September 18, 2002
LookSmart Renews AltaVista,
Expands MSN Deals
By Christopher
Saunders
Search engines continue
jockeying for prime position on the major portals,
as LookSmart renews one major distribution
deal while expanding another.
Through the agreements, San
Francisco-based LookSmart will continue to provide
its Directory Listings search results to AltaVista
under a one-year renewal of an earlier deal between
the two companies. The search results will appear
under AltaVista's "Directory" tab.
LookSmart also will
distribute its Small Business Listings to
Microsoft's MSN portal, in addition to Directory
listings that it had previously syndicated to the
Redmond, Wash.-based portal. Both distribution
clauses expire on Dec. 3, 2003.
In addition to distributing
listings, LookSmart's also licenses its database to
MSN to provide search engine listings as a
supplement to MSN's own results. That agreement also
runs through early December, 2003.
MSN and AltaVista both
receive cuts from cost-per-click revenue from the
listings. Terms were not disclosed.
LookSmart first began work
with MSN in 1998, when it was tapped to replace
Yahoo! as MSN's supplementary search provider. Two
years later, it signed its first deal with
AltaVista, initially through a European subsidiary,
BTLookSmart.
The news is the latest in
the string of distribution deals signed throughout
the year by the major players in online search, with
Overture , Google, LookSmart and FindWhat each
signing new alliances -- often at the expense of
rivals.
But LookSmart's newest
distribution agreements also underscore the jumble
of alliances and partnerships throughout the space.
While it relies on LookSmart for small business and
database listings, MSN also works with Overture to
provide still more paid listings in its search
results. AltaVista also
renewed
its contract with Overture to provide sponsored
listings.
Such arrangements allow
revenue-strapped Web portals to squeeze the best
terms from search providers, while at the same time
reaping the benefits of outsourcing a search-results
sales force to a network, which can command higher
pricing.
They also provide easy outs
for portals, who have taken advantage of their
ability to change partners as a number of deals have
come up for renewal this year. Google, for instance,
replaced Overture as AOL Time Warner's
provider in May. And in many cases, most deals now
being struck for search tend to last only one to two
years.
At the end of this month,
Overture and MSN are slated to revisit their "Search
Pane" deal which calls for Overture to provide
results that appear in queries in the Internet
Explorer navigation bar. In June, the partners to
hold off on discussions about the deal as contract
negotiations continued.
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