Zeal acquisition

any predictions?

[Marcia]

When I first read about LookSmart's acquisition of Zeal, I went right over to check it out. I suspected that Zeal might be worthwhile looking into. I registered and subitted a site, and was notified of inclusion within 36 hours. The title and description (I do pretty short ones) were listed exactly as I had submitted them.

Anyone have any thoughts or predictions on what the future of this combo will be, or what impact it might have?

Added 10/19: Scratch the question - found the answer, it's in the press release. Missed it the first time around.

[boyleman]

Yeah, but do you understand the press release? If so, please explain here. I've read the press release, but I have yet to understand how they are going to combine the two directories. Are sites from Zeal automatically going to get into LS? That makes no sense because then it undermines LS's pay system. Although it might make sense for editors to find new sites to add from Zeal. Are they going to use user ratings to influence search results? Maybe. I'm pretty clueless as to what effects the acquisition will have. Any knowledge or opinions on this one?

[ihelpyou]

I do not believe that Looksmart knows exactly how they will utilize the Zeal directory.

I talked to Looksmart yesterday a little about it in a general way. IMO they are just not quite sure yet. I do know they saw Zeal as a "good fit" with them.

Boyleman,.... you are right about Looksmart finding new sites to list that way. This makes a lot of sense.

I have said this before... but I will say it again...
Looksmart acquires ODP from AOL/Time Warner

I give the above maybe 6 months. :) of course, IMO.