Vice President of LookSmart, Dakota Sullivan, is apparently a very busy man. Nevertheless, he finally took time out to be interviewed by Web Rank CEO Kalena Jordan. In
interview, Mr Sullivan reveals how Yahoo/Inktomi deal will affect LookSmart, new features LookSmart will be introducing for Small Business Listings customers shortly and why he thinks WiseNut is a better search engine partner for major portals than Google:(WR) = Web Rank, (DS) = Dakota Sullivan
Question 1 (WR) - With Yahoo purchasing Inktomi, how will this affect LookSmart's search results?
(DS) LookSmart, Inktomi and Yahoo are discussing our relationship going forward. For now, it's business as usual, with LookSmart listings being distributed throughout Inktomi network, and Inktomi providing fall through results on LookSmart.com and on LookSmart's hosted properties.
Question 2 (WR) - A recent email from LookSmart Public Relations staff mentions "The Yahoo! deal makes LookSmart prime for partnership (or picking!)". Are LookSmart currently looking for new business partners? Have LookSmart received any take over offers?
(DS) LookSmart already partners with more than 100 major portals, search engines and ISPs including MSN, About.com, AltaVista, Netscape, Inktomi, InfoSpace, Cox Communications and Road Runner in US, MSN in Japan, Australia and UK, Lycos in Japan and Yahoo in Australia. We are continually in discussion with other portals and search engines in US and around world, as we expand our distribution network.
Question 3 (WR) - Following industry backlash last year when LookSmart moved from a directory to a pay per click model, there seems to have been a large loss of search market share and customer loyalty. Does LookSmart now regret their change of business model and are there any plans to counter market share loss?
(DS) The truth is, our customer base has grown significantly since last April. At that time, a number of businesses had paid a one-time fee to be reviewed for our search directory, yet we had no customers paying an ongoing fee. Today, we have more than 30,000 businesses renewing their accounts with us each month, and actively participating in their relationship with us. This spring, we'll be introducing first update to our Small Business Listings product. The update will give customers more control over their account management and performance tracking, new tools to optimize their campaigns, and reduce costs for adding listings and making changes to their listings. Here are some of new features you can expect:
Simpler submission of new listings - automated checks that look for incomplete submissions or potential violations of editorial guidelines, ability to automatically upload a large number of listings for our customers who have applicable contracts (our larger clients), and greater detail around guidelines and submission requirements.
Flexible options for grouping listings together - Multiple listing campaigns can be grouped together within a single billing account or each listing campaign could be set up in its own account, each with its own billing. (Note that monthly budgets can already be set up for each campaign)
Different levels of on-line account access - Several people can be given access to same account, but each person would have their own log in and password. Additionally, each user could be given a different level of access to account; for example, one user would just be able to see campaign information, but not change it, while a second user had permission to view and edit campaign information. This will be highly beneficial to SEOs, agencies or other people who manage listings on behalf of clients.
Ability to set flight dates - Ability to set a specific start date and end date for a particular listing campaign. This is especially relevant to advertisers with seasonal products or promotions. (Note that monthly budgets are already available to advertisers to help manage spending levels)
Question 4 (WR) - That same email from LookSmart Public Relations staff talks about how "LookSmart is plotting against Google". Can you explain this?
(DS) Google provides an excellent search experience, and has helped raise bar in terms of search relevancy for entire industry. However, Google's rapid growth has come at expense of its partners' search franchises. Most new Google users are former Yahoo or AOL search loyalists. Our position is that optimal search engine partner for major portals is a company that delivers best of breed search relevancy, yet does not compete with their brand for ownership of search user. With our purchase last year of WiseNut, a world class, next generation search engine, we're focused on meeting this need.
