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LookSmart... announced that it has launched the Internet's largest full text article search capability, delivering access to 3.5 million articles from more than 700 publications. The new service, which replaces LookSmart's FindArticles publication database, will be available via a dedicated "Articles" tab on LookSmart.com.
Press release over here [prnewswire.com].
My first thought: What's the catch?
which replaces LookSmart's FindArticles publication database, will be available via a dedicated "Articles" tab on LookSmart.com
never knew they had that in the first place...
Shak
Results from FindArticles are free magazine and journal articles from more than 700 publications, dating from 1998 through the present. Provided by a partnership between LookSmart and the Gale Group, listings in this section are constantly updated and are ranked solely based on their relevance to a user's search as determined by LookSmart's proprietary search algorithm.
Cute idea. Execution?..hmmm.
i see google ads' Skyscrapers though.. on the articles
ranked solely based on their relevance to a user's search as determined by LookSmart's proprietary search algorithm.
Just like the regular search results from LookSmart.
How are they going to monetize this?
Don't have the foggiest idea. My first wild "might be" is that it's a very small attempt to get folks back to actually using LS as a search portal now that the licensing agreement with MSN is coming to an end.
Results for an industry-jargon search term were okay, returning articles from expected publications. I do think it's quite silly to have 'Results for "my search term" from our Sponsors' in SERPs presented to people trying to find articles, can't quite see how they apply in that environment. Guess that's all they have to work with right now.
I haven't been to the LookSmart site itself in quite awhile (don't know anybody who has), but it looks much different than I remember. Has it had a recent face lift?
How are they going to monetize this?
Adsense, of course ;)
How are they going to monetize this?
I suspect a link to a bookstore, or by links to periodicals that require a micropayment or subscription to read the article.
My first wild "might be" is that it's a very small attempt to get folks back to actually using LS as a search portal now that the licensing agreement with MSN is coming to an end.
I think that is possible, yes. If Looksmart has £50M in the bank as was claimed, then maybe they simply use that to convince people to go to Looksmart.com and try to compete in the difficult Lycos/AV space. Remember they have Wisenut and presumably some big advertises relationships to get them going. They also have a massive directory which is probably only bettered by Yahoo's in terms of its listings.
If they can only do something without making blunders this time... Let's hope so.
Wow, that looks *really* bad. Cross browser testing anyone?
inwaaaytoodeep
Too bad you get a bunch of results with no apparent order and no way to give them order. Little things like that will kill you.
They appear to have "sponsor links" to, I suppose, magazines that want more traffic.
That would almost make sense. In the few industry-specific type searches I did there were some books and publications popping up under the sponsor results and quite a few selling goods and services.
Also, did a couple of searches that don't have many directory results and LS is using WiseNut for backfill.
