LS will push zeal more now

think we have to sit tight and wait

[rfgdxm1]

At the moment MSN is still using LS?

[onlineshrine]

Yeah, until Jan 15, 2004.

[bether2]

rfgdxm1,

As I mentioned in another thread, I noticed several days ago that, for some non-commercial queries, MSN is listing fewer sites than are shown in the matching category in Looksmart.

For example, if you search MSN for "blue sky", the number of listings shown in MSN from the Looksmart "Blue Sky" category will be anywhere from none of them to all of them.

Haven't checked queries that would involve commercial categories.

Beth

[bether2]

Here's Looksmart's press release about the future termination of their agreement with MSN:

[shareholder.com...]

[AthlonInside]

We knows teminating LookSmart is something that will happen, but just when. But I never expect it to be so soon.

MSN is working for a better search engine now. Good to see that!

[richardb]

>> but who else get their data?

In the UK I think it's AV

Rich

[shaadi]

richardb AV?

It uses ODP now.

[MrSpeed]

It's a shame that Zeal may be affected. The traffic was decent and it was superior to DMOZ as far as getting sites listed.

[bether2]

Sinner_G,

Press release says: "Microsoft accounted for approximately 65% of listings revenues, and all of LookSmart's licensing revenue in the second quarter of 2003."

In their marketing info about their listings, LS says "Reach millions of Internet users each month on top search sites, such as MSN, Lycos, About.com, RoadRunner, CNET, InfoSpace and search services, such as Inktomi."

Beth

[rfgdxm1]

OMG. I just read the news. Zeal may be dead. :( What will MSN being using in Jan 2004 for SERPs? Last I checked my sites inexplicably sucked on Ink, and I am depending on Zeal/LS when it comes to MSN. Obviously this won't last.

[mbauser2]

Of course Zeal is doomed -- they gave me a t-shirt this summer. Any site that gives me a t-shirt is dooomed. I'm just bad karma that way.

[stechert]

I'll make sure you don't get a Grub t-shirt :-).

Cheers,
Andre

[MrSpeed]

One thing for sure. Ever since the announcment it now takes a lot longer to get sites into the directory.

I think the wind is out the the sails for zealots, and I can't blame them.

[MrSpeed]

Any site that gives me a t-shirt is dooomed.

Hehe. Yup. I have a whole bunch of dotcom t-shirts that are great for washing the car.

[Jeff_H]

It would be a shame to see Zeal go. Echoing what MrSpeed said, Zeal has a far superior system than DMOZ due to the "community" aspect (not so much "message board" community as a hierarchical structuring of editors).