Forum Moderators: open
USA Today [stocks.usatoday.com]
The Internet.com story is a little broader than the press release, going on to talk about search service alliances in general. Found this quote about the Jeeves/Google deal interesting:
"We're all looking for the same advertising dollars, but there are subtle differences," said Ask Jeeves vice president of product management Jim Lanzone. "Our statistics show that there is very low overlap between people who use our site and people who use Google, about 20 percent. So there is definitely space to work together."
Which I think is something worth keeping in mind whenever someone mentions "rivalries" between Yahoo and its backfill providers. If Yahoo and Google/Inktomi/whomever have different demographics, they're not exactly competing with each other. The same goes for any of the odd alliances we've been seeing lately.
i thought looksmart sort of "abandoned" the directory when they switched to the PPC system? i must admit that i haven't looked at looksmart since they made that switch as i don't trust them anymore.
so, if the about sites go into the looksmart directory, does that mean a change of mind about the directory by looksmart?
I highly doubt it. (maybe they'd just use them as "filler" for all the listings getting dumped out)
AFIK, the 'integration' part isn't even confirmed, not sure why it came out in that story like that. I would assume though that the only reason they'd do it is to sweeten the deal.
FWIW, I'm not at all happy about this anyway, as I pretty much share the same feelings toward LookSmart.
It may also lead to all the search listings on About (after the guide picks and other things) to lead right back to About near the end of the LookSmart billing cycle. By deeplinking to every page on About, LookSmart can follow thier own listing guidelines, load the titles in the About listings with keywords, choke off the non-revenue generating sites in Zeal and extract a penny here and a peso there by sharing revenue from new LookAbout listings with About.
About has some great content sites. Kinda sucks to see them get more closely aligned with LookSmart and their sleezy business practices.
Primedia traded around half the interprize value for another never-made-a-profit in About.com. Since then About has shed much more than half the guides and shafted many of the ones that have stuck with it. They went from 550 employees down to less than 200 since the acquisition. What makes you think About.com is viable.
Did I mention that when the current CEO of Primediocre started, the stock price was 12 bucks or so and now after a huge run up today, it stands at $1.25.
They are on the brink of collapse. This alliance is a deal between two devils, each thinking they have purchased the soul of their messiah.
It still sucks that the hard work of the dedicated guides gets buried under Primemedia and now LookSmart.
taxpod, I won't begin to argue about the status of Primedia/About - that's a discussion for another topic I suppose.
but you make an interesting point about the alliance;)
i think that just leads back to the points made in the Internet.com story linked above.
