Search engines join forces for pay-per-click advertising
Espotting, the pay-for-placement search engine, has linked up with Lycos, the search engine and Web portal.
The agreement marks Espotting’s largest pan-European deal since it launched in September 2000. It will see the integration of Espotting’s top-five, pay-for-placement search results on the Lycos Network in three territories – the UK, France and Germany. Espotting’s search results are clearly differentiated on the Lycos Network, displayed under the heading of “sponsored links”.
Espotting Media chairman and founder David Ishag says the deal “firmly positions Espotting as the number one pay-per-click advertising network in Europe”.
He adds: “This is one of the largest deals the market has seen over the last year. Espotting’s access to the UK Internet population will increase by 38 per cent. Lycos Europe will also be providing us with access to almost 50 per cent of the Internet population in France and over a third of the market in Germany.”
Espotting’s search results are determined by advertisers bidding on search terms relevant to their site, in an online, real-time auction. The higher an advertiser bids, the higher they are listed. The model is billed as “completely accountable”, since advertisers only pay for the traffic Espotting delivers. It currently has 3,500 advertisers listed on the search engine.
