What are they smoking?

Tue Sep 16 20:19:21 UTC 2003

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003, Rich Braun wrote:

> VeriSign stands to gain financially, take a look at this excerpt from an AP
> news blurb published yesterday:
> [...]
> Anyone find out any details of the contracts which VeriSign has apparently
> signed to profit from this little venture?

It looks like Overture is doing the paid listings:

Compare http://sitefinder.verisign.com/spc?kw=Travel
with    http://www.overture.com/d/search/?Keywords=travel

You can also see this by looking at the links on the results page.
"www.expedia.com" is actually http://www3.overture.com/d/sr/?...

And Inktomi is the provider of non-paid listings:

Compare http://sitefinder.verisign.com/spc?sb=verisign+sucks
with    http://www.hotbot.com/default.asp?query=verisign+sucks

Both Overture and Inktomi are now owned by Yahoo.

Anyone with an Overture account can see what the high bids on the keywords
Travel, Entertainment, Gambling, Shopping, Gifts, Computers, Autos,
Insurance, Small Business, and Investing are now.  From a SEC filing a while
ago, I seem to recall that something near half of the money from each click
goes back to the "search engine" in question, in this case Verisign.

                                    -- Aaron

What *are* they smoking?

What are they smoking?