LookSmart to buy Wisenut!

Paid spidering to be launched.

[makemetop]

This sprung out at me this morning about LookSmart and WiseNut [money.iwon.com]

Not good news for Ink, I fear!

[bill]

...Pay-to-Play and Pay-to-Display options...
Has this been in effect on Lycos.Japan?

Lycos Japan is offering a page with a free add URL [search.lycos.co.jp] that tells the WiseNut spider to look at your site. There is no PFP or PFI robot in Japan yet. In fact we were just having a conversation [webmasterworld.com] about this the other day...

[JustTrying]

After reading all of the postings under this topic, I agree 100% with WebGuerrilla. LS and WiseNut seem like they both can mutually benefit from their relationship with each other (much like Google and ODP are mutually benefitted by their relationship with each other).

Since both LS and WiseNut are currently in a general popularity "limbo" (compared to Google/ODP), this move seems to me to be a clear sign that they are earnestly trying to be proactive; and just maybe this will give them the "perfect mix" to compete. The stock price going from $9 Million to $15 million is certainly a good sign.

However, even IF LS and WiseNut were able to provide a search-directory solution that is relatively close to Google/ODP (a fairly large "if"), they still have two big hurdles to overcome in my opinion: #1 Taking already established "ho-hum" companies like LS and WiseNut, and then generating the Google-esque level of media and institutional hype that Google has enjoyed (rightly so) #2 Somehow making LS as respected as Yahoo! and ODP (yeah right). Enough rambling...

[Quadrille]

The ultimate decider on their success against Google is their ability to keep commerce and search a little separate.

Google has gained respect (and trust) by the separation; using ODP doesn't undermine that approach.

And refusing to use Pop-Up boxes (the cancer of the web - guaranteed to lose customers) has also added kudos.

As for LS .... if it looks like Kaymart, and smells like Kaymart, it probably is.

[JamesR]

>As much as I like Google as a search engine, I don't like living in a Google only world.

Agreed WG, competition of crawler based engines is good for us in my opinion, keeps Google in check.

[pyst]

Either my head has been in the sand or Wisenut didn't promote itself enough because I've never heard of them before. I've just been using them and like them as much as Google. Are there other like engines around that aren't well known. Maybe Lycos could clean up their fp and make it load faster and provide a decent adult search engine instead of that POS nightcrap.com or whatever it is.

[keyplyr]

I've always been at odds with Wisenut since I believe that Search Engines should post up-to-date results. They may or may not have a relavant search algo, I am not knowledgable enough to tell, but what I do see is that since their launch date, they never updated. I saw new pages go up, but the same old link-rotten listings remain to date.

It's no surprise to me they are being purchased. I think that was the whole intent from the start. They had an algo - period. Then they bought/aquired a database to showcase it on, duh.

[pgsbs]

Wisenut is an easy to use SE. One of the best newcomers from the last years... But I never got any traffic from them

[inwaaaytoodeep]

I thinks its funny that the first thing that happens to Wisenut after the purchase is that they take no more submissions.

Could this be another classic BT midas touch that we are set to reap the benefits of....

Still with the new Beta of Gigablast (and what a beauty that one is, real serious contender!) I am sure that the markets will open up again shortly.

.....Still holding my breath...I've already beaten the records....