InfoRocket.com Named Exclusive Q&A Marketplace On LookSmart Live!; InfoRocket.com Also Announces Addition of Enhanced Profiles to Site
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 7, 2000--InfoRocket.com, the world's first question-and-answer marketplace, today announced an agreement with LookSmart (Nasdaq: LOOK) to support LookSmart Live! by serving as the exclusive question-and-answer marketplace for LookSmart's free community of users. LookSmart is the global leader in Web directories with a partner network that reaches over 83 percent of all Internet users in the United States every month. LookSmart Live! is a self-sustaining, free user community that brings people together to share knowledge and get answers.
Under the agreement, InfoRocket.com will be integrated into multiple question-and-answer trigger points within LookSmart Live!, providing members with a second source of deep resources for qualified fast answers in addition to LookSmart's existing free question and answer community. Each time users post a question on LookSmart Live! they will be offered a "one-click" option to send their question to InfoRocket.com, allowing members to tap into InfoRocket.com's more than 250,000 registered members with expertise in over 94 categories.
This deal with LookSmart Live! marks InfoRocket.com's second deal with LookSmart. In July, the companies announced a yearlong agreement, naming InfoRocket.com the online person-to-person question and answer marketplace featured on search pages throughout LookSmart's extensive distribution network of partner sites. As part of the deal, LookSmart directly links qualified users to InfoRocket.com from the keyword results page throughout the LookSmart partner network.
"Working with LookSmart Live! is a tremendous opportunity for us to attract people who have questions or expertise to InfoRocket.com," said Beth Haggerty, president and CEO of InfoRocket.com. "LookSmart Live! users can now access InfoRocket.com's community to easily and efficiently find the right answers on topics ranging from computers to small business." InfoRocket.com quickly connects people who have questions to people who have the right answers on everything from "Where can I find a small business start-up loan?" to "Where can I find a Web site that teaches me HTML?" "Through our leadership in Search Targeting, we offer our partners like InfoRocket.com a great way to provide their premier services to highly qualified traffic," said Brian Cowley, senior vice president of global sales at LookSmart. "InfoRocket.com's question-and-answer service is a great complement to our existing free community of users because both companies strive to provide their members with a variety of ways to find the answers and information they need - in whatever way is most convenient for them." InfoRocket.com Offers Enhanced Profiles
In addition, InfoRocket.com announced today that members can now promote their expertise with new enhancements to their personal Profile pages. The Profile Page allows members to promote themselves with several new features, including photos of themselves, lists of favorite answers and lists of their specialties and interests. The enhanced profiles were designed to make it easy for members to highlight their activity and give them a professional and personal appeal. InfoRocket.com members can also put "Ask Me a Question" boxes in their profiles and have questions directed specifically to them. About InfoRocket.com
InfoRocket.com is the fast way to the right answer. Based in New York, InfoRocket.com is the world's first question-and-answer marketplace powered by a person-to-person format that connects people with questions to people with answers. Questions asked on the site range from simple, factual inquiries, such as "What is the most effective day-trading software?" to more complicated, service-related questions, such as "Do I need a business license for my small business?" InfoRocket.com is a privately held company backed by venture funding from Carlyle Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Prospect Street Ventures and Garage.com. For more information about the company, visit www.inforocket.com. About LookSmart
LookSmart (NASDAQ: LOOK) is the global leader in Web directories. With 31 directories spanning 28 countries and 13 languages, LookSmart is committed to organizing the Web. LookSmart distributes its directories through a partner network that reaches more than 83 percent of US Internet users each month, and includes MSN, AltaVista, Netscape, Excite, iWon, Time Warner, Prodigy, Juno, InfoSpace, Sony, Macromedia, Road Runner, Cox Interactive Media and Qwest. BTLookSmart, LookSmart's international joint venture with British Telecommunications, deploys LookSmart's wireless and Web directory solutions for ISPs, portals and mobile Internet businesses in countries across Europe and Asia-Pacific.
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