The following recent Infospace press release says that Infospace management expects to have recovered the cost of Infospace's investment in Excite assets by the end of June (2Q2002). That's a pretty damn fast recovery of an investment outlay. Whoever thought of the idea should be justly commended.
InfoSpace Launches Next Generation Meta-Search Product
With Excite.com and WebCrawler.com, InfoSpace's new meta-search product highlights the strengths of many of the Web's major search properties
BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 6, 2002-- As part of its continued leadership in meta-search, InfoSpace, Inc. (Nasdaq:INSP - news), a provider of wireless and Internet software and application services, today announced the launch of its next generation meta-search product.
The new meta-search product can be accessed at both Excite (www.excite.com) and WebCrawler (www.webcrawler.com). InfoSpace's meta-search technology allows users to search multiple engines at once, returning comprehensive and highly relevant results fast.
Designed to deliver the most applicable results at the right time, InfoSpace's next generation meta-search product is designed to identify the intent of a user's search. Because various search engines return better results for different types of queries, InfoSpace's proprietary meta-search algorithm sorts the results accordingly and then displays a blended mix of highly relevant commercial and non-commercial results for a given search.
The new InfoSpace meta-search product at Excite.com and WebCrawler.com will include results from leading search companies and properties, including FAST, AltaVista, Overture, About, Ask Jeeves, FindWhat, LookSmart, Sprinks, Open Directory and Inktomi.
"Today's launch demonstrates our commitment to bringing together the best search results from many of the leading search engines, editorial Web directories and pay-for-performance properties in one convenient location on the Web for Internet users," said York Baur, InfoSpace executive vice president, wireline and broadband. "Our meta-search technology uniquely positions us in the marketplace both from a product and business perspective as it is a winning proposition for the Excite and WebCrawler user, as well as our other search relationships, and for InfoSpace."
InfoSpace purchased certain media assets, including the Excite.com and WebCrawler.com domain names, from Excite@Home late last year (Nov. 2001). The Company expects to recover the cost of this purchase by the end of the current quarter ending June 30, 2002.
In connection with the purchase, InfoSpace and iWon, now The Excite Network, entered into an agreement to work together with the goal of 'restoring Excite to its former glory,' according to Baur. Under the agreement, InfoSpace operates the search and directory components of the Excite.com Web site, and sold and/or licensed the portal's other components to The Excite Network. |
